My opinion is that you should never try to obviously and directly manage your manager like this, but I am a strong advocate of "managing up".
It's much more subtle, and it can work wonders for your career.
It's much more subtle, and it can work wonders for your career.
I try to get into my manager's head. What are they worried about, what do they not care about, when is it best to present a solution, when is it best to avoid them.
Things as simple as planning on when to meet them is beneficial. E.g. if you want to get their actual feedback on something - schedule it early in the day (earlier in the week is a secondary consideration). If you want them to just agree with you, schedule it later the day, preferably on a Friday.
Want to work on a cool project with a cool technology that will advance your career? Plan for it. Research who the decision makers are, find out how to best influence them, build a polished presentation (could be a slide deck, or something else it depends on your company culture), learn the best way to "close" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closing_%28sales%29).
I could go on and on, but I hope that this helps.
It's up to you to manage your career. Nobody else is going to do it for you.
Setting expectations is what you do for things that are asked of you. Of all of the things that I have done and gotten "credit" for that have had an impact on my career, very few were things that I was asked to do. Setting expectations is about making sure the orders you are given are reasonable. I treat it as a tool I can use to ensure I have time to work on stuff that is actually important and will have a long lasting impact(not just to me, but also the company, I'm not a complete sociopath).