Starting over with a new manager can be unsettling, especially when their expectations feel different to what you're used to and you're not quite sure how to bridge the gap.

This question was answered by Katie Feder, Mental Health Expert, whose work centres on helping people navigate difficult human dynamics at work with clarity and self-compassion; Michael Tsapazi, Industry Leader, who brings a grounded perspective on what transparency and openness actually look like from a leadership point of view; and Andy Wright, host of Asking For A Friend on Never Not Creative, who drew out the practical and human threads from both guests.

Stop guessing and start talking

Katie's first instinct was a practical one: stop trying to manage someone else's expectations in a vacuum. There are, as she put it, a thousand permutations of what another person might be thinking, and trying to guess your way through all of them is exhausting and almost certainly misinformed. The only real solution is to have the conversation directly, asking your manager what good performance looks like to them and what it looks like when things aren't going well. That kind of clarity benefits everyone.

You don't need to pretend to be confident

One of the most useful things Katie said was that you don't have to walk into a difficult conversation with bravado you don't actually feel. Naming the discomfort honestly, something like acknowledging that the conversation feels hard but that you'd be doing yourself a disservice not to have it, is itself a form of sincerity. And sincerity, she noted, is something almost all humans respond to well.

Transparency reads as a strength, not a weakness

Mike reinforced this from a leadership angle. Being upfront about what was expected of you previously, and making clear that you're genuinely open to growing and adapting, is exactly the kind of self-awareness that a good manager will welcome. It gives them a resource they can actually work with, and it signals maturity rather than insecurity.

The takeaway from this conversation is a reassuring one: the thing that feels scary, asking directly, is also the thing most likely to make everything easier. A little honesty goes a long way.