If you are a new manager in a large org, these requests are a symptom of common anti-patterns: "In order for my team to look good by making/exceeding deadlines

If you are a new manager in a large org, these requests are a symptom of common anti-patterns: "In order for my team to look good by making/exceeding deadlines, I need X from you, so it is high priority" ... but that's career advancement not business need. here is a more pernicious one: "I have limited resources/budget/time (especially budget), I'll get team X to do Y, therefore I get more done and look good" ... again, career advancement and not business need. The worst for the second case is that sometimes you do that for the team. Then watch that when you need them to come through it's "sorry no time/budget" ... yeah FUUUUCK YOU. You'll never get orgwide credit for "donating" resources unless you have it explicitly spelled out to the stakeholders what you're doing. In large orgs, #2 can be done a sufficient number of times that the sociopath will get promoted, and then can play the same game with a different tier of managers or move to another company with a better title. Middle Management Machiavellianism at its best. Is there any "Machiavelli for Middle Manager" books for realz among ALLLLLLL those management books printed? If I was a manager (I'm not and never was, just watched what some of my manager friends went through), I'd have a very prominent "Middle Management by Machiavelli" joke book on my desk or shelves.