The first mistake the article made was conceptualizing the org chart as a power ladder. Your boss isn't more "powerful" than you, in a lot of cases he isn't and

The first mistake the article made was conceptualizing the org chart as a power ladder. Your boss isn't more "powerful" than you, in a lot of cases he isn't and relies on you and sometimes he/she is more powerful than you. It doesn't matter. Don't waste his/her time. If you can do this, you've already cut out pretty much every unnecessary fumble.