Public managers sometimes feel that politicians are an obstacle to good public services, or seem to have little relationship to their work. Yet an essential part of a manager’s development is to understand this other world, the more so as they are promoted into senior positions where contact with politicians is the norm or work in areas of high political and public salience. In spite of this, such an understanding forms, at best, a marginal part of the education and training of many public sector professionals or managers.