What your boss is indicating is the practice of mutual respect. That is, you will only only get as much cooperation out of your inspector that you are willing to give him.
As a contractor / electrician, you can choose to have open and good communication with your inspector, you can disclose issues or problems you are encountering and be honest, you can be courteous to the inspector by providing ladders, good lighting, ready access for inspections, you get the idea. Hopefully in return, you will get an inspector that will give you the benefit of the doubt, that will work with your schedule and needs, will be open and a good communicator, you get the idea.
OR, you can establish a relationship of distrust and frustration that tends to more rejections, a lack of cooperation, and poor or no communication at all, you get the idea.
Everything in life is cause and effect. 90% of inspector and contractor conflict is EGO driven. Like any other relationship, it takes work and time. You have to be willing to do the right thing even when your co-workers, boss, and even inspector don't.