A Nuanced Alternative to "Managing-Up"

Managing-up is a touchy subject and many professionals often jump on the concept as a chance to manage their manager. That's a mistake.

Even if you don't believe your manager is as competent as you, there is a good chance that they have access to information and organizational priorities for which you may not be aware.

Additionally, most people have a sense of when they are being managed. Even if your manager is graceful enough to let it slide (a big if), it's not going to frame you in the best light possible.

What we should really be talking about here is how you leverage your perspective and ideas to collaborate with your manager for better overall decisions that help you both achieve your goals.

Build the Relationship

Building relationships is a reoccurring theme of this newsletter and a foundation of our leadership philosophy.  This topic is no different. In order to truly collaborate with your manager, you need to have trust, which requires a strong working relationship. This means getting to know them as a whole person (personally and professionally) and getting to the point where both of you understand how the other ticks. This is a process that takes time and is truly never complete. Building the relationship before you need it ensures that you both are able to operate with the trust and honesty that are going to make the rest of these steps effective.

A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats

At the end of the day, it's in everyone's best interest to make their team (and therefore, their boss) look good. This goes both ways. When you do great, your team does great. When your team is doing well, it reflects well on you.

How do you simultaneously ensure your own success while also contributing to the success of the overall team? You need to take time to understand your manager. What are their goals and priorities? What are their strengths? What could they use help with? Where are they spending most of their time?

Leverage time with your boss to ask lots of questions to better understand their priorities and how you can best support them. This isn't about sucking-up, it's about making everyone look good…which will make you look great.

Communicate Early & Often

A lot of people will often wait for their manager to ask for updates on large initiatives or key deliverables.  Proactively providing these updates on critical items doesn't just keep your boss in the loop. It also gives you the opportunity to calibrate your priorities and approach based on their responses, questions and reactions.

If potential issues or problems arise, communicate those as well…along with details of what you are doing to address the issue. This transparency helps to only strengthen trust over time.

Perspective Over Feedback

In most cases, you are closer to your work than your manager. Because of this, you are in a position to offer your valuable knowledge to incorporate your work into your manager's priorities. Since your responsibilities are included in their broader set of responsibilities, there is sure to be an area of overlap where both of your priorities align. The trick here is to identify that overlap area and determine how your knowledge can be applied to strengthen it. This ensures the two of you are aligned with your goals and also improves the overall results of the team.

Monitor & Maintain

Of course, this is not just a one and done activity. Ensuring that you have a strong working relationship with your manager requires ongoing diligence and calibration. Hopefully,  the two of you are meeting regularly in one-on-ones so that you can continually touch base and strengthen the relationship when needed. If your boss does not hold regular one-on-ones, consider scheduling a monthly meeting with them to keep them updated on your work.