As I’ve progressed further along in my career, the importance of being able to manage upward has become clearer to me. If you think your relationship with your manager is a one-way street with the manager doing all the delegating and you doing all the following, think again. At its core, managing up isn’t just about the way you interact with your supervisor.
What Is Managing Up?
Managing up is consciously establishing a good working relationship with your managers in order to ensure mutual success. It includes training your managers about your job, about you, and how to best utilize you as a resource. At the same time, you want to learn how to work most effectively with your managers, considering such things as personality and learning style.
How to Manage Up
The skills used to manage up aren’t just good for the manager-employee relationship. They’re also valuable in helping you build influence across the organization and accelerate your career. When others seek you out for advice, you become influential. They learn to value your opinion and look to you for the way forward even if you aren’t in a position of authority.
Below are six methods to successfully manage up.
1. Understand what your manager wants
Develop a clear understanding of your manager’s goals and priorities for the team, including you. Schedule time with your manager to establish expectations. This will make it easier to prioritize and focus on things that matter most to your manager.
2. Establish a two-way dialogue
Communicate your priorities and goals and seek feedback on your work. This is essential for creating open lines of communication, preventing roadblocks, and setting you both on the path to success. Make sure you understand your manager’s preferred communication style and methods to give you the best chance of being heard.
3. Anticipate their needs
Empathize with your manager, put yourself in their shoes, and anticipate their needs. If you can take some work off their plate before they even know it needs doing, you’ll be helping yourself, your manager, and the business as a whole. Managers appreciate this kind of forward thinking and will likely remember it when it’s time to discuss performance.
4. Be dependable and reliable
Be your manager’s go-to person. Offer to take the lead on new projects, provide solutions to a problem, or volunteer to liaise with other departments to expedite workflows. By proving your abilities to follow through your manager will be more likely to turn to you when they need help. If you can pick up the slack and make their job easier, your job will also improve.
5. Present solutions, not problems
Help your manager help you be the best employee you can be by making things easier for them. The last thing you want to do is add more complications to their workload. When your manager comes to you with a problem, or you encounter an issue that needs their input, brainstorm solutions. This will make you a useful resource who can be depended upon to think on your feet.
6. Be Caring and Tactful
It’s important to remember that your manager is a person, too. Just as they should with you, take the time to really get to know them and what makes them tick, and carry that knowledge into all of your interactions. When bringing up issues, come from a place of observation, fallibility, and curiosity. This will allow your genuine interest to shine through.
Things to Avoid When Managing Up
Managing up will improve your relationship with your manager, give you more ownership over your work, increase your productivity, and help you progress in your career. But as with everything in business, managing up requires careful consideration in order to avoid missteps that could have a negative impact on your career.
1. Don’t overpromise
It can be tempting to raise your hand for a big project that might be a little beyond your capability or that you don’t really have the time or resources to complete. If you are asked to take on something outside of your normal scope of responsibility, be honest with yourself and your manager about what you can handle. Promising something you can’t deliver will not impress your manager.
2. Set clear boundaries
Although you should volunteer to take on projects, remember to set boundaries so that you aren’t taken advantage of. Fortunately, most managers will genuinely recognize your efforts and drive, but there are a few who may see your willingness to help as an invitation to pile the work on with no intention of having your back or acknowledging your efforts.
3. Avoid office politics
When you work with the same group of people for a long time you are bound to develop some personal relationships. Avoid workplace politics or favoritism that can derail your career goals. Stay professional and treat everyone fairly and you’ll stay out of the sticky stuff.
4. Don’t be a suck up
There’s a big difference between managing up and sucking up. Your goal should be to honestly and genuinely provide your manager with the constructive feedback and information they need to help the team succeed, not to give empty compliments or unrealistic offers that do nothing more than make you seem disingenuous.
5. Don’t overstep
In the subtle art of managing up, there’s a fine line between “training” your manager and overstepping boundaries. While your intentions may be purely well-meaning, if you come across as overly challenging or seem like you’re trying to take over your manager’s job, it can backfire. Show that you respect your manager’s position and authority, and always ask before taking on responsibilities that usually fall to them. You should also understand that you may not have the context that they have on a project.
6. Don’t pass the blame
Managing up is all about building trust with your manager and seeking feedback when you need help. Everyone makes mistakes, so when something goes wrong, avoid the temptation to cover it up or blame someone else. Establishing yourself as an employee who takes ownership of both your wins and your losses makes you a trustworthy and valuable resource.
Conclusion
It may seem complicated, but when you break it down, managing up is really just about being the best employee you can possibly be, so that you add value to the entire team. Yes, it’ll take some time to establish the communication pathways you need to build trust with your manager, but your efforts will be well worth it. And if you commit to making managing up a part of your job skill set moving forward, you’ll be amazed at how it can accelerate your career.
Jason Oh works in the Strategy/M&A – Global Wealth & Asset Management team at Manulife Investment Management. Previously, he was a Strategy Consultant at EY and Novantas with industry focus in the financial services sector where he advised on corporate strategy planning, commercial due diligence, and data analytics.
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