Managing Up - Infinite Possibilities

In today’s fast-paced corporate world, achieving success extends beyond individual abilities or team management skills. It also depends on your capacity to effectively manage upwards. This often overlooked skill, known as ‘Managing Up,’ can be a game-changer for career advancement and organizational success. In this article, we’ll delve into the essence of managing up, why it’s crucial, and how to implement it.

What does it mean?

Managing up is a strategic approach to fostering a relationship of trust and influence with your superiors. It involves understanding their priorities, communication styles, and expectations, and aligning your own work and communication accordingly, ultimately optimizing success for both you and your manager.

It’s also important to clarify what managing up is NOT:

It’s not about managing your manager in a controlling sense, but rather about enhancing mutual understanding and productivity.
It’s not about manipulation or flattery but rather fostering a mutually beneficial partnership that enables both parties to succeed.
It’s not about circumventing management hierarchy to make decisions, but rather enhancing collaboration and decision-making within it.

Why is it Important?

Despite its critical role in workplace dynamics, managing up is often overlooked and rarely taught. Effective management upwards is key to advancing your career and achieving your professional goals. By proactively managing up, you can:

Gain Support and Resources: Building a strong rapport with your superiors can lead to increased support for your projects, access to resources, and opportunities for career advancement.
Enhance Communication: Clear and effective communication with your higher-ups ensures alignment on goals and expectations, reduces misunderstandings, and fosters a culture of transparency and trust.
Influence Decision-Making: When you understand your manager’s priorities and concerns, you can tailor your proposals and recommendations to resonate with their objectives, increasing the likelihood of buy-in and support.
Navigate Organizational Politics: Every workplace has its politics and dynamics. Managing up allows you to navigate these complexities with finesse, ensuring that your voice is heard and your contributions are recognized.

How to Manage Up Effectively

In an environment where technical skills are often prioritized over management skills, the likelihood of encountering a less-than-ideal manager is high, making mastering the art of managing up essential for navigating professional challenges effectively.

Managers are humans too and are susceptible to all the complexities that makes each one of us.

Here are some steps on how to effectively Manage Up.

Understand their Goals & Priorities: Spend time to understand what their most important KPI is and what success means to them in the eyes of their management. When you don’t have straightforward answers to some of these questions, use your observations and the knowledge of the environment to fill in the missing pieces.
Understand their work style and Communication Preferences: This is extremely important to improve the working relationship with your manager. It’ll also be the difference between you being the go-to person and a pest. Work Style & Communication preferences vary and you can understand these by talking to them or observing them at work. Focus on the details – how do they like the status report structured, do they prefer email updates on Slack messages, Would they prefer you ack the message from stakeholders even if you don’t have the complete solution ready for them at this time, how do they view punctuality and meeting attendance and meeting invite responses, etc.
Adapt your style to suit them: While this is easier said than done, understand that their success also depends on your success and they will equally adapt as mutual trust is built. I’ve found it easier when this is done in small bits. Start by synchronizing styles for the most important aspects and work your way down. Adapting does not mean that you completely change or forego your own style of working.
Build Trust: I’ve mentioned before that building trust in any relationship requires, the 3 C’s – Character, Competence, and Communication. Be consistent and keep your promises, build competence, and exhibit an extreme ownership mindset. Managers rarely like surprises, so be proactive in communicating statuses and ask for help when you need it. Let them know soon enough if something is falling apart and provide your thoughts on what we could do to mitigate problems.
Be Solutions Oriented: Rather than be the person who can find and articulate all the problems, be the one who also provides what you think are possible solutions. This not only shows your resourcefulness but also highlights your competence and intention to do the right thing.
Seek & Provide Feedback: Once enough trust is built in a relationship, you can both seek and provide feedback to improve the working relationship. While seeking feedback, Reduce cognitive load and make it easy for them to give you feedback. Always set clear context without assuming anything and ask specific questions. For example, Rather than say – “Can you help me on how to think about setting goals/expectations for engineers“, Say, “I drafted these role expectations for engineers, can you review and provide feedback on what you think is missing or could be done better“. When providing feedback, identify the areas where you can genuinely help and then participate. Know the right time and place to provide feedback and bring it up there so it’s more effective.
Set up expectations on how you’d like to be Managed: Managers come in many styles and it’s important that you also set expectations on the best way they can manage you and help you do your best work. Be specific on what you need and respectfully bring it up. Give them time to adapt to your style and needs. For example, you may have a specific time of day when you are most productive and don’t want distractions. Talk to them about it and assure them that your availability when needed is not going to be an issue for them or your team.

In conclusion, mastering the art of managing up is essential for career success and organizational effectiveness. By understanding your manager’s preferences, communicating effectively, and aligning your goals with theirs, you can build a strong relationship based on trust, mutual respect, and shared success. Embrace the challenges as opportunities for growth, and approach managing up with enthusiasm and intentionality.

Additional Reading

https://hr.ucmerced.edu/content/managing-what-it-and-why-do-it
https://houseofmangalam.com/blogs/camphor-tales/story-of-lord-vishnu-narad-muni
https://www.purewow.com/money/types-of-bosses-tips
https://www.idealist.org/en/careers/managing-up-how-to-provide-feedback