How to: Managing Up to Your Boss
Meet your boss at their level!
Managing up is a style of work in which an employee matches the needs and expectations of their manager or boss. The goal of managing up is to get the most productivity and value from you and your boss.
This highly collaborative approach to work requires communication to understand how best you, your department, and its leadership team can maximize your collective skills and resources to achieve personal, team, and company goals. Here are a few tips on how to meet your supervisor at their level and manage up at work:
Build relationships
A major factor in effectively managing up to your boss is your ability to build a relationship with your supervisor. Building professional relationships is key to growing both within and outside of an organization. From mentorship to learning the ins and outs of your company, there’s unlimited value to gain from establishing authentic and mutual relationships with your managers and professional peers.
Being close with your boss helps you understand what makes them tick as well as what bothers them. This allows you to optimize your work to best meet their needs. Ideally, this relationship is mutual so that you can similarly communicate your work preferences, reducing friction and improving productivity.
Be Proactive
A great way to establish your leadership abilities is to be intuitive to your team’s needs. If every problem has to be elevated to a manager to be resolved, management loses the ability to complete their own tasks on time. If you manage up, you’ll have the insight to notice and resolve issues before they arise and without being told.
Don’t wait around if you’ve completed all of the items on your to-do list. Here’s what you should do instead:
Ask if you can take anything off of your manager’s plate
Check on team projects and see if you can help with any sticking points or outstanding tasks
Build your knowledge and skills through professional development
Optimize your schedule and time management
Organize your workspace
Being proactive makes your manager’s job easier and your company better. Proactivity shows your boss that you can manage your time effectively without being micromanaged. This extra effort goes a long way when it comes time to negotiate bonuses, raises, and promotions.
Decide on an outcome for managing up
While having the ability to adapt your skills and productivity to meet your boss’ expectations and needs is a great way to stand out to a manager, you should always have a deeper intention behind managing up.
Managing up is more than just being a “team player.” It’s about promoting healthy collaboration in your workplace and improving the careers of everyone you work with.
Knowing your big-picture goals will more clearly define how best to manage up to your boss. If you want a promotion, then you’ll want to understand how to impress your boss and his or her boss(es). If you want a mentor, focus on the relationship-building aspect of managing up and how to create an environment that’s safe to share your personal goals and needs.
Whether you’re hoping to be the best employee you can be, or your own boss someday doesn’t let anyone else other than you decide the outcome.
Now go forth and manage up!