Managing Up - What Does It Mean?

There are times when you have to practice the fine art of “managing up” with your direct supervisor or manager. Many have never heard about managing up. Perhaps you tried, failed the first time, and ultimately never tried again.

What does it mean to manage up?

First consider “managing down”, which is what your manager does. If you are a manager, you do this everyday.

Managers need to delegate tasks. They also need to mentor, evaluate, and even discipline their employees. Whether that is done effectively is the topic for another time. Let’s assume you have a great manager.

You have a responsibility to manage even if you are not a manager. As long as you have someone you call boss, you will need to do some managing. When I tell people this, I often get a blank stare. “How can I manage my boss?”

Since I have assumed you have a great boss, she probably is your mentor, advocate and leader. Does she need to be managed?

Yes.

Part of being a good manager is not being a monarch or dictator. Even the best managers make mistakes and bad calls. Sometimes they do not see what you see and you need to show them. I often say this is part of what we are getting paid for.

Let me give you an example. Your manager fails to communicate a major change in business direction to your group. Somehow they have missed it. It happens and it is really ok. Remember your boss is not not perfect. However, the lack of communication must be addressed. You have a responsibility now to try to help the entire group, including the manager.

When “managing up” remember these important rules:

1) Never be emotional.
2) Check your ego at the door.
3) State the issue(s) factually.
4) Remember your manager is the authority figure, not you.
5) Respect your manager.

So keeping those rules in mind, your dialog should go soemthing like this:

“I know you are interested in our team being successful. The team wants to be successful as well in my opinion. I just heard about a major change in business direction and it affects our whole group significantly. I may have misplaced an email you sent; however, I was not aware of the change. Did I miss the communication?”

Think about this approach. First, you validate her desire to make the team successful and to be a good manager. Secondly, you assure her that in your opinion that group wants to be successful. Lastly, start addressing the lack of communication, but not by finger-pointing or being condemning.

You probably already see that “managing up” takes confidence to do it right. More on this in the next installment.