Managing Up
Today we're talking about “Managing Up.”
This may be a term you know a lot about. You may try to do this with your boss all the time, or maybe this is something that you've never heard of. We're going to talk about what it is, and why this is so important to learn when you want to improve your own leadership skills, and you want to be a great manager for your current team, too.
When you manage up to your boss, you're able to communicate a lot of things that will benefit you as a leader.
One way that you're able to overcome any blocks that you have as a manager is to really understand that you may not know how to manage up to your boss. So what does that really mean? What is managing up?
It's about anticipating the needs of your boss and it's about knowing what they might be asking for eventually and what they might be expecting, and getting on top of things so that you're able to provide what they need so that your team can be more successful. This helps you stand out as a member of your team (especially as a manager) or a person who is seen as a leader on the team - who's influential, servant hearted, gets stuff done, is a role model. Managing up helps you to be seen as somebody who deserves the next promotion and deserves a raise and deserves more respect from people above you.
Another way to manage up is to make sure you're also clarifying expectations and what metrics your team is going to be measured on. Clarifying what they want from you will help you set up a relationship with them in a better way and overcome a block of yourself not feeling very successful as a manager by asking them the questions or providing them the information that they need to know.
One way to do that is to speak up when expectations from your boss are unclear. You're not really sure how to communicate with your team about what they should know. So a way to manage up in this instance is to literally say, “I've got a few follow up questions that we need to clarify.” That's managing up!
Asking questions like:
What are the metrics we measured on?
What are the deadlines that we have?
Anything about project management software that you might be having your team on and how they need to be using it.
What are the KPIs and OKRs we should be aware of?
Another way to manage up is at the beginning of your relationship with the boss.
Share with your boss about your values, personality, strengths… anything that will help them understand you better and be able to manage you more effectively.
Why should you learn to manage up, and why is this even important? Well, this really helps you advocate for yourself. Advocacy is all about standing up for what's important and having integrity around something, doing the right thing, getting the resources you need, being assertive, and you can be assertive in a respectful way. When you're managing up, and you're advocating for yourself saying, “hey, I want to make sure I have the opportunity to apply for this upcoming opportunity to go to this conference for my own professional development.”
Advocating for yourself also goes into the obstacles that you are having with your team, or with your own projects and stuff like that. You need to be able to talk to your boss and tell them when you have roadblocks or obstacles that they need to help move for you. They may not know what those are.
You may need to say, “Hey, I really wanted to talk with you about these obstacles in my way.” And while it should be something that they're bringing up in one on ones, you may have to be the one to initiate that conversation. To be an advocate for yourself, you have to let them know what you need. Unless they're telepathic or their psychic, you know, they might not be able to read your mind. :)
And that's the case with most people; they're not reading their team's minds. So you have to use your speech, and you have to communicate in writing or verbally, but I suggest both. Then, follow up in writing, make sure it's either in your performance evaluation software, or it's in an email or something but so that you can both see it and you can both refer back to it later. That way it's not just a one and done conversation. You advocated for yourself and you did the right thing. And now you're set up for success, or at least you know how to take the next step with your boss.
Next, you need to be able to advocate for your team. As a manager, you need to be able to say, “Here are the obstacles my team is facing; roadblocks that are keeping them from their best work., I'm not able to remove them by myself, so I need you as my manager, to help remove those obstacles out of their way.”
Maybe you know that somebody on your team wants to apply for a higher position and you need your boss to give them some insight or to give their blessing or something like that to say it's okay for them to move to a different department or whatever it might be. You need to be able to advocate for your team and let your boss know what your team needs.
Maybe if your team is feeling like there's too much on their plates, and they are overwhelmed, they have way too much to do. You need to let your boss know you need to make sure they're looped in with what's going on there. They're really supposed to be supporting you. And if you're supporting your team, then by default, they're supporting your team as well. That's really how the hierarchy should work in an organization and if you have the right culture.
Other ways that you might need to be advocating for your team, maybe they don't have enough work to do, or meaning it's too simple. They can take on new challenges, and more can be delegated to them. So you need to strategize with your manager and manage up to them to advocate for your team to get better projects or not necessarily more work, but higher level work.
Lastly, another reason you should manage up is for business impact. Things like revenue growth and innovation will improve if you’re managing up in an effective way.