We normally think that managing others is strictly concerning the management of a team or people who report to us. But one of the most under-appreciated management skills is how we manage our managers.  This skill is a career-building strength, and it has the same importance as managing downwards. It is a skill required if you would like to establish a more harmonious workplace relationship with your manager. 

You have to think that your manager also has pressure, priorities, and responsibilities on his own.  In that case, managing up is how you help your manager with his workload.  You can take some pressure from him and also act as a proactive and valuable team member. 

But what does it mean to manage your manager? It does not mean to influence and even manipulate him to your interests. It is rather understanding her working style, being able to empathize, and being tuned with her priorities.  By understanding your manager’s needs and communicating effectively, you can build a healthier and more effective work environment.     

The secret to success is to know how to work your style to fit your manager, even if she is a micromanager or a hands-off manager.  ”Managing Up” is building a two-way relationship based on mutual trust, respect, and clear communication. This makes you work smarter and not harder.  In this article, you will learn why managing your manager is an essential skill.  You will get practical tips to apply to your everyday interactions with your manager and help you with your career.    

What Does Managing Up Mean?

Managing up is the skill and initiative you use to build a productive relationship with your manager by understanding her needs, communication style, and priorities. It is about aligning your priorities and goals with your manager’s priorities and goals for both success and professional growth. Instead of taking orders and tasks from your manager, managing up is how you partner with her to achieve shared objectives.

The key is to understand that your manager has his pressures from above and responsibilities to perform. When you can understand her position, you start to communicate more efficiently. This requires empathy and self-awareness, and you must focus on working with your manager rather than for her. 

What are the key changes you need to your mindset?

• Adapt to your manager’s communication style: Does your manager need brief emails or comprehensive reports? Does he need to get the main idea or need details? You have to understand her needs and adapt yourself to her needs.  This will prevent misunderstandings and make communicating with her more efficient and easier.

• Align your goals with your manager’s goals: By aligning your priorities with your manager’s priorities, you ensure improvement in collaboration and common understanding.  You demonstrate that you understand the big picture and invest in the success of the whole group.

• Anticipate your manager’s needs:  Here the key is to be proactive and not wait for commands from your manager.  You need to think ahead define the next steps and align with her in the direction.  This makes the life of your manager easier and you are considered as a sparring partner and not as an employee.  

It is not important to impress your manager but to show a real interest in your cooperation and mutual interests.  By benefiting both from the same goals and actions, improves communication and mutual trust.  This brings success to you and your team.  Also having this relationship with your manager can allow you to take in the future more responsibilities and this can lead to your career growth.

Why Managing Up is Important for Your Career

Managing up is more than a day-to-day tactic at work, it is a strategy that influences your career growth. You learn how to be proactive and an effective communicator with your manager, and this makes you also effective in managing your team. This opens up more opportunities for getting advanced responsibilities and sets the path to your career advancement. 

One of the most important benefits of managing is the improvement of communication in the team. By aligning the priorities of your manager with the priorities of your team, you can align the strategy with your action plan. This proactive behavior makes you stop being a passive team member and turns you into a trusted and autonomous partner.  This sets you on the frontline when something important needs to be decided and allocated.       

Managing up also keeps your team more proactive.  Being proactive helps you orient your efforts towards the strategic goals. Your team would also be more productive and motivated by making transparent contributions. It can also streamline processes, reduce misunderstandings, and improve overall team performance.

One practical tip is to go to your one-to-one meetings and performance reviews with your manager prepared about your actions and achievements. You will be ready to present all your achievements and explain how you contributed to achieving her goals. This will reinforce your worth, positioning you for promotions or raises when the opportunity shows up. 

Tip 1. Align Your Work with Your Manager’s Priorities

The most important step you need to do first is to understand what is important for your manager and align with him.  Once you understand your manager’s priorities, you are in a position to get her support and work towards strategic goals. In that way, you can be consistent with her expectations and enable her to be successful.  That means that you become an important component of your manager’s success.

Check-in frequently is important to get information and feedback on adjusting priorities.  You may ask “What are the top priorities this week?”, or “What are the most important and urgent topics I must focus on this week?”. This helps you take crucial feedback on the direction, build rapport with your manager, and avoid misalignment. Also, you can confirm that your work fits with the big picture and you are heading in the right direction.

Periodically you should ask for feedback on your performance and issues that you need to improve. By asking for this performance feedback, the advantages are twofold. You have the chance to adjust your approach and topics you work on frequently, but also build trust by showing proactive feedback. This reinforces a collaborative relationship with your manager.

Tip 2. Improve Your Communication Skills

Effective communication is the key to building a successful relationship with your manager.  Not all managers communicate in the same way, so you need to tailor your style to meet the needs. Better communication with your manager can avoid misunderstandings, raise productivity, and build trust. 

If your manager would like brief and more frequent meetings, then you have to go well prepared and talk about the main points.  If your manager needs more detailed reports and insights, then you have to adjust your reporting accordingly. Follow-up information is crucial, as this demonstrates progress and effective communication channels.

Use the “BLUF” method.  BLUF stands for “Bottom Line Up Front” and is great for effective communication with managers and executives. It means that you start the communication with the most critical information as headlines, and then you proceed with the detailed information once you take feedback. With this method, you let your manager select the top priorities that need to be discussed in more detail. Your manager feels that has control of the priorities, and you deliver more efficiently. 

In that way, you need to be clear and concise.  Avoid giving over-information that is not so useful. Ask for quick feedback if you need an additional meeting to discuss this in more detail. One-on-one meetings with your manager are crucial and limited in time. Your goals are to take feedback, show progress, and communicate efficiently the most important issues and escalations.

Tip 3. Be Proactive in Solving Problems

Proactivity from your side is a key indicator for successful problem identification and resolution before any issue escalates.  Rather than letting the problems escalate to your manager, or hoping to be resolved by others, take the initiative to solve them proactively. This demonstrates a commitment to your team’s success. Proactively solving problems, helps minimize your manager‘s stress levels and make yourself look positive and a forward-thinking team player. 

However, when problems come up or even escalate to your manager, it is important to know how you respond to them. It can be easy to fall into reporting and present the data you have.  The key here is to think proactively and come up to your manager with solutions.  Even one step further, you may need to try to predict such issues and prevent them from escalating. This brings value to your manager, not only demonstrating your critical thinking but also allowing your manager to focus on larger problems and strategic priorities.

For example, you notice a project falling behind due to a lack of resources or conflicts with other projects and priorities. Instead of going to your manager with the problem, analyze the situation and be prepared with possible solutions. You should not go to your manager with a “Yes or No” solution but with multiple solutions that consider multiple aspects and are strategic. Then, you should start by informing your manager about possible solutions and asking for feedback about the optimum solution window.

Tip 4. Set Boundaries When Necessary

What if you have a difficult manager? This may mean continuously adding to your workload and frequently changing priorities without any prior notice. This may be a stress factor for you and reduce efficiency, by adding more responsibilities and instability of working conditions. 

You have to set clear boundaries in such situations and ensure your well-being and productivity in the working relationship. Lacking boundaries it can lead to dissatisfaction and even burnout due to unrealistic expectations. Setting clear limits to your workload and the way you work with your manager, can better manage your environment and also protect your team.

But how can you set the limits?  It does not mean that you have to say “no” to every request from your manager. It means to communicate effectively your capacity and abilities for performing in the workplace.  When you communicate in this way, you emphasize your support for your manager’s goals and your view or capacity about her expectations.  Boundaries are important in dealing with difficult managers who might tend to overburden or even to micromanage you.  For example, if your manager is giving more and more tasks, then you should ask “I am happy to help you with all the requests.  Here is what I am working on now. Which task would you prefer that I prioritize?”

Tip 5. Manage Expectations and Feedback

Expectations management is one of the key elements for ensuring efficient communication with your manager. When you set the right expectations about what and when you can deliver, the disappointment rate of your manager is reduced. This also creates transparency and builds trust. A lot of frustration in a relationship comes from misaligned and miscommunicated expectations.  Therefore you must keep your manager at the same page with you regarding deadlines, project scope, and progress.  

Of course, this is more difficult to do when you deal with a difficult manager, who sets unrealistic timelines and expectations. Then it becomes your responsibility to communicate the reality and try to regulate such expectations. Otherwise, this will trigger misunderstandings and conflicts. You have to set upfront the right expectations on when and how you can deliver.  You have to remain reliable and trustworthy, even with a difficult manager.

What are specific things you can do?

• Be clear and realistic about deadlines.  Always evaluate your capacity to deliver before you commit to a new deadline. You also have to evaluate inter-relationships and other commitments you have before you set the right expectations.
• Communicate deviations and delays early. Inform your manager as early as possible for possible delays and deviations. Start by explaining the reason and what is the real impact.  In this way, you reset the expectations and try to find a solution together. Being proactive eliminates last-minute frustration and lets you make adjustments to your plan.
• Keep your manager well informed. Never wait until the last minute to inform your manager of changes in plans or delays.  Updating your manager regularly and early makes it easier to regulate expectations and workload.

By being proactive and setting the right expectations, you build a collaborative relationship with your manager. Your goal here is to avoid any friction and stress due to unrealistic expectations and missed deadlines.

Tip 6. Be Transparent and Honest as Any Situation

Transparency is the basis for building a trustworthy relationship with your manager. You are regarded as a trustworthy and valuable member of the team when you stay open and honest. Especially during difficult situations, this is crucial and highly appreciated by your manager. It is natural not to want to reveal the bad news or mistakes, but if you approach your manager with honesty and openly, your manager will most of the time appreciate you for letting her know. This creates a positive tone in your relationship with your manager in the long term.

Mistakes and unforeseen risks can happen in every situation. However, how you handle communication and expectations makes the difference. Your manager will trust somebody open and honest about the difficult situation.  You have to show ownership of the situation and propose the next steps and possible solutions. In that way, you shift your manager’s attention from the mistake to the possible solutions. You have to be straightforward about the situation and be prepared to propose multiple solutions.

Transparency is not only sharing the situation for mistakes but also being transparent on progress reports, challenges, and risks. You have to regulate expectations and priorities, based on resources, expected risks, and challenges. Keeping your manager informed about the status and possible risks, you demonstrate your proactivity and ownership. Your goal is to establish yourself as a trustworthy partner to stay connected and productive even in difficult situations.  In that way, you invest in building a positive working relationship with your manager.

Tip 7. Deliver Consistently on Promises

The next important element for building trust with your manager is to remain consistent with your promises and communicated expectations. Every time you do what you say, you show that you are responsible and professional. Your manager must know that she can count on you when there is a need to follow up on some important goals. By showing consistency, the trust between you and your manager is growing with time.

Consistency does not meet to achieve everything you say. It means to show progress on the agreed direction and communicate on time for any possible deviations. You have to be consistent also on your abilities. If you do not feel ready or not capable of delivering a task, you have to be open and show your gaps. Then you ask for more support and you do not commit to an unrealistic situation. To commit you need to feel capable and have the required resources.  It is your responsibility to communicate its property if these conditions are not met.

If you feel that you have a gap or need further professional development, then you have to be open and proactively communicate it. This will improve your reputation as a team member who wants to develop further skills and can be entrusted with bigger assignments. The most ideal career growth scenarios emerge from successful communication with a manager himself where the employee always tries hard to live up to his expectations.

Tip 8. How Managing Up Improves Team Performance

Managing up does not only mean to improve your relationship with your manager. It can create a snowball effect on the overall team performance. Leading by example and showing your commitment and your relationship with your manager is a message to your team.  You need to achieve certain goals, and they are always aligned with your manager. You coordinate your team always based on the aligned goals and direction.  This provides clarity and improves team performance and productivity.

By managing up, you are acting as a communication channel between your manager and your team. You set goals, communicate updates, and avoid misunderstandings in your team. Communication is also improved downwards and the team can remain cohesive and productive. When the team members get the right messages from you about expectations and priorities, they can be also productive and prevent bottlenecks. 

You have to focus on the following:

• Communicate priorities and updates: Create communication channels (team meetings, one-to-one meetings) with your team to communicate any updates, expectations from your manager, and priorities.  This will improve transparency and productivity.

• Encourage open communication: You have to keep your team always informed about updates and changes in priorities.  Then you are open for feedback and any changes to the plan and risks.

• Reflect and listen to the needs of others: By managing up you need the right feedback and respect the needs of your team.  Without that, you cannot commit or set realistic expectations.

By managing up you are not leveraging only your relationship with your manager, but you also improve the communication and your relationship with your team.  This improves the effectiveness and morale of the entire team.

Tip 9. Leveraging Managing Up for Career Growth

Managing up is not only about making the life of your manager easier but how you can also advance your career. You have to take ownership of new challenges and communicate well your motivation and aspirations.  You need to align consistently your manager’s priorities with yours and keep an eye on development opportunities.  This means that you must be proactive on new opportunities and be open to new tasks.

When you successfully manage your manager, you demonstrate your competence and the anticipation of further challenges.  You show how you can work independently and help for achieving bigger goals and objectives.  It means that you are a great asset to your manager and have also been promoted to senior leadership. Your successes and reliability will build a reputation for your value. This places you in a position for promotion and undertaking greater responsibilities.

With proactive managing up, and getting feedback, you will set the path of career development and position yourself as a key player for future leadership roles.

Managing up is a strong strategy for career development. This can make a difference in your work life and career path. Also, managing up can improve your well-being and reduce your stress levels based on a better relationship with your manager.

By following the practical tips for how to manage your manager, you will become also a better leader. Key elements for improving communication, building trust, and aligning expectations are critical for your success in the long run.  In that way, you are creating a productive and positive work environment that can be reflected also in the improved performance of your team.

Show ownership, be proactive, honest, and consistent! These are the key elements for success on any occasion with your manager. Even difficult managers can be managed by the proper methods and style. Stay positive and start managing your manager to achieve your professional career goals.

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