Managing up is an essential skill for career success.

This guide provides an overview of managing up and actionable steps for effectively managing your boss and other senior leaders.

What is Managing Up?

Managing up means building good relationships with your manager and senior leaders.

It involves understanding their priorities, preferences, and work styles so you can communicate and collaborate more effectively.

5 Steps to Manage Up in the Workplace

1. Understand your manager’s priorities and pressures

• Ask clarifying questions to learn what matters most to them and their challenges. This allows you to align your work accordingly.

2. Communicate proactively and make their job easier

• Provide status updates, anticipate problems, and offer solutions. Make their job easier by being organized and reliable.

3. Adjust your communication style

• Observe how your manager prefers to communicate and adapt accordingly. Do they prefer email, in-person chats, or detailed reports?

4. Ask for feedback regularly

• Check in about your performance and ask how you can improve. Be receptive to feedback.

5. Expand your thinking and skills

• Look for opportunities to take on new projects and build capabilities. Managing up helps position you for growth.

Benefits and Challenges of Managing Up

Managing up comes with both opportunities and challenges.

Benefits:

• Stronger relationship and trust with your manager.
• Increased visibility and exposure to senior leaders.
• Greater access to crucial information and resources.
• More career development and advancement opportunities.

Potential Challenges:

• Requires time and concerted effort.
• Need to balance own priorities with manager’s agenda.
• Risk of perception of self-serving behavior.

10 Characteristics of Effective Managing Up

To manage well, it helps to cultivate these essential qualities and skills:

1. Proactivity – Take initiative to keep your manager informed.

2. Reliability – Deliver consistent, high-quality work.

3. Adaptability – Tailor your style to suit your manager’s preferences.

4. Positive attitude – Be solutions-oriented.

5. Active listening – Understand what is important to your manager.

6. Communication skills – Convey critical information.

7. Emotional intelligence – Be aware of social cues and unspoken needs.

8. Critical thinking – Solve problems proactively.

9. Strategic focus – Align your work with broader organizational goals.

10. Continuous learning – Pursue development to expand your capabilities.

Examples of Managing Up in Action

Here are ten examples of managing up tactics:

• Set up regular 1:1s to touch base on priorities.
• Anticipate potential problems that may arise on critical projects.
• Ask your manager how they prefer to receive updates and status reports.
• Volunteer for special projects and committees your manager oversees.
• Speak up in meetings to showcase your expertise.
• Research industry trends and share relevant articles with your manager.
• Seek informal feedback on your performance over coffee chats.
• Offer to help prepare presentations and reports for senior leadership.
• Recommend new processes or tools that could help your manager work more efficiently.
• Express appreciation and praise for your manager when deserved.

Summary

Managing up requires intention, emotional intelligence, and commitment.

While challenging, it enables you to maximize your potential and accelerate your career growth.

With the strategies outlined in this guide, you can build trust and credibility with your leaders to position yourself for success.

The keys are understanding priorities, communicating effectively, seeking opportunities to add value, and nurturing the relationship.

Catherine Fitzgerald B.A. M.A. PGDip( Founder )

With 30+ years of experience, Catherine Fitzgerald, B.A., M.A., PGDip, founded Oak Innovation in 1995. Catherine received her Bachelor’s degree and Master’s from University College Cork. She holds qualifications in Professional Development And Training from University College Galway. She is completing a second Master’s from University College Cork. Since 1995, clients include Apple, Time Warner, and Harvard University.