Managing Up Without Managing Out
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We’ve all heard that to get ahead at work, it’s not just about managing down but managing up as well. Yes, that means engaging your boss.
Keeping your boss happy is key to obtaining your ideal assignment, your well-deserved promotion or your overdue raise; but managing up can get you into trouble if not done properly. Don’t believe me? Try reprimanding your boss the next time she makes a mistake or check up on her projects. Soon you’ll be managing your way right out of a job.
Rather, I recommend you “partner with your manager.” Not partnering in terms of romance (it’s never appropriate to partner with your manager in that way) but rather supporting your manager in achieving her goals so that you too can be successful.
The idea of “partnering” with your boss may sound strange. I mentioned to friends that I was writing this article and received numerous wry glances. They said they worked for idiots and wouldn’t want to partner with them!
Apparently my friends are not alone. Sirota Consulting surveyed 3.5m employees and found an “ingrained belief among them that managers, far from driving business forward, actually hamper progress.”
I know it may be difficult to swallow, but your boss is the sole person (outside of yourself) with the greatest influence on your career happiness and success. So to facilitate your career satisfaction, partner with your manager by focusing through three key means: Trust, Respect and Knowledge:
- Be trustworthy. Follow through on your commitments at work. Deliver what you say you’re going to deliver and you’ll go far in building a trusting relationship with your manager. If you haven’t been trustworthy, how can you expect your manager to be?
- Be respectful. Your manager needs to be someone you can learn from but not necessarily a perfect person. Give your manager a break if she’s made a mistake or a bad decision. If there’s a pattern to her issues, that’s another story but don’t write-off your manager as an ‘idiot’ just because she’s not perfect every time.
- Be knowledgeable. To partner successfully with your manager you need to know:
1) Where you want to go with your career and what you need from your manager to get there (i.e. a good review so you can be put up for promotion, a recommendation to move into another department, or new projects to gain additional experience); and
2) Where your manager’s priorities lie and what she needs from you to achieve her goals (i.e. ways to improve department operations so that things get done more efficiently, new ideas for products or services that your department can offer, or new ways to use technology to save time and money).
With a relationship built on trust, respect and knowledge you can properly manage up and partner with your supervisor to achieve common goals. More importantly you will gain the experience, exposure and support you need to be successful in your own career. And last but not least take some advice from one of my favorite quotes …
“All the so-called “secrets of success” will not work unless you do.” – Anonymous