“Managing up” is a term that refers to the proactive and thoughtful interaction of an individual with their supervisor. It is a response to the concept of “help me help you.” Managing up involves using self-awareness and relationship management skills, frequently cited as two of the four cornerstones of Emotional Intelligence.
Managing onward and upward refers to the conscious and almost strategic management of your interactions with your direct leader and anyone beyond your pay title, and includes the use of creating win-win situations, showing up authentically and demonstrating loyalty. When you are able to create environments like this, employees will able to enjoy upward mobility at higher rates than those who don’t.
Managing up successfully means seeing your leader for who they are and who they are not, what’s important to them and what they don’t care about, and responding accordingly. Managing up also means having a sense of empathy for what your supervisor contends with on a daily basis and looking outside of your own career, reality and personal circumstances to see things from their perspective.
I recently read an article from UC Merced, which I thought excellently captures the essence of why managing up is both a vital skill and a real treat when successful: “Essentially supervisors are humans, just like us, and susceptible to all the complexities that make up any one of us. They have strengths along with areas that need growth and development. Further—and whether we like it or not—we need our supervisors. They have a significant impact on the work that we do, the relationships we make, our career advancement and our quality of work life. Having a strong working relationship with our supervisors can make or break our success and satisfaction in our jobs.”
Here’s a quick list of some things people who successfully manage up do:
- Provide options as well as cause and effect scenarios when requesting a decision to be made.
- Practice versatility in their communication and work styles, aligning with those of their leader.
- Adopt their leader’s goals.
- Use plain speak.
- Are aware of how their story is conveyed.
In terms of practical application on the job, being an advocate for your leader, especially when in meetings and conversations with either their peers, their direct reports or their leadership, can be particularly useful as you seek support for your projects and ideas. Chartering a reciprocal relationship is part of good relationship management and demonstrates emotional intelligence.
It’s important to note that approaching this from a place of openness and transparency is critical. In decades gone by, the phrase “get along to get ahead” was often used to describe a facet of this approach. The reality is that our leaders are busy and often stressed and overworked, so making life easier for them goes a long way to show that you care about them and what’s important to them, as well as your bottom line. This could be as simple as checking in on them in the morning to see how they’re doing or touching bases at the end of the day to see if they need anything that you may be able to support them with.
In short, managing up successfully should allow for the collaborative creation of a wonderful working relationship with your leader that allows you to have both of your work needs met and encourages you and your leader to feel a sense of ease and enjoy synergy.
