If you want to be successful at work and make it easier to climb the ladder, it's important to learn how to manage up. Managing up is all about understanding and working with your manager's expectations, communication style, and goals.
When you know how to manage up, you can make sure that you're always on the same page as your manager. This can help you avoid misunderstandings, stay aligned with company goals, and get the support you need to be successful in your role.
Here's what you need to know about managing up:
What is Managing Up?
If you're thinking along the lines of, "Wait, isn't it supposed to be my manager who should manage me?"
That’s normal.
Because what we've been taught at work is managing down, from top to bottom. Superiors managing their direct reports.
But not many managers know how to manage up. What they’re missing out on are career progression opportunities, better relationships with their bosses, and an easier work life.
The definition of managing up is taking the initiative to manage your relationship with your manager in a way that benefits both of you. It's about understanding your manager's expectations, communication style, and goals - and working with them instead of against them.
Why Managing Up is Important
Your manager is not a mind reader. It's your job to ensure that they understand your work, your goals, and your progress.
The strongest reason why managing up is so powerful is because it improves your relationship with your manager.
When you have a great relationship with your manager, they will be more likely to be understanding, supportive of your career goals, and help you grow in your role. You’ll also be more productive and feel happier because you’re thriving with your manager.
Managing upward can also help you connect with a manager who might not necessarily share your views. It can also aid in the building of trust and the ability to handle bigger responsibilities between you and your manager.
Family relationships are similar to your job ones—you don't always get to pick who you work with, and personalities may not always match up as you'd hope. But you can use these managing up tips to improve the relationship with your manager.
Another less-known reason why managing up at work is critical because you’re also helping your managers to succeed. In my experience coaching senior leaders, most of them underestimate how much their managers rely on their feedback, insights, and updates to do their work effectively. Your managers need you and management isn’t a one-way street.
How to Manage Up at Work: 4 Practical Tips
1. Ask the Right Questions
It’s hard to know all the time what the right questions are, but essentially you and your team want to make sure you’re meeting your manager’s expectations as much as possible. Your manager may be juggling a lot and will be delighted if you get ahead of what they need to communicate to you.
Some starting ideas are:
- What’s your biggest priority(s) at the moment?
- How are you thinking about next quarter goals?
- Have your expectations changed recently in X area?
- When should things be escalated to you?
- If you can share it, what has leadership communicated to you recently about X?
- What am I doing well?
- What am I not doing so well on?
2. Give Visibility
Don’t wait to be asked for updates, be proactive about sending your manager things that they need to know to be able to do their job. Make sure you do this on a regular basis and in a timely manner so your updates are predictable where possible.
Here are a few buckets of things that will be a useful starting point when thinking about what information your manager might welcome seeing:
- Updates in project statuses
- Updates on people in your team and their performance
- What risks do you foresee with projects or people
- Wins/things that have gone well
Giving your manager visibility will also help you both make much better use of time during your 1-1s. You don’t want to be going over project update after update when you could have sent the info ahead of time and used the 1-1 to work on something more impactful.
Not sure what your manager would like visibility into? Or what level of detail to give them? Or what format to present it in? Or maybe at what cadence to send it? Just ask them! :-)
3. Praise Your Manager
It’s not brown-nosing, it’s highlighting the things you’d like your manager to do more of! You don’t go around saying ‘good job!’, which would feel weird and a little patronizing. You just highlight things that you appreciate.
For example, a change they’ve made that has worked, a tough conversation they handled well, an email that was thoughtfully written, that time they showcased your good work to senior leadership, a situation where they had your back etc.
The leaders I coach really wish their direct reports would praise more often since they either only hear all the bad stuff they are doing wrong or nothing at all! They’ve no idea if what they do is working or landing or being well-received. So do your boss a favor and throw them a little appreciation.
4. Give Feedback
Didn't see this coming, did you? If you think giving feedback is the fastest way to burn bridges, the managers I've coached actually disagree.
They would much rather you tell them what they are doing that's bothering you than just sulk and complain to your team or stay silent and resentful.
But sometimes, it's not easy to give feedback about your boss to your boss, especially if it's constructive feedback.
On the other side of the coin, when you give feedback well, it can be instrumental in your development as a leader and help you build a more productive and positive relationship with your manager.
The key here is to give feedback the right way, and you'll be well on your way to managing up.
Here are 4 examples of feedback openers you can try:
- I’ve heard a piece of feedback through the grapevine (or from some folks) that I think would be helpful for you to know. Would you be interested in hearing it?
- I have a couple of ideas for you that might help with building trust more quickly on the team. Would you be open to hearing them now?
- I wanted to share something that I think might help you from a cultural integration standpoint. Are you happy for me to share that with you?
- I wanted to talk to you about how we could work together better. Is this a good time for me to bring this up?
Why the question at the end of each of these? We’re asking this deliberately ‘closed’ question because we are looking for a verbal “yes” from them. This means they are ready and open to hear what you have to say. They will feel less ambushed as they will have ‘opted in’ to receiving the feedback.
Managing Up Dos and Don'ts
Managing up is not about brown-nosing. It's about understanding your manager, building a productive, positive relationship with your manager that benefits both of you.
Managing up starts with communicating proactively.
So go forth and manage up! Your career and your manager will thank you for it.
Free Micro Class: How To Give Feedback
We’ve prepared a free 10-min video training on ‘How To Give Feedback’ while being direct and kind.
Many managers have used the simple 4-Step framework in the video to motivate and develop their direct reports without straining the relationship.
They also said they feel more confident in giving constructive feedback after watching the video.
