How to manage up: a guide

Not all bosses are created equal, but also -- do you know your leader's goals?

Executives care about impact. As they communicate the desired impact down, different stratospheres of the business work together to realize the impact. Directors may create strategies to realize the impact. Contributors may be given an initiative that will culminate in or support the impact.?

In short: Your executive does not care about the nitty gritty. Your executive wants to know what the nitty gritty will do for the business.

Let’s take revenue as an example. In the lifecycle of impact, a CEO may determine that growing revenue is what the company needs to do. She will work with her exec team on a plan to grow impact. In the plan, a marketing leader will be accountable for the new business pipeline, as part of the cross-executive plan. The marketing director will have to optimize SEO and run webinars and trade shows to bring in leads and grow the pipeline. And a contributor will find herself being tasked to create social campaigns to create awareness around the marketing activity.

When talking to leaders, people often jump into the boundaries of their task — rather than the broader objective — and lose the leader’s attention. How do you avoid jumping into the nitty gritty? Your boss has an objective and at all times is either aligning, ideating, or executing the objective(s).?Communicate your work as it fits into their objective. The goal of the marketing manager is not to finish a blog post, it is to write a blog post that drives leads by increasing SEO and organic search odds of your org, which she has managed to do for x% of your existing pipeline, x% of which has closed.

If you know your leader’s objective and how it ties to the business’s objective, you will be able to manage up. You can manage a distracted leader, a disconnected leader, or a low communicator.?Because your needs are framed within your leader’s goals.

As a basic formula, when reaching out to a leader, always:?

• Share the desired outcome
• Share the point
• Add any action items or if the memo is for review

For example:?

• How to lose your boss’s attention: I was talking to Jenny about our tradeshow and we currently have all the booths worked out, and a plan for bad weather, and we think it would be good to talk about x, y, z? we will try that. Mary wants to come to help with this triva game. I am going to arrange that. Tickets are not too expensive. I get in Friday at 5 pm, so I will organize the Ubers..[and on and on and on].”
• How to get your boss’s attention: “To get to the $5m in pipeline, we have $20k in SEO spend. But we know we can attract folks to our booth at trade shows by building an engaging trivia game, where they spin by tossing a card into a bowl. We can bring pipeline in for less and hit the $5m goal under budget. Here is my plan to test it x, y, z, do you approve?”?

A call plan will help you and your leader stay focused. To create a call plan:

• Bring an agenda
• Include a desired outcome (i.e.: align/execute/ideate)
• Include the context of the previous convo when relevant?

Remember that leaders aren’t always strategic and focused, so you may have to keep them on target in some scenarios.

Even better than a call plan is a solution

If you have identified and assessed an issue, present it as a decision for your boss:

• Name the issue
• Confirm that it is a priority (this one is critical — your issue is not always a priority and can create undue noise)
• Propose the solution
• Highlight who would own the solution, what the solution would be at the cost of, and the timeline
• Make your ask: Should we proceed/do you have hesitations/what do you think?

In general, be clear about what you want from them.

Asynchronous/fast communication is also a great skill

Not everything has to be a meeting. Most people are happy to have fewer meetings. I use Loom for effective async comms (they have a decent freemium), and I use/ask for the following format:

• What/Why/HowWhat (headline) — including what they need from meWhy (reason/impact)How (suggested next step/the weeds, someone should be able to stop listening at this point if they trust your ability to execute on what/why)

How to get feedback

The goal of feedback is to realize your blindspots (quickly), and gain the perspective of others. While honesty is the truest form of loyalty, giving feedback is hard. Feedback is information. It isn’t absolute truth. It isn’t airing dirty laundry. It is a perspective, from a person, on you. But not every boss is good at giving feedback.?

How to ask for feedback and receive a constructive response?

• Be direct
• Be time-bound
• Be specific

After a presentation or proposal, you have a window to ask specifically how you performed.?

Hope this helps. What would you add?

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