Managing Upward Can Help Your Career Take Off

Whatever the reason may be, whether you want more challenges or if you’d like to be considered for a promotion, managing up is the best skill that you can have to get you ahead in your career. Managing upward certainly isn’t about being “manipulative” or ingratiating just because you don’t want to step on your Managers toes. Remember, more often than not, your Manager’s goals are your goals too. Managing up is about taking responsibility as a professional so that you can improve your working relationship with your Manager, and remove any barriers that hinder communication.

Practicing the art of managing up has many advantages. You’ll come across as a valuable employee who is focused on contributing to your organisation and helping your Manager achieve business objectives. Along the way you’ll also increase your reputation in the workplace, and gain respect and confidence from your Manager and peers.

It’s important to get it right, so below we’ve put together our top tips for managing up.

Get to Know Your Manager

Before you do anything, get to know your Manager; their style and their way of doing things. Singapore Business highlights that understanding your Manager’s priorities means that you can work with them more effectively to achieve their goals. Begin with your Manager’s primary objectives and goals. What are they trying to accomplish for your organisation? What do they value the most? As well as this, understanding their preferred communication and management style can be useful. Naturally, doing a bit of research and taking note of their behaviours means you’ll minimise miscommunication and neglected messages sitting in your inbox.

Build Your Relationship

The aim of managing up is to build a relationship with your Manager that is based on trust, respect, and understanding. The reason for this is because Managers often give the most important work to employees they trust.

There are certain factors that make up a good relationship. In Australia, research suggests that communication, consultation, and collaboration are the best tools for Manager and employee relationships. Employees are encouraged to raise issues, discuss aspects of work, and provide ideas about better ways of doing things. Plus, if you have a good relationship with your Manager, you’ll feel more confident to go to them with any concerns, which can help your voice to be heard if any issues arise.

Clarify Expectations

Even if you have a great relationship with your Manager, they are still your direct report. That means that they will have expectations of you and your work. However, you can’t meet your Manager’s expectations if you don’t have a clear understanding of what those expectations are. Unfortunately, across the globe, only about half of employees say that they know what is expected of them at work. This is why it’s crucial to clarify your responsibilities if you feel that any of them are unclear, so that you aren’t basing the work you do on assumptions. Ensure that you’re aware of your company’s mission, and understand how your objectives and goals align with this. In order to ensure peak performance, you should know what your role is and how you contribute to the overall success of the organisation.

Request Feedback

Once you understand those expectations, you also need to understand how you’re performing in regards to meeting them. That means that asking for feedback becomes crucial to maintaining high performance. This feedback can also go above and beyond your job role. For instance, you can find out how your colleagues and your Manager feel about working with you. A simple “how am I doing” won’t generate much of a response. To get better results, ask for direct feedback from your team, and arrange meetings with your Manager; whether it’s a simple weekly catch up or a regular formal performance review.

Once you receive feedback, you can then start to act on it and adjust your working style if necessary, making improvements on any areas of your work performance. Regularly requesting feedback proves you care about your performance. Once you’re confident enough to ask for support and constant feedback, you’ll find you become better at managing up.  

Support Your Manager

Think of your organisation’s needs and consider whether you can lend a hand anywhere. It’s especially good to offer aid during an emergency or if certain deadlines need to be met, or if your team and Manager are struggling a project or task. Although offering your assistance is useful, don’t become so busy that you can’t complete your own job. Make sure to find the right balance and to politely say no to extra work if your work load has piled up and if you’ve reached your limit.

To be supportive and helpful when a problem arises or if you make a mistake, make sure to offer ideas on how it can be fixed instead of just pointing out problems. Take ownership and accountability, and communicate with your Manager to explain what happened. They’ll happily provide advice when you prove that you’re a responsible employee who can bring solutions to the problem, rather than be the bearer of bad news.

Be a Good Leader Yourself

To get the most out of managing up, it’s good to have an idea of your own strengths, weaknesses, and personal needs. Consider how well you respond to being managed; how do you react to direction and criticism? You can help yourself get on good terms with your Manager by uncovering what management style brings out the best in you, and ask if they can assist you with this.  For example, if you’re aware that you perform best when you don’t have lots of last minute deadlines, ask your Manager what are some situations that may arise at the last minute, and what tips do they have for being able to prepare for some of these eventualities. Being better prepared and better informed will take the pressure off you, and enable you to bring your A Game to the next last-minute crisis in the workplace. Remain honest and transparent, and soon enough you’ll be managing up naturally.

Summary

Effectively managing up can go a long way to helping you become a better, more helpful contributor to your workplace. It’s about being strategic, proactive, and taking the initiative for your career development. By managing up, you can improve your relationship with your Manager, gain more self-awareness, develop your skills and advance your career prospects. It’s a proactive way to minimise any frustrations which may be caused through misunderstandings and mismatched expectations.

If you don’t where to start when managing up, our experts at Gough Recruitment are well equipped to assist you and offer advice.