August 13, 2010 The Art of Managing Up
It’s a skill I’ve recognized, needed, and still can only long for; that is, the art of managing up. I’ve never been very good at it myself, and have had a few performance reviews attest to that. There was a time when I thought managing up meant ensuring my erratic, emotional boss was offered M&Ms at appropriate times of the day to ensure blood-sugar-levels maintained an even keel. Or it was FedExing documents to a boss for her urgent approval. The approval was only urgent because she had ignored weeks of emails, voicemails, and memos taped to her keyboard. But the FedEx arriving at her desk, sent from someone who sat ten feet away – that got her attention.
But I know there’s much more to managing up, and every so often I develop another tactic to help build those skills. The latest one being emails.
I had been working for an executive who never responded to people’s emails – or at least anyone but mine. Others kept asking why he always responded to mine and so quickly – and it was a simple response. “Because he knows my emails are easy.”
Basically, I make sure that every email I send has a quick summary (1 to 2 sentences) of the situation, followed by my recommended response. Granted, I’m putting myself out there by always offering suggestions, which are sometimes rejected, but for the most part, emails from require only a quick “yes” or “no.” I’ve developed a pattern, and so the executive, when perusing the hundreds of emails that have come in over the day, can look at my name and think, “oh, this will be quick.”
Thus far, this has worked for me. But I’d love to know tips others may have.
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Anittah
said
Often, managing up is difficult for people as they cloud their historical relationships with other authority figures, e.g. parents, with their relationship with their manager. Thus, energy that is truly intended for parents (et cetera) gets transferred to the manager, and this can cloud an employees actions.
My best employees send me weekly summaries with 3-5 bullets re: what they accomplished that week, as it relates to our team’s top goals, and an overview of the 3-5 things they need to be focused on the following week. They also let me know, clearly, what they need from me. If there’s a problem, then, they let me know what the problem is and what they are doing to solve it.
I do not have time for headaches and I do not want to hold hands. I want my people to feel empowered to solve their own problems and I have tried to create an environment where they feel comfortable screwing up, quote unquote, because important lessons are often learned during “failure.” So if I have a headcount that needs constant supervision, needs me to punto a punto outline their every task, and/or cannot be entrusted to solve problems without getting my explicit approval, then we have a problem. So to the extent that a direct report can take as little of their manager’s time in a day as possible, then we have a win.
That said, there are plenty of numb-nuts managers out there, and if someone is to find themselves working for the deeply average, then perhaps crafting an exit strategy should be the first order of business. We each spend too much of our lives in the employ of another to have those hours pass miserably.