Raise your hand if you have a boss. That makes two of us! Everyone may not be a manager, but nearly everyone HAS a manager. So managing up is something almost all working people have to deal with. It’s awesome when you have an awesome manager. And at the same time, people are people, and people are flawed. Managers are not perfect, so sometimes it falls to us to “manage” them. It’s a delicate balance that can make a BIG difference for you and for your manager. What does it mean to manage up? Keep reading to learn: Let’s get started! The definition of managing up Managing up is “essentially managing your manager – doing what you can to get what you need from your manager to do the job to the best of your ability,” according to LEADx. When you’re ready to manage up, you’re ready to take control of your work. This is a great skill to learn for your own development and can sometimes even lead to your manager seeing your leadership potential. When you manage up, you’re taking control of the situation and your career. You’re speaking up about what you need, paving the way forward and helping your manager achieve success. What is managing up, really? Basically, managing up involves the things you do to work well with your boss, make their job easier and contribute to their success. Is your boss hard to get a hold of? Like many managers, they’re probably very busy and involved in several other areas of your organization, making their time a commodity. Busy managers can sometimes make their employees feel uncared for unintentionally. Just because they’re busy doesn’t mean you can’t build an effective working relationship with them and do a stellar job. Managing up is about how you use your time with them (and apart) to gain clarity on what success means to them and help them achieve it. It doesn’t just impact your relationship with them. Managing up filters up to your boss’ own manager and leaders across your company. What you do when you manage up can make your boss (and you) look great to upper management because it can make you achieve more, consistenly. Why managing up matters Managing up has lots of benefits across the board. Here are some of the biggest ones. Managing up helps your career development When you start actively managing up, you learn how to work with anyone on anything to get stuff done, which is amazing for your career development. This skill makes you a valuable player and an essential part of the team. It is a fantastic notch in your belt for leadership development (even if you’re not actually in a leadership role). It can also help you avoid surprises because you know what your boss is focused on and can keep your work and priorities in alignment. You can manage your time more wisely by focusing on what matters most and saying no to what takes away from that. Managing up also helps you build trust with your manager, which leads to a healthier relationship with your boss. Doing this makes you more intentional with your work, which means you’ll have an easier time cataloging your impact and success. This is PERFECT performance review fodder. So if you’re starting to manage up at work, be sure to keep track of what you accomplish so you rock your next performance review with strong examples to help you communicate all the awesomeness you’ve accomplished. Managing up builds trust with your manager When you learn to proactively communicate and achieve success with your manager or leader in a way that works for them, they start seeing you as a trusted resource who makes sure nothing slips through the cracks. You help them meet their goals and look good to their own boss. They feel supported and successful because of your contributions. Your manager knows they can rely on you, which is great for your future working relationship. Overall, this is one of the best ways to build a healthy relationship with your boss by making your boss’ life easier and catering to their style. (Plus, it likely makes your own life easier, too.) Managing up works at all levels Yes, it is called managing up but really, these are skills that will help you with everyone around you in your career, not just those higher up. Truly, this approach to work is about understanding how those around you work, what they need to do their job well, and how you can make their job easier with a more proactive and informed communication style. Whether you bring this topic to a meeting with your direct report, manager, or any other employee with whom you work closely, there is so much to learn. You can gain an understanding of the role you play in supporting your boss, team, department and organization hit their goals. This clarity helps you focus on what’s most important to your role so you can contribute in a more meaningful way than just putting out the fires of the day. Using these skills helps you build a positive relationship with people across your organization because this approach ensures both you and those around you are aligned on the work that is being done. It will give you a clear focus, which means you can be more strategic and thoughtful with your partnerships, pull in the right people to get the right things done and increase the visibility of both you and your work. Managing up is key for your reputation Proactive communication is crucial for building trust across your organization, especially with higher ups and senior leaders. By communicating your contributions clearly, you are demonstrating your leadership skills and how you are adding value to the organization as a whole. This approach is also vital if there is ever a mistake or problem with one of your projects. When you can get ahead of the problem