Managing Up

NEWSFLASH!  If you’re a middle manager, a big part of your job is supporting your boss.  Now before you roll your eyes, groan in misery or think that I’m on your boss’ payroll, think about this. 

Lately I’ve come across a number of leaders who are loathe to own their roles as managers—they like the pay, the benefits, the vacation, the comfortable office, but they find it difficult that their boss has some idiosyncrasies.    Now, I’m not suggesting that your boss is perfect, or even right all of the time but I am suggesting that you have the job of managing both the expectations of your boss and the image of your boss.

So here’s the short list of behaviors that you can adopt to successfully “manage up”

1. Follow Directions.  Your leader can and should expect you to follow her directions—even when you may not like them.  So if your leader asks you to implement a program that you believe to be flawed, your job is to a) tactfully suggest the concerns you have b) accept that your leader may have access to confidential information that she cannot share with you and c) implement the program as if you owned it.

2. Own it.  This goes along with number 1 but based on the numbers of people I see not owning, I think it bears repeating.  Ownership means taking responsibility for an initiative—it means communicating the direction with confidence while acknowledging that there will be barriers that you and your team must overcome with creativity, imagination and collective brainpower.  Owning means communicating your belief in the eventual success of the initiative. 

3. Share information.  Your job is to keep your leader in sync with the sentiments of your team.  Your purpose it to provide your boss with information to enable better decision making and to engage in a dialogue that will help you to manage the team.  By moving information up you serve as a reality check for your leader.

4. Shoulder the blame.  When your direct reports complain about a practice, expectation, initiative or approach, take the criticism without giving in to the temptation to improve your own image by blaming the decision on your boss.  Blaming the boss simply causes people to 1) question the direction of the organization which clearly is not the best use of company time 2) question your credibility—after all, you’ve positioned yourself as a lame duck or a puppet to your leader and c) lose faith in the leader who rarely is present to defend herself

5. Accept quirks.  Sure your boss may be a perfectionist, a neat freak, a rambler or a scatterbrain but the fact is that you have chosen to work for this person.  If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the fire!  When you become the boss, someone will have to deal with your quirks too! 

Management is a difficult job and typically, the broader the scope, the more challenging it is.  So give your boss a break—make her look good.  Don’t be afraid to actively demonstrate that you are fielding problems, managing expectations, massaging personalities and generally addressing all of the issues that she has hired you to manage.  So this week, show up with solutions, recommendations, success stories and well articulated plans for that new project that your boss is so passionate about.