Managing up

5 not-so-often-shared ways to manage up and have a better relationship with your boss.



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You want to manage up – but what you really mean is that you simply want to work well with your boss.

Who doesn’t? Especially when your boss is pestering you with questions via Slack after work-hours, or failing to give you enough time to complete projects…

You sigh and think yourself: “How do I manage up effectively?”

This is one of the most common questions I’m asked – and, unfortunately, one of the most common situations that you might face, whether you’re a manager, executive or individual contributor.

Based on research we’ve done over the past five years with hundreds of managers and employees, and the insights shared in our online leadership community, The Watercooler, here are the 5 distinct ways you can manage up to have a better relationship with your boss:

Share progress more often than you typically would.

Your boss is craving to know what you’re working on. We recently conducted a survey of 355 people and learned that the #1 piece of information that managers want to know is the progress that’s being made on a project. As a result, you’ll want to ask yourself:Am I sharing the progress I’m making day-to-day or week-to-week? You can also ask your boss directly: “How can I give you more visibility into my work?” or “Are there any decisions or projects you wish I were more transparent about?” Additionally, in Know Your Team in fact, we have a tool called “The Heartbeat” that helps you do this with little to zero effort – it’s an easy way to automate daily or weekly check-ins with your team. I highly recommend taking a peek if you feel like your team doesn’t have an effective process for sharing progress.

Uncover your boss’ work preferences (even if they don’t do the same for you).

We all have preferences around the way we like to work – including our boss. Make sure you spend time asking questions to your boss to figure out what theirs are. The more you know about how your boss likes to work (e.g., how they prefer to receive feedback, when they’re most productive during the day), the more you can adjust your own behavior to increase the likelihood of a positive relationship with them. It may seem frustrating (rightfully!) that you have to be the one to instigate this conversation, if they haven’t already (they are your manager, after all) – but some people need the nudge. You can provide it