Every Friday I write about a topic of particular interest to working parents who manage people.
Managing up is important for anyone who wants to move ahead, but it is a critical skill for working parents. Being seen as an especially valuable employee makes it much easier to ask for extra days off, flex time and other perks that can make your life much easier. It is also likely that you will have a more satisfying work experience if your manager feels supported by an efficient and organized staff. Here are some of my top suggestions for improving your relationship with your boss by managing up.
1. Find out what your boss needs most to be successful at his or her job, and be the one to provide it. Maybe it’s good numbers, maybe it’s good writing, maybe it’s help with managing staff. Whatever will make your manager look better will be valuable to them, and will put you in a stronger position.
2. Don’t overwhelm your manager with information. So often I see people providing detailed 12-column spreadsheets when the boss just wants to know basic sales numbers. Having all of the information as background is a good thing, but for presentation purposes you want to give the broadest overview in the simplest way. If there are questions you can always provide more detail.
3. Don’t disagree, especially on the small stuff. Find ways to support your manager’s ideas and strategies, even if you think they are misguided. If you disagree very strongly or think that the organization is being compromised, seriously consider leaving.
4. Avoid conflict with your fellow employees. Managers hate dealing with conflict between staff members. Even if a colleague is difficult or unpleasant, take the high road and don’t bring it to your manager.
5. Be flexible and offer your expertise on projects that are beyond the scope of you job. Never use the phrase “it’s not in my job description.” See everything, even administrative tasks, as an opportunity.
6. Simplify requests to your manager. For example, if you need him or her to make a phone call, send an email with the name and phone number of the contact, objective for the call, conversation bullets, and a short bio of the contact. Need your manager to review a list? Schedule time to sit with him or her and review the document together rather than waiting for your boss to get to it.
7. Respond quickly and acknowledge requests, even if you can’t get the information right away. Give status reports if something will take more than a day.
8. Set up standard operating procedures and a good bench of people who can do your job even if you are out of the office. Make sure that your boss is never without coverage for your function.
9. Be able to provide numbers. Not all statistics are meaningful, but it helps to have a few good ones at your fingertips when describing your job or department. If you are in sales or fundraising, what is your revenue to date and how does it compare with the previous year? If you are in creative services, how many assignments have you completed this quarter, and how does that compare with previous quarters?
10. Don’t make your boss responsible for your professional growth. Complaining that you aren’t getting deep enough assignments won’t help you get better work; good work begets good work. Your manager won’t enjoy more than one conevrsation per year about your “future.” If you are unhappy, start looking elsewhere.
Here are some more good “managing up” resources:
