Managing up can mean establishing a good relationship with your boss, leveraging your personal and position power, showcasing your successes and your team to your boss, and more. In this course, leadership consultant and best-selling author Roberta Matuson tells viewers how to manage up so they can maximize their careers and progress in their organizations.
You can鈥檛 manage your boss without having a strong relationship from which to build, and at the current rate of turnover in most organizations, you have to build that relationship quickly. Part of this relationship-building involves understanding your boss鈥檚 management style and preferred method of communication. Once you鈥檝e decoded that management style, you can begin to establish a more open relationship with your boss, expressing what you鈥檙e thinking and feeling while being honest and respectful.聽
According to Matuson, a strong relationship with your boss can also be built by demonstrating confidence and consistency, standing your ground and admitting when you鈥檙e wrong. Avoid making fatal mistakes when you build this relationship such as mistaking your boss for a friend or breaking the chain of command and going over your boss鈥檚 head. Establish trust with your boss and maintain it鈥攄on鈥檛 lie and don鈥檛 break their confidence.
In addition to your boss, good relationships with the people around you will help you effectively manage up. These relationships are essential for establishing personal and position-based power within the organization. If you don鈥檛 think you have power based on your position, remember that you can build personal power by establishing trust with your colleagues. Relationships are often the informal way that work gets done.
Once you鈥檝e established power in your organization鈥攑ersonal and position-based鈥攜ou have to work to keep that power. Matuson suggests that you continue to broaden your network across the organization, present your own work and volunteer for visible projects.
Matuson suggests you also practice self-promotion to make sure you move up in the organization. One method is to keep a record of your accomplishments to make sure you can speak confidently and readily about your successes. Your work doesn鈥檛 speak for itself鈥攜ou have to promote yourself and your work.
It鈥檚 hard to get noticed in a sea of good employees鈥攂ut if you establish a solid relationship with your boss, volunteer for visible projects and tactfully talk about your accomplishments regularly, you can manage up and maximize your career.