Understand your manager’s goals:
Managing up is about working for the benefit of your manager
and yourself, making their life, and in turn, yours
easier.
Determine what each of the stakeholders
around you need. What are their agendas?
How are you meeting those needs through your work?
If you don’t know the answer, set up a meeting to
get crystal clear on what’s expected of you to better
understand how you can positively impact overall
business success.
Understand your manager’s preferred communication
style: When it comes to creating a positive
relationship with your manager, it’s important to
understand how they best operate.
Do they prefer to communicate via email, text or in person?
Do they make decisions based on data or do they rely
on their intuition? How often do they want updates?
The more you can understand your manager’s
preferences and adapt the way you communicate
to suit their style, the more likely you are to get a
positive response from them.
Be proactive: Nobody likes to be caught off-guard
by unwanted surprises, so develop the skill of anticipating
problems and your manager’s needs.
Come up with proposed solutions.
This shows initiative and will make you an invaluable asset.
Own your mistakes: Be willing to own your
mistakes when things don’t go to plan.
The worst thing you can do is try to avoid it or cover it up.
Rather be humble, admit what went wrong and
offer a solution for how you can correct for the
mistake in future.
Give consistent and regular updates: Keep your
manager in the loop by giving them regular updates.
A practical tool is to send a weekly email to your
manager on a Friday afternoon that clarifies what
you’ve been working on, your priorities for the
next week and any challenges you’re experiencing.
- Adapted from ‘Women Rising’ by Megan
Dalla-Camina.
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