Managing Up: Building a Productive Partnership with Your Manager
Managing up is more than just aiming to impress your supervisors; it’s about creating a relationship that benefits both you, your manager, and the organization. By understanding your manager’s priorities, communication style and expectations, you can align your efforts to support their goals, and at the same time advance your own career. In this blog, I’ll share practical strategies and techniques to help you in this important aspect of professional development.
Creating a Stronger Working Relationship
You might have heard the advice “you have one career – it's up to you to manage it.” As an up-and-coming career professional, this statement may prompt different reactions, such as “my GIS talent will speak for itself,” or “my company should provide a clear path and support for me to grow my career.” While these points may be valid, it is also important to recognize that career development is not solely the organization's responsibility.
Employees can benefit from taking a broader perspective on bringing their best selves to work and actively contributing to a productive working relationship with their supervisor.
The practice of ‘managing up’ might be a bit of a paradigm shift, so it’s worth highlighting what it does not entail:
- Trying to fix a bad manager or wishing you had a different boss
- Bypassing or working around them to avoid conflict
- Manipulating them to get your way with excessive flattery
Instead, managing up is about:
- Being the most effective employee you can be
- Developing a positive and productive relationship with your manager
- Learning and adapting to their communication and working styles
- Understanding what your manager wants to achieve for themselves, and the organization
Real World Examples of Managing Up
Let’s look at some examples of what managing up can look like in practice. I’ve been a direct manager of a team at Esri for several years, and of course I have my own direct manager. These examples draw on recent experiences that highlight how managing up can be quite simple:
- Example1: A new employee approached me about scheduling regular 1-on-1 meetings to help them assess how well they were progressing against their onboarding goals. They came to me with a clear agenda and suggested an early morning meeting time, as they had noticed I usually arrive early and have free time then.
- Example 2: A team member who is quite comfortable and capable in their role was responsible for a large customer project. I had no doubt they could handle it, and they didn’t need my help directly. However, they knew that I would be asked for status updates by our division director due to the significance of the project, so they regularly provided me with the latest details, keeping things brief but informative.
- Example 3: My manager recently mentioned in a team meeting a project that was a priority for him in 2025 – something I knew very little about, but was interested in. I followed up with him the next week, expressing my interest in learning more and discussing ways I could potentially assist.
You might notice a theme in these examples – communication.
Understand Communication Style
Critical to managing up is understanding your manager’s preferred communication style.
- Do they prefer emails, phone calls, or in-person conversations?
- Do they get right to the point, or chat more casually first?
- Do they like meetings in the mornings or afternoons?
Learning these preferences can be as simple as asking.
Another conversation to initiate would be to ask what matters most to your manager.;
- How does their boss measure or view their success?
- What are their short- and long-term priorities?
These things don’t necessarily become your responsibilities but may create opportunities to align your work and have greater impact in your role.
Speaking from experience, this makes such an impact. Recently, I was working on the critical and time-sensitive task of identifying our team’s goals for 2025. A colleague, familiar with the process, knew of my impending deadline and, unprompted, gathered the necessary data to help with the goal setting. Although this task likely required less than an hour of their time, it had a significant impact and was greatly appreciated.
The Quality Most Managers Value
When I polled my colleagues (other managers at Esri) about what aspect of managing up was the most meaningful to them, this is the point they echoed – an employee who takes initiative to help progress against a common goal is invaluable, which leads to a final suggestion.
Most employees view their manager as a problem-solver, someone they can turn to when they need help or assistance. However, please don’t treat your manager as a complaint box – if you see a problem or have a concern, by all means raise it. But before you do – think through your ideas for a potential solution. It might sound like this: “I’ve noticed that our team is struggling to meet deadlines. I think it might help if you shared a weekly post reminding everyone of critical project dates.” Anyone can point out problems – but a good employee will bring a solution, and your manager will thank you!
In summary, managing up isn’t just about keeping your boss happy – it’s about thinking about how you can create a work environment where both you and your manager can shine. Start looking at things from their perspective, figure out how they like to communicate and what they truly care about; then, align your efforts with their goals which strengthens your relationship with your manager, and boosts the success of your whole team. Managing up is all about fostering a collaborative partnership that allows everyone to thrive and succeed together.
