Managing Up

Adventures in Businessing: Entrepreneurship, Small Business, and a Healthy Dose of Humor

Show Notes

• [0:00:00] Episode Summary | Intro

• Jeremy tries out new greetings…
• • And also recommends everyone watch Guga Foods.

• [0:02:16] Managing Up & Why it Works

• Challenging...and comes with many landmines.
• • Do it right and your life is easier.
  • Do it poorly and it could make your work and culture really suffer.
• You can’t control whether someone is a good or bad manager, but you can put your best foot forward.
• • You have very real restrictions in how you can deal with a manager, and how you interact with them.
• Managers aren’t perfect, and are oftentimes someone who was in a similar role to you, but was good enough at their job to be moved up (sometimes against their will or desired growth path).
• • This however does not mean that they’ll inherently be a good manager.
• Rarely is a manager ever actually ‘out to get you’, but poor communication and misunderstandings can make it feel like the opposite.
• • Over communicate.
  • • Don’t assume you’re on the same page and that you have the same goals or high level view of the work and tasks at hand.

• [0:09:55] Healthy Ways to Communicate

• Force Clarity
• Ask Questions
• • Also ask good questions. ;)
• Understand How You’ll be Measured
• • How will you know you’ve done a good job?
  • How do you know when you’re excelling or falling behind expectations?
  • • Try to avoid unwritten/undiscussed expectations from both parties.
  • Share what success looks like to you.
  • • Make efforts to humanize yourself and your manager by finding that common ground.
  • Don’t be afraid to negotiate priorities when you’ve developed a good rapport with your manager.
• Recurring check-ins are great refreshers and reminders of what’s on your plate.
• • Which helps measuring workload.

• [0:19:57] Be to Solution...with caveats.

• Figure out ways to remove stress and not be the source of stress for your manager.
• If you bring an issue to your manager, attempt to bring a solution, or a series of solutions.
• • When you come with a solution you give your manager options, which provides the potential for them to lead well.
  • • You also shape how you’re known. You can be known as the person for solutions, or for problems.
    • • You have to decide which you want to be known for. (This all assuming you don’t work for, or belong to, a toxic culture.)
• Some situations can be fixed.
• • But you might be able to course correct and salvage what’s there.
  • If you can’t manage up, it might be time to think about transitioning out.

• [0:26:15] Parting Words

• Just like peer relationships, managing up is never done.
• • It’s an ongoing process, and it’s an uneven relationship with a “balance of power” to keep in mind to make sure you’re handling that relationship in a productive manner.

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