From the course: Managing Up as an Employee

What do we mean by "managing up"?

From the course: Managing Up as an Employee

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What do we mean by "managing up"?

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- Before we talk about what managing up is, let's be really clear about what it isn't. Contrary to some misguided notions out there, managing up is not about sucking up. It is not about being a sycophant and it's not about being somebody's patsy. Managing up is about relationship management. It's about managing one of your most important workplace relationships. The one that you have with your boss and those above you in the food chain, regardless of whether you are co-located in the same physical space or working remotely. Managing up means consciously and deliberately developing a productive and positive working relationship with your boss, so that you can obtain the best possible results for you, for them and for the organization. It's really a (indistinct). It's about using adaptive strategies so that you can really work well with the people who manage you. It's not about changing who your boss is and it's not about changing who you are. It's about changing how you interact with somebody who may work differently than you, with a different personality, a different perspective, and definitely a different level of power. When we learn to manage up, when we learn to work with people who work differently than us, even when they are difficult, we take control of our career. We take control of our workplace experience. We take control of our relationships and our ability to succeed, when we learn to manage up.

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