Managing up meaning: how to work with your boss
Managing up means managing your relationship with your own manager. You learn how they like to work and keep them informed, so it's easy for them to back you. Done well, it's good sense. Do it badly and you're flattering your boss on a schedule.
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Send Ines the summary before she asks, Rohan. That's half of managing up.
What did they mean?
Filed under M and N jargon.
What managing up means
Managing up meaning: the relationship you build
To manage up is to work in a way that helps your manager do their job well, so they can back your work. Most of that relationship is admin, like knowing that your manager reads email at 7 and decides things in the hallway.
Where the idea comes from
John Gabarro and John Kotter set out an early version of the idea in 1980, in a business journal article called “Managing Your Boss”. Their point was that you should build the relationship with your boss on purpose.
The article was republished in 2005. Today the same idea is called managing up, and in the UK also managing upwards.
Managing up and managing down
When you manage down, you direct your own team. Managing up goes the other way, toward your own manager. You can’t give your manager orders, so you work with what you tell them and when.
What managing up looks like
Examples you can use this week
Most managing up is small habits:
- Learn the format. Use three bullets or a call, whichever your manager pays attention to.
- Update before you’re asked. A note on Thursday morning saves you three “any news” messages.
- Bring options and your pick. “Two ways to fix it, and I’d go with the second.” Your manager only has to say yes.
- Flag risks early. A risk raised in week one goes into the plan. In week six, it comes with an apology.
- Ask what they’re judged on. Your manager’s targets decide what lands on your desk.
- Agree on the order. When everything is urgent, ask which thing goes first.
The information gap
Managing up deals with two common complaints at work. You go and get the information you need, and you make your work visible before review time.
| UK employees annoyed when | Share |
|---|---|
| They don’t have the information they need | 56% |
| Nobody credits their work | 39% |
Managing up in a one-on-one
Your weekly meeting with your manager is where most managing up happens. Bring three short lists. Two cover what’s done and what’s stuck, and the third is what your manager needs to decide. If the meeting keeps getting canceled, move it instead of dropping it.
A lunch and learn invite
Subject: Lunch and learn: Managing up, Thursday 12:30
Bring your lunch and a manager you’d like to understand better. In 45 minutes we’ll cover
managing uphandling your boss, the weekly update, and how to disagree in writing without starting a thread. Pizza for the first 20.
When managing up goes wrong
Flattery, politics and the brown-nose line
Managing up crosses the brown-nose line into flattery when the work stops improving. Agreeing with every idea in public and forwarding the CEO’s posts with “great insight” is managing your image. Coworkers notice fast. Taking your wins over your manager’s head, straight to their boss, is politics.
Managing a difficult boss
A manager who checks every step is practicing micromanagement. The practical fix is to offer a weekly update at a set time in return for room to work.
When the relationship has broken down, your HRBP is worth a conversation. If your check-ins start coming with written notes, learn what a PIP is before you’re handed one.
When managing up becomes the job
In some roles, such as chief of staff, the main output is a manager who looks prepared. It’s a real skill, and a hard one to put on a resume. You can practice describing it in the Self-Review game, where you pick lines for your own review.
Of the boss terms in our glossary of corporate jargon, managing up is the only one that describes something worth doing.
Managing up in a sentence
Send Ines the summary before she asks, Rohan. That's half of managing up.
Your review says to work on managing up, Siobhan. Your director never knows what you've done.
Kenji wants the budget moved, so he's managing up: one chart a week until the VP thinks it's her idea.
The graduate course has a whole module on managing up, Chidi, and none on managing workload.
Questions about managing up
What is another term for managing up?
Managing your boss is the older name for managing up. The form managing upwards is also used in the UK. People also say upward management, or working well with your manager.
What's the difference between managing up and managing down?
Managing down is the usual kind, where you run the work of the people who report to you. Managing up is the reverse. It shapes how you work with the person you report to.
What are some examples of managing up?
Sending the update before your manager asks is managing up, and so is bringing two options and your pick with every problem. Flagging a risk in week one, instead of week six, is another.
Is managing up the same as sucking up?
No. Managing up makes the work go better for you, your manager and the team. Sucking up makes you look better to your manager, whatever happens to the work.
How do you manage up at work?
To manage up, first learn how your manager works: the format they read, when they decide and what they're judged on. Then change what you do to fit. Your weekly one-on-one is where most of it happens.