Jill: An Expert at Managing Up
Let me tell you about my former coworker, Jill. I hired her as a consumer insights & strategy intern years ago. During her internship she did some truly fantastic work – a comprehensive study, helped with an offsite, and brought a fresh perspective.
But beyond all that, Jill was busy at work not just building surveys or handling logistics. She was meeting with people: coffee, lunch, and quick touch-bases. She even booked time with our CEO. She would bring two sheets of paper – one with her project scope, and another with questions for the person she was meeting with. Each meeting was meaningful and every person left the meeting with a little more pep in their step, as they felt they had contributed to her project and career.
By the time her internship was over she must have met with 100+ people. Everyone knew Jill. And when it came time to decide if she should get a full-time job, even though I didn’t have an open role, I was able to easily get the backing of the leadership team to create one.
Jill managed up.
Jill managed up so well that when I left my company she took over my role.
Here’s how to do it.
Managing Up is Not Being a Teacher’s Pet
Many people think “managing up” is being some sort of teacher’s pet or playing office politics. It’s not.
If anything, it is the kissing cousin of pre-wiring, the art of getting stakeholder buy-in. It involves the essential art of creating alignment while also moving your career forward.
Teacher’s pets pester, raise their hand for everything, and are know-it-alls.
People who manage up do meaningful work, share it tactfully, and ask fantastic questions.
Big difference!
One overlooked skill in business is the ability to contribute meaningfully outside of your role. Many people work in silos and get their jobs done. If you’re someone who manages up, you’re able to see the greater picture of your work and have it be used more widely in your organization. Next we’ll cover how to do this.
Tactical Tips for Managing Up
Many people don’t know where to start or how to evaluate if they’re managing up correctly. Here’s 5 tactical pieces you can start/continue doing:
- Set Up Skip-Level Meetings. A skip-level meeting is a meeting with your boss’ boss. It gives you an opportunity to get input into what you’re working on, get career tutelage from them, and give you greater company exposure. I generally recommend to make this monthly or bi-monthly and to prepare an agenda beforehand. You should genuinely be seeking mentorship, not just catching up or sharing a progress report.
- Meet with Your CEO. Yes, that’s right. Set up a meeting with him or her. Most CEOs dedicate a portion of their time to culture + have become CEOs because they are wonderful managers. This is similar to a skip-level, but you should have a specific topic where it requires you to meet with them. For example, it could be about a new category to enter, offering to help with a company standup, or something that the CEO might be otherwise interested in. This gives you exposure while adding value.
- Be the Most Prepared Person. One of the most underestimated skillsets is to be prepared. I try to have something unique to share or an insight in every meeting I attend. People who manage up add value in every meeting or project they participate in. That gets them invited to more meetings. If you’re consistently the lowest person in seniority in your meetings then you know you are doing something right.
- Work Beyond Your Role. When I first started my career I would raise my hand for everything. It signed me up for some extra nights and weekends (since I still had my day job to do still), but it also led to working on an new business team that would draft proposals for clients. I would be working side by side with my company’s managing partners, and even ended up presenting in the largest pitch my agency had ever done as a junior employee. This face time and real working relationships did wonders for my career.
- Network within Your Company. Like Jill at the beginning of this article, you can broaden your network within your own company. Set up coffee chats with people you would never otherwise meet in your day-to-day. Working at General Mills I did this daily and was blown away at how much better my projects became with input from people from across the company. Breaking down barriers and working more cross-functionally will lift your career.
Managing Up Can Be Difficult
Austin and I spent some time discussing a quote from a former manager, who said:
“It’s hard to push a rope uphill.”
You may have to read it a few times to get it; and once you do this should become sticky as you think through managing up.
As a leader, it’s easy to drop a rope and pull people up.
As an employee, it’s incredibly difficult to push a rope up.
Your agenda just doesn’t matter as much to people above you. Managing up, while it may seem easy as described in this article, is nuanced and tricky.
As a leader in my company I feel the weight of the company on my shoulders and am working through big, complex issues, and when an employee is trying to push their agenda/career it can sometimes be frustrating.
Our advice is when you’re managing up, be helpful and sincere, and when you’re in a leadership position let down the rope and help others climb it.
Conclusion
Managing up helps accelerate your career through getting exposure to senior leaders, broader company problems, and learning how to work better with others. If you effectively manage up your career can be accelerated through either faster promotions or new opportunities (e.g., if your extracurricular project grows into something meaningful you may be asked to lead it).
Also remember the five tips and choose one to try this week:
- Set up skip level meetings
- Meet with your CEO
- Be the most prepared person
- Work beyond your role
- Network within your company
Managing up will invariably enrich your career. And please remember, when you’re the CEO of a company one day you should lower the rope and help others.
