How to manage up at work: 11 strategies to advance your career

Learning how to manage up at work is a key professional skill that serves leaders and direct reports at all levels. Showing initiative and leadership is necessary if you’re aiming to quickly advance the corporate ladder or have a good relationship with your boss. This is particularly true when you’re aiming to secure a management position.

However, striking the right balance between taking charge and being a team player can be challenging. You want to show your boss that you have confidence and ideas, but you don’t want to seem as if you’re talking down, overstepping, or being insubordinate. You want to be independent but also keep them informed. 

Navigating this balance is the key to constructively managing up, doing it effectively, and reaping the benefits.

What is managing up?

What managing up is not

Managing up covers many activities, but it’s also sometimes used as an excuse for inappropriate behavior. Here are a few examples of what managing up doesn’t involve:

• Complaining: Bringing up problems without offering any potential solutions or alternatives
• Ignoring your boss’s priorities: Focusing solely on your own tasks and goals without considering what your manager deems important
• Withholding information: Failing to communicate important updates or challenges in your work, leaving your manager uninformed and unprepared
• Being reactive vs. proactive: Waiting for your manager to tell you what to do next rather than anticipating needs, taking initiative, or asking
• Overstepping your role: Overriding your manager’s authority by giving feedback straight to their boss or by trying to micromanage them

Examples of managing up at work

Managing up is best understood through real-world examples. Here are a few ways you can practice managing up at work:

• Preparing for a meeting: Before a scheduled meeting, you compile all relevant information about current projects, including any roadblocks and resourcing needs. You then share this information with your manager to ensure they are well-prepared to address any specific questions they might receive.
• Proposing solutions: Let’s say you uncovered a recurring issue with your team’s project management workflow. You not only bring it to your manager’s attention, but you also suggest what you think is causing the problem and several viable solutions. You may also offer to take the lead on fixing it.
• Aligning with organizational and team goals: You learn about your manager’s key objectives for the quarter and prioritize your tasks to support these goals. For example, if one of their KPIs is to bring in 20 qualified leads per month, prioritize giving them campaign ideas to help them reach this goal. You can also regularly update them on your progress.
• Adapting your communication style: If your manager prefers concise emails over meetings, adjust your communication style accordingly to ensure they receive the information in their preferred format. This can make it easier for them to process and act on it.
• Offering to take on extra work when you have capacity: If you notice your manager is overwhelmed with tasks, you can manage up by proactively offering to take on additional responsibilities that align with your transferable skills. This can help lighten their workload and is an especially helpful task for managers who value acts of service as one of their love languages at work. However, it’s important not to take on more than you can realistically handle. Burning yourself out can lead to strained work relationships.

How to manage up at work: 11 tips

Managing up can look different across different roles, companies, and teams. Regardless of where you stand in your career path, you can use these 11 tips to start managing up.

1. Know what’s important to your boss and what their goals are

This is the first and probably most important piece of effectively managing up. To create a good working relationship with your manager, it’s imperative that you understand what drives them and what they value most. Ultimately, it’s part of your job to support your boss’s success and make them look like a rock star.

2. Communicate early and often 

Good communication is a critical business skill. Once you understand your manager’s goals, you can begin sharing ideas and giving them useful updates on your work. 

Whether you’ve run into a problem or have a suggestion to work more efficiently, you should communicate it early to ensure you’re OK to move forward with your recommended action. Frequent communication is also important so they never have to wonder about your progress.

3. Ask questions

Asking questions shows you care about your work and want to get things done right the first time. It’s not a sign of weakness; it’s a sign of your desire to grow. 

However, timing is critical when it comes to asking questions. You don’t want to catch your boss while they’re particularly rushed or stressed. Look for a gap in their calendar when they might have some downtime for a thorough conversation before approaching them. 

It’s always best practice to also ask if it’s a good time for them to talk before you dive in. This shows respect for their time.

A few general check-in questions you can ask to help you manage up include:

• What is your workday like? 
• What are you worried about right now? 
• What’s overwhelming you right now? 
• What could you use help with?
• How can I best support your goals?

4. Develop empathy as a leadership skill

It may be difficult to imagine feeling empathy for your boss, especially if you don’t have one of the best bosses. But like everyone else, they’re simply human. You can’t pretend to understand them or know why they make the choices they do. 

However, you can try to acknowledge their situation and empathize with the stress and constraints they face. A simple statement like, “I can imagine today must be a very stressful day for you,” can go a long way to build rapport.

5. Give early warning of potential problems

No one likes to be the bearer of bad tidings, and the last thing you want to do is go running to your boss at the first sign of trouble. But most bosses want due warning that trouble is brewing since no one likes these kinds of surprises. 

For example, a recent coaching client knew the deal she was working on would miss the deadline. She wasn’t the most senior on the team, nor was her direct boss the lead on the deal. 

She gave her boss an early heads-up, which allowed intervention at a critical point, and she gave a full debrief after the trouble was over. When you urgently need to communicate bad news, keep it short and factual, assigning as little blame as possible.

6. Anticipate their likely response

After observing your boss in action for a period of time, you likely have an idea of how they’ll respond to different situations. For example, if you have an explosive boss, you may anticipate a seemingly inevitable eruption. 

Remember that they’re likely reacting to the situation rather than to you personally. Provide them time and space to cool off, and brainstorm ways you can help contain the situation. Alternatively, if your boss needs time to think things over, provide that space before volunteering possible solutions.

7. Keep a paper trail

In a flurry of virtual notifications, actions can get lost in translation. Because of this, it’s a good idea to note everything you communicate with your boss by phone or on Zoom/Teams in a succinct email summary or project note. Written communication allows your boss to respond hours later when they have the bandwidth. 

8. Know when your boss is most responsive

Know when your boss’s prime working time is. If they’re an early riser and at their desk before official office hours, then chances are they can best respond to issues earlier in the day. 

If, on the other hand, they seem to be a night owl and send nocturnal emails, it’s probably fine to send them an email later in the day, even if you don’t get an immediate response.

Determine whether they have key focus periods marked out in their calendar for strategic work and try not to interrupt them. If they have an executive assistant, you can also check in with them to determine whether it’s a good time to engage.

9. Be a team barometer

Often, bosses are too busy to check in on how the team is feeling. If you notice that morale is low or that certain team members are burning the midnight oil, let your boss know. Advocate for how the workload could be more evenly distributed. Most bosses would rather have the heads-up than have team members quit because they were feeling overworked.

10. Take complete ownership of your work

Taking ownership of your work is an underrated workplace skill. When you can take on a new assignment and run like the wind with little instruction, it can alleviate some of your boss’s stress, knowing that you have it under control. 

Managing up also means taking accountability for your actions when you miss the mark. No one is perfect, and owning up to your mistakes can help build trust within your working relationship.

11. Ask for feedback

If your goal is to be as helpful as possible to your manager, ask for feedback. What you think is helpful and what they think is helpful may not always be one and the same. The best way to make sure you’re making their job easier is to ask if you’re on track or if there’s anything you can do better.

Asking for feedback also showcases your desire to learn and improve, which can be a huge asset to a busy boss. Chances are, they’ll appreciate you thinking of how your work can best align with theirs.

How to manage up your boss: 8 questions to ask

It’s normal to feel somewhat intimidated by the idea of managing up, particularly with a senior or difficult boss. This is the time to put on your investigative or research hat and get curious about the world from their perspective.

It sounds cliché, but the foundational question of “What’s in it for them?” will serve you well in this relationship, too. Putting yourself in your boss’s shoes and viewing the world from their perspective can help you begin to answer critical questions.

Questions to ask yourself (or your manager) to help you manage up include: 

1. What is top of mind right now?
2. How is their performance measured, and what targets need to be met this quarter?
3. What would make their job easier?
4. What keeps them awake at night?
5. How would they like to be supported?
6. What’s their definition of success?
7. What do they consider urgent versus non-urgent?
8. How would they prefer to receive feedback: in person, through an email or text, over the phone, or during a video call?

You may find key insights to some of these questions through your boss’s strengths profile. Whether it’s Gallup’s StrengthsFinder or the Enneagram Personality Test, see if your boss will share insights about their working style and preferences. This will go a long way toward understanding their behaviors and priorities.

Benefits of managing up at work

Managing up comes with lots of benefits, some of which are related to performance reviews, promotions, and other career opportunities. There are also indirect benefits related to team performance, such as keeping projects properly resourced and on schedule, enjoying better working relationships, and experiencing reduced stress.

For many employees, your personal performance reviews and ratings determine the following: 

• Your rate of progress 
• Whether you achieve an increase in salary
• Your measurement of value to the organization 
• Possible growth opportunities within the company

Your boss or supervisor is an important contributor to that rating. Learning to master managing up and showing off your soft management skills means that your own progression is more attainable.

Few people are indispensable these days. If you can build the reputation of being your boss’s go-to, your boss is more likely to have your back or bring you with them to the next big opportunity.

This isn’t about being boastful or taking advantage of someone else’s position. It’s about using your soft skills to ensure your boss knows who you are and the value you are delivering to them and the organization.

Managing up vs. managing down: what’s the difference?

Managing up and managing down are two different processes. The main difference is that managing up refers to how you interact with your superiors, while managing down is how you interact with those who report to you or are at lower levels in the organization’s hierarchy.  

While managing up involves aligning yourself with higher-level goals and strategies, managing down involves being a good manager by:

• Delegating tasks
• Providing guidance, coaching, and feedback
• Setting clear expectations
• Developing and motivating your team
• Achieving results through your direct reports

In essence, managing up is about skillfully working with and influencing your managers, while managing down is about effectively supervising and leading your subordinates. Both skills are important for success, especially in management roles where you need to navigate interactions both up and down the chain of command.

Learn how to manage up with a professional coach

Learning how to manage up can transform you from just another employee to the go-to person for tough challenges and growth opportunities. It’s a skill that also benefits your leaders and direct reports across all levels.

If you’re struggling to effectively manage up at your organization, try enlisting the help of a professional coach or career coach. They’re equipped to help employees build the skills, mindsets, and behaviors needed to reach their peak performance.

Reach new heights with a BetterUp Coach and take control of your professional growth.