How effectively do you "manage up"? - SmartBrief

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How effectively do you “manage up”?

SmartPulse -- our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership -- tracks feedback from more than 210,000 business leaders. How effectively do you "manage up"?

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Leadership

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SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 210,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our e-newsletter.

How effectively do you “manage up”?

  • Very — I lead my superiors just as effectively as I lead my teams: 29%
  • Kind of — There are times I don’t do it as well as I should: 55%
  • Not very — I find it difficult to lead and manage my leaders: 14% 
  • Not at all — I’m always the one being managed: 2%

Managing Up Takes Effort. It’s just as important to manage up as it is to manage your team. Investing the time in keeping your leader informed, setting expectations, and communicating what’s going on goes a long way toward building a productive relationship with your boss and other key stakeholders. The three keys to managing up – setting expectations, asking for help, and knowing their “update frequency” – will help you build trust between you and your boss and get them engaged in your work in more meaningful ways.

Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS and the host of the upcoming Executive Insight 16 — a leadership conference being held in New York this November