Managing Upward: A Key Part Of Being A Really Useful Manager For Your People

The most important part of being a great boss is focusing on the people who work for you. Perhaps the second most important element is learning to effectively manage upward. Doing this well can be a great help to the people that work for you.

Even the CEO works for the Chair of the Board, and the Chair for the shareholders, big and small. We all work for somebody, or almost all of us do. When you talk to entrepreneurs they speak about the incredible power of customers, their banker and suppliers. For our own careers, but even more for those we manage, the ability to manage upward well can be a considerable help to them reaching their annual objectives and advancing their careers.

Based on my own experience as a manager at IBM and Hitachi and what the latest academic research says, I would like to share with you four key practical principles of managing upward. A great starting point is a quote from Liz Simpson in a Harvard Business School Management Update, “The goal of managing upward up is not to curry favor… it’s about being more effective.” My McGill colleague, management great, Henry Mintzberg, talks about hating people that, “kiss upward and kick downward.” 

Read full article: Forbes, 24 March, 2016