Let’s start with what it isn’t.
It isn’t kissing up. That’s a short term, self-serving and cheap strategy for connecting and getting something you want. Whatever you get from that, you won’t want for very long.
Managing up is part study, part interaction, part application.
It means being smart, knowledgeable, in tune with your organizational leader and leaders. Studying them, understanding and shaping your own leader identity around what you see work and not work.
It’s growing yourself as a leader, and ‘joining’ your leader in a way that is good for the work, for the leader and for the enterprise.
It’s listening to your leader when she speaks. Understanding her priorities and how they line up to organizational priorities, and how your work is present in that. It’s working hard to deliver on your piece of the work.
And, most importantly, it’s understanding HOW your leader works, and experimenting with HOW to work in ways that feed her capability to deliver on her goals, that make her look good.
Let’s connect.
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