How to manage your boss

When someone tells you that you need to "manage up," what he or she is really saying is that you need to stretch yourself. You need to go above and beyond the tasks assigned to you so that you can enhance your manager's work, says Rosanne Badowski, co-author of "Managing Up: How to Forge an Effective Relationship With Those Above You."

"Doing what you can to make your manager's job easier will not only help them do their job, but you will be considered a valuable asset to your manager and to your organization," she says. "You want to be described as indispensable." By mastering the "managing up" concept, you can help others recognize your value within the organization. "It will give you an advantage when you are being considered for greater job responsibilities," says Ms. Badowski. "It will help in your career advancement, and it gives you an edge over the competition when you are being considered for promotions."

When it comes to managing up. getting to know one's manager – and his or her style is the key. "If you and your manager seem to be speaking two different languages, then the problem may be that you are not leaning into that person's style," says Ms. Edwards. "An analytical [type boss] will take exception to someone who presents an idea without data to support it. A people person will be offended in the absence of regular communication." Knowing your manager's style -- and adjusting your own to meet it -- will help you manage up, she says.

There are plenty of other easy steps you can take to become adept at managing up. Important ones include: paying attention; jumping in when needed; maintaining a good attitude no matter what; doing quality work; keeping your boss informed; building relationships, trust and an information network; staying out of politics; learning the art of selling and negotiation as well as the company's rules; and being a good follower when the situation dictates it.

With today's shaky economy, learning to manage up is more important than ever. "You want to stand out," says Ms. Badowski. "In this age of possible cutbacks in employment or reductions in work, you want to be categorized by management and your company as someone too valuable to lose."

What I like about "MYBLG" (Make Your Boss Look Good) is that it is the mirror image of the marketing mantra about knowing the customer's customer. Understanding the boss is vital. But researching, knowing, respecting and appreciating the boss's boss ought to give valuable insight into what makes your boss effective — and frustrated. That shapes how to better position your boss in the mind of his boss.

In other words, if you saw your boss as a brand, how would you sell him to your boss's boss — the customer? Indeed, if your organization is matrixed, how do you make your boss's bosses look good? Answering these questions well requires market research. Accomplishing tasks in a manner that simultaneously enables the boss to look good to his boss and peers is an interesting design problem. Disciplined thinking about what tools and technologies help ensure that turns out to be a good investment.

In my own advisory work, I've found myself more conscious and self-aware about the marketplace of internal perceptions at a client. It's not enough to solve the client's problem as quickly and as cost-effectively as possible. It's important to solve the problem in a way that also helps the client look good to his colleagues and his bosses. I've seen technical consultants solve expensive and important problems in a manner that revealed how foolish the client really was. Similarly, I've seen subordinates make themselves look really good to their boss's boss at their boss's expense. That tends not to end well.

It's undeniably true that you might have a boss who is almost impossible to make look good. Or that it would test the outer limits of your creativity and authenticity to do so.

But give it a try. Think of it as a marketing challenge: What are the two things you could do in the next three days that would make your boss look better to their boss? And, as you look around the organization, ask yourself: Which of your colleagues or subordinates are using techniques or technologies to make you look better to your boss?

1. Understand what your boss' goals are (i.e. "get ahead" or "stay put") and how your objectives differ. How might your boss perceive you as a threat? Use that knowledge to keep from stepping on toes.
2. Show your boss how you will support him or her. Focus on helping with the tasks your boss is weakest at, while being careful not to criticize.
3. Head off confrontations. Just because your boss sent you 20 emails on your vacation doesn't mean you need to respond while water skiing. Take a breath and when you write back, keep it professional.
4. Document your job requirements. Listing all the projects and tasks expected of you will help minimize the amount of "and one more thing" e-mails. And if you boss continues to come up with stuff to do, you at least have the documentation to support the need for more staff.
5. Keep your goals secondary until (and if ever) you can win your boss' trust.

Do this and you might win over your boss to help support your career path. He still won't care about you, but it will be more valuable to him to help than crush your will to work.

How to Influence Up

Few managers who seek to influence upward have the resources to make a motion picture, but many managers have the cleverness and street smarts to craft an argument to win their cases. Critical to developing a strong case is first and foremost to frame your argument according to the business case: why is it good sense for the organization to pursue your idea? Without a foundation based on either improving or saving the business, your idea has no chance; with it, you can begin.

To build upon your business case, you must frame your argument, in effect your sales pitch, in ways which appeal to the person with authority. Here's how.

1. Adopt your boss' point of view. Marshall Goldsmith taught me that if you want to influence the CEO then you need to see the world as he or she sees it. CEOs take a corporate-wide view of performance, of course, but each of them has hot button issues around products and services, employee morale, or their legacies. If you have a boss who's a cost-cutter, frame your pitch as a means of cutting costs, or at least reducing expenses. Likewise if you have a boss who is focused on customer issues — frame your pitch as a way to improve customer service or product benefits. The angle of your pitch depends upon the boss' interest.
2. Paint a picture. We saw how movies affected Reagan. Consider how your boss likes information. It may a straightforward spreadsheet or a narrative business plan. Do what makes sense but don't stop there. If your idea is big and bold, make it so by producing a video or using photographs. These options are effective when demonstrating customer concerns. A video of a customer expressing a desire or a concern about a product improvement or deficiency can be a powerful persuasive tool. If your initiative is about an internal improvement, interview end-users who will benefit from the adoption of your idea.
3. Make it come alive. When Eleanor Roosevelt was being courted by Franklin, she took him to the Lower East Side of New York City where she was doing relief work with the poor, chiefly immigrants. Taking the patrician Franklin in and out of decaying tenements opened his eyes to the fact that there was real poverty in the world. So to make your case, take your boss to the heart of the action. For example, if you are pushing for an improvement on the factory floor, bring him to the line and show him what you intend to do. Or if you want to demonstrate a customer need, invite the boss to a focus group with customers. There is nothing like real world examples to demonstrate your argument.

These steps to make your argument come alive do work, but they need something else — your credibility. If you want to lead up, you need to be perceived as competent. Therefore, it is more difficult to sell upward if you are brand new to your job, unless you were hired to do so (that is, shake things up with new ideas). Credibility is earned through example, especially by doing your job well over a period of time. Also, critical for those who manage in the middle, credibility is enhanced by the ability to collaborate with peers.

Pitching ideas upward and acting on them is essential to the process of leading up, which by nature is something that demands an ability to balance the big picture of what the organization needs with the day-to-day reality of what you do. When selling an idea to your superiors, even to the CEO, it is important to believe in your ability to effect positive change. Transformation may be sanctioned from on high, but it is men and women in the middle who make it become reality, and that is a persuasive case in itself.

There are two types of bosses I now classify as "diminishers", who get less than 50% of the capability of people around them, and "multipliers" who get virtually 100%.

While you might not be able to transform your diminisher boss into a multiplier, you certainly can change the dynamic of the relationship. The secret is to multiply up.

Most corporate managers are multipliers "down" to their direct reports and staff, but not out to their peers or up to their bosses. Yet, my research has shown that people can serve as multipliers from any direction, even to a diminisher. Here's why: Diminishers want to be valued for their intelligence and ideas; in fact, many are overly fixated on this. Multipliers find other people's genius and engage it.

So, instead of trying to change your boss, focus on trying to better utilize your boss. Here are two ways to be a multiplier to your manager and thrive, not just survive.

Exploit your boss's strength. Tap into his or her knowledge and skills in service of the work you're leading. You don't need to cede ownership, just use his or her capabilities at key junctures. If she has a critical eye, could you use her to help diagnose an underlying problem in a project? Or, if he's a big-picture thinker, could you have him share his vision to help win over a key customer? Ron, a senior executive widely regarded for his own creative genius, was asked to build a new, highly strategic business for Apple. He could have let Steve Jobs, the company's notoriously hands-on CEO, dictate the details of the project, or he could have tried to keep Jobs out of the process as much as possible. Instead, Ron sought out his insights at critical development points. He took the product design to Jobs and openly asked, "How can we make this even better?" Jobs responded not with criticism, but by rattling off numerous ideas for how good features could become great. Ron allowed his team to do their best work without interference, then used the strengths of his boss to take it to the next level. Even if you don't work for a genius like Steve Jobs, you can do the same.

Listen to learn. A common mistake people make in interacting with diminisher bosses is dismissing their criticism too easily. In my years in senior management at Oracle, I watched numerous people present to Larry Ellison, the company's brilliant and often mercurial CEO. Those who struggled (and barely survived) got into intellectual standoffs with him. Those who thrived shared their ideas with confidence, backed them up with data, but then stopped to really listen to Larry's reactions. They didn't do this to placate him or merely to find a better angle for selling their idea. They listened to learn. One of Larry's executive staff said, "Too many people don't take the opportunity to really see what Larry can teach them." If you are stuck working for a diminisher, you can change the dynamic by figuring out how he or she can still help you succeed.