Management in Reverse

I was recently requested by a client to talk with a group of 25 leaders about the concept of “Managing Up.” Much of what is written on this topic is to help or guide employees to manage their boss. So I wanted to help these leaders prepare themselves to be “managed up” by their staff.\n

Leaders should do some reflection on the best way to approached by their employees. They should also try and walk in an employee’s shoes and try and understand where he or she may be coming from. The more they understand about their employee the more open they will be to being “managed” or influenced by him or her.

\nHow can a leader make it easy for employees to “Manage Up”?\n

share as much about yourself as possible so they can understand your motivations and match them,

make sure they know your strengths and weaknesses so they can constructively work with them,

listen to their ideas and support them in developing them,

tell them your objectives so they can meet them,

be clear on when a good time to approach you and when to step back.

\nTo do this leaders need\n

to have good communication skills,

to be able to act with emotional maturity,

to be a good strategic thinker

to be pro-active, rather than reactive,

to be positive and constructive,

to have the capacity to build trusting relationships,

to have self-awareness and know yourself and how you are coming across to others.

\nOf course, all these skills can be used to benefit your clients as well.\n\nRemember that research strongly indicates that people join organizations, but leave managers. Be the kind of leader that motivates and inspires and people will stay with you.