This resource first appeared in issue #102 on 27 Nov 2021
and has tags Strategy: Working with Decision Makers, Strategy: Managing Up
Managing Up - Lessons From Scaling Teams at Credit Karma and Lyft - Matt Greenberg, Valerie Wagoner, Dor Levi, Anne Lewandowski
Managing upwards isn’t that different from managing our own team members; and it’s very similar to managing relationships with peers and external stakeholders like collaborators, situations where we also lack the ability to be directive.
Greenberg, Wagoner, Levi, and Lewandowski suggest focussing on three areas:
- Aligning your and their goals — making sure you understand their goals so can find areas that align;
- Developing a strong relationship, and having an empathetic approach to working together — ask lots of questions and don’t make assumptions; and
- Presenting your problems in a way that makes helping easy for them — concisely present the context need, frame the request in a way where it’s clear what they need to do, ask for something immediately doable in the short term, or ask for help getting the problem so well defined that this would be possible.
They also talk about three common failure modes that can cause problems when working with your boss, in the short and long term
- When you don’t realize you’re missing context: so keep asking questions and be aware of your assumptions
- When your timing is off (possibly because of the above lack of context, or just because of mis-prioritization): so keep staying aligned on goals
- When your delivery of a solution or problem is off compared to what they want to hear, perhaps souring your manager on a perfectly good idea: so tailor your communications to the audience (especially around use of data, level of detail, and communications style)
