Managing upwards well is so important. Having a good relationship with your boss improves your happiness at work, your engagement, increases what you learn and speeds up your career progress. Who doesn’t want all these outcomes?

 Learn 6 critical tips for managing upwards brilliantly during your one-on-one meetings with your manager.

Your one-on-one meetings with your boss are your most important meetings for your happiness at work and your career progress. I am sharing tips to help you get better at managing upwards at work and make better use of your one on one meetings with your manager.

 First you have to encourage your boss to want to have one-to-one meetings with you. Always position the meetings in terms of how what you share helps your manager hit their goals (and/or the team goals). I share 8 key outcomes that every manager and business want so you can link your work to these when in your 121 meetings.

 Managing upwards brilliantly starts with managing your boss expectations. Ask questions to find out exactly what your manager expects from you. You need to understand what deliverables you need to produce and the context of these too. I share examples of questions you can ask to help you achieve this. 

 Next when managing upwards at work, focus on building a strong and productive relationship with your boss. Focus on the personal side of the relationship as much as the professional side in you 1:1 meetings. We help and support people we like more than those we don’t.

 When managing your boss, you have to work at getting your proactive communication right. Work out how your manager likes to be communicated to. Be direct, concise and get to the heart of the matter quickly – your boss is time poor. 

 When thinking about how to manage your boss effectively always bring a least one viable solution with every problem you spot. This is huge in terms of helping your manager, winning serious appreciation and one of my key managing upwards tips.

 Finally, to keep your boss really happy with you, talk about the positives. Every manager wants to get positive feedback. Use this to actively look for opportunities to genuinely and honestly praise your manager. You can influence behaviour very effectively with positive reinforcement. 

 Managing upwards at work, managing your manager and building strong relationships is an art. These tips will help you manage upwards brilliantly. 

 Jess

Enhance.training