Managing Up
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Managing Up: Three Practical Ways to Work More Effectively with Your Leader
Managing up is a huge topic. There are dozens of ways to approach it, and every leader is different. But if someone asked for a simple place to start, here are a few approaches that I think consistently make the biggest difference.
At its core, managing up is about building a productive relationship with your leader so you can influence decisions, communicate effectively, and get better results from whatever you’re trying to accomplish. The ideas below are practical starting points that I think work across many different leadership styles and environments.
1. Learn their “currency.”
Every leader has things that they value and care about most. Think of this as their currency. Learn to speak that language.
“Every leader has things that they value and care about most. Think of this as their currency. Learn to speak that language.”
Some leaders care deeply about metrics and data. Others focus on efficiency and results. Some prioritize communication, while others care most about strong relationships across the team.
Understanding this matters because it helps to shape how you communicate with them and how your work is perceived.
If your leader cares about numbers, show the metrics behind your progress. If they value efficiency, highlight how your work saves time or reduces friction. If relationships matter most to them, emphasize how an initiative improves collaboration or team morale.
Speaking your leader’s language builds trust. It also helps them see you as someone who understands what matters to the business and can connect your work to those priorities.
If you’re not sure what your leader’s currency is, a one-on-one conversation is a great place to explore it. Ask what they pay the most attention to when evaluating success, or what outcomes they care about most when projects are done successfully.
These insights help you frame conversations in a way that resonates with them.
2. Understand what makes each other tick.
Gain clarity about how both of you work best.
This can be surprisingly powerful. Many misunderstandings between employees and managers happen simply because expectations and preferences were never discussed.
“Many misunderstandings between employees and managers happen simply because expectations and preferences were never discussed.”
A helpful exercise is to exchange answers to a few key questions with your leader. Ideally, you should know how they would answer these questions, and big help if they know how you would answer them too.
Some useful ones I like most:
How do you prefer to receive feedback?
When is the best time or situation for someone to bring you ideas or input?
What’s the best way to approach you with difficult feedback?
What causes someone to earn a “gold star” from you?
What are your biggest pet peeves on a team?
What’s something people often misunderstand about you in general or as a leader? What’s actually true instead?
What do you value most in a team member?
What motivates you and gets you excited about your work or a project?
These conversations create a much clearer understanding of expectations and working styles.
They also make you more effective when presenting ideas or solutions. When you understand how your leader thinks, what they prioritize, and how they evaluate decisions, you can anticipate the questions they’re likely to ask and the concerns they’re likely to raise.
That preparation makes you look thoughtful, proactive, and two steps ahead.
Over time, this goes a long way to build the kind of trust where your ideas and feedback carry more weight.
3. Ask questions first before offering solutions.
One of the most effective ways to influence a leader is surprisingly simple: ask questions first.
It’s easy to walk into a conversation with a fully formed solution and a strong opinion about what should happen next. But if you don’t understand your leader’s perspective yet, that approach can backfire.
A better starting point is curiosity.
“One of the most effective ways to influence a leader is surprisingly simple: ask questions first.”
For example, imagine a company that’s experiencing high turnover, low morale, and silos and friction between departments. And there is an HR leader who wants the CEO to prioritize initiatives that improve company culture. However, the challenge is that their leader perceives the concept of “culture” as fluffy and unimportant.
Instead of leading with a culture initiative, the conversation might begin with something more concrete:
Turnover is costly and high. Interpersonal conflicts are slowing teams down. And communication breakdowns between departments are causing mistakes and affecting customer experience and satisfaction.
Those issues are expensive and disruptive.
Rather than presenting a full proposal immediately focused on culture, it may be smarter for the HR leader to go in and start by asking questions:
How big of a problem is this to you?
What do you think is driving it?
Before I share any ideas, do you a concept of how we should address or improve it?
This approach does two things. First, it gives them insight on how the leader actually views the problem. Second, it gives them a glimpse into the outcomes the CEO cares about most.
Once they understand their perspective, the HR leader can frame solutions in terms and language that resonate with them.
If they care about turnover but dislike talking about culture, they can focus the conversation on retention strategies, team communication improvements, or better management practices. Those efforts may strengthen culture, but the HR leader doesn’t need to talk about culture, they can just present the ideas in the currency that leader values.
That framing makes your ideas easier to accept and more likely to be acted on.
A strong foundation for managing up.
Managing up is never a perfect science. The effectiveness of any approach to it depends on a leader’s self-awareness, eq, openness to feedback, and ego.
But these three practices create a strong foundation:
“Managing up is never a perfect science. The effectiveness of any approach to it depends on a leader’s self-awareness, eq, openness to feedback, and ego.”
Understand what your leader values most
Build mutual clarity about how you work together
Know when to lead with questions before pushing solutions
When those elements are in place, conversations become more productive, trust grows faster, and your ability to influence decisions improves significantly.
That’s the real goal of managing up: building a relationship with your leader that makes both of you more effective.
Related Blogs:
Feedback as a Relationship Dynamic
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This article was created by Galen Emanuele for the #culturedrop. Free leadership and team culture content in less than 5 minutes a week. Check out the rest of this month's content and subscribe to the Culture Drop at https://bit.ly/culturedrop
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