Managing up is one of the most misunderstood skills in leadership. It is not about flattery, politics, or telling your boss what they want to hear. It is about building a productive working relationship with the person above you so that your team gets the support, resources, and air cover it needs to do great work. Every effective manager learns, sooner or later, that their ability to influence upwards is just as important as their ability to lead downwards. The managers who struggle most are often the ones who assume their results should speak for themselves, only to find that good work alone is not enough to secure what their team needs.
Managing up is not about impressing your boss. It is about making the relationship work so that your team benefits from it.
Understanding your manager
Before you can manage up effectively, you need to understand the person you are managing up to. For more on this, see our guide on building executive presence. Your manager has their own pressures, priorities, and preferences, and the more clearly you understand these, the easier it becomes to work together productively. Too many managers treat their boss as an obstacle rather than a collaborator, and that mindset poisons the relationship from the start.
- Learn their prioritiesFind out what your manager is being measured on and what keeps them awake at night. When you understand their goals, you can frame your requests and updates in terms that resonate with what matters most to them.
- Study their styleSome managers want detail, others want headlines. Some prefer written updates, others want a quick call. Pay attention to how your manager processes information and adapt your communication to match their preferences.
- Understand their pressuresYour manager is dealing with demands from their own leadership, cross-functional stakeholders, and organisational politics. Recognising these pressures helps you pick your moments and avoid adding unnecessary friction at the wrong time.
- Map the relationshipThink honestly about where the relationship is strong and where it is strained. If there are recurring points of tension, consider whether they stem from mismatched expectations rather than genuine disagreements about direction.
Building the relationship
Trust is the foundation of any upward relationship. The catchups in Manager Toolkit supports this. Your manager needs to believe that you are reliable, honest, and capable of handling difficult situations without constant supervision. This trust is not built through grand gestures. It is built through consistent behaviour over time, through doing what you say you will do, and through being transparent when things go wrong rather than hiding problems until they become crises.
Managing in both directions
Both directions need deliberate investment. Most managers only focus downward.
- Be reliably consistentFollow through on commitments, meet deadlines, and deliver what you promise. Consistency builds confidence. If your manager never has to wonder whether you will deliver, they will give you more autonomy and support.
- Surface problems earlyBring bad news before it becomes a crisis. Managers hate surprises, especially ones that could have been flagged earlier. Raising issues early shows maturity and gives your manager time to help rather than react.
- Seek feedback activelyAsk your manager how you are doing and what you could do differently. This shows self-awareness and signals that you are invested in the relationship. It also prevents small frustrations from building into larger resentments.
- Invest in regular check-insDo not rely on ad-hoc conversations alone. Regular one-to-one meetings with your manager create a rhythm for sharing updates, raising concerns, and staying aligned. If your manager does not schedule these, take the initiative yourself.
- Show loyalty publiclySupport your manager in front of others, even when you disagree privately. Challenge them behind closed doors, but present a united front to the wider team and organisation. This builds mutual trust and credibility.
Communicating effectively
How you communicate with your manager matters just as much as what you communicate. The best managers learn to tailor their message to the audience, providing the right level of detail at the right time. Our article on managing stakeholder expectations explores this further. Overloading your boss with information is just as damaging as leaving them in the dark. The goal is to keep them informed enough to support you without requiring them to manage your work for you.
Upward update structure
Lead with the conclusion. Let them ask for detail if they want it.
- Lead with the headlineStart with the conclusion or the ask, then provide supporting detail. Busy leaders appreciate brevity. If they want more context, they will ask for it, but they should never have to dig through a wall of text to find the point.
- Bring solutions, not just problemsWhen raising an issue, come with at least one proposed way forward. This shifts the conversation from "here is a problem" to "here is what I recommend", which positions you as someone who solves rather than escalates.
- Use data to make your caseOpinions are easy to dismiss, but evidence is harder to ignore. When you need your manager to approve something or change direction, support your argument with concrete data, examples, or outcomes from similar situations.
- Know when to escalateNot everything needs to go to your manager, but some things absolutely must. Learn to distinguish between issues you should handle yourself and situations where your manager needs to be involved. Escalating wisely builds trust, while escalating everything erodes it.
Getting what your team needs
Ultimately, managing up is about advocacy. Your team relies on you to secure the resources, support, and protection they need to succeed. This means being willing to push back when necessary, negotiate for better outcomes, and sometimes absorb pressure from above so that your team can focus on their work. The best managers act as a shield and a bridge, protecting the team from unnecessary noise while connecting them to the opportunities and support that matter.
- Negotiate for resourcesWhether it is headcount, budget, or time, make your case clearly and back it with evidence. Frame resource requests in terms of outcomes, explaining what the team will deliver with the investment and what will be at risk without it.
- Shield your teamNot every directive from above needs to reach your team unchanged. Filter, translate, and contextualise so that your team gets clarity rather than chaos. Absorb the ambiguity at your level rather than passing it down.
- Advocate for recognitionMake sure your manager knows about the contributions of your team members. Do not let good work go unnoticed because it happened below the line of visibility. Regularly highlight individual and team achievements in your updates.
- Push back with respectWhen a decision from above will harm your team, say so. Be direct but professional, and offer alternatives rather than simply objecting. Managers who never push back are not protecting their teams. Those who push back constructively earn greater respect and influence.
- Align on expectationsEnsure you and your manager agree on what success looks like for your team. Misaligned expectations lead to frustration on both sides. Revisit this regularly, especially when priorities shift or new work arrives.
Frequently asked questions
Prepare for every conversation with your manager
Track talking points, actions, and outcomes from your upward catchups so nothing falls through the cracks.