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Managing Up and Managing Down

Managing up and managing down is a management strategy that pertains to the manner in which individuals interact with their managers and subordinates. Promotion to management comes with the additional responsibility of managing down, as individuals must manage their reports while remaining accountable to their supervisors. Middle managers require additional skills and training to effectively influence up or down. Management levels within large organizations are often hierarchical in structure and include senior, middle, and lower management roles. Proper governance of relationships with both supervisors and subordinates can enhance performance, create opportunities and lead to promotions.

Managing Up

Turk suggests several different guidelines for managing up, including being loyal and committed; understanding the boss’s perspective, agenda, and preferences; providing solutions instead of problems; and understanding one's own management style. Managing up requires greater effort to achieve assigned objectives. Attention must be paid to ensure individual efforts parallel the goals of the supervisor and organization.  

Middle managers often find themselves in a position where they must implement strategies developed by their supervisors.  Occasionally, as subordinates attempt to work with the new concept or procedure, it becomes apparent that these strategies are difficult,  impractical or even impossible. In this case the middle manager must be able to rely on the strength of the relationships developed with both parties to achieve a desirable resolution.

Managing Down

Managing down describes a holistic approach to management in which direct reports are empowered through the support of positive relationships.  These relationships are cultivated by employing feedback, communication and trust.  According to JP Kantor Consulting founder, Julie Kantor, PhD, in order to manage down effectively managers should be firm, straight forward and fair.  Managing down requires balancing workload and capitalizing on subordinates' unique abilities to promote the organization's goals. Understanding how to effectively allocate and monitor ones direct report’s time and activities by holding them accountable, will ultimately save time and resources.  

Knowing how to deal with the expectations, needs, and demands of both supervisors and direct reports is essential when managing down. A competent management understands that the success of any company depends on the effective management of its teams, where interactions within the company’s hierarchy are different. Setting mutually beneficial goals and employing credible leadership skills are important for the success of the relationships.

Skills and Training

Certain skills and training are helpful when attempting to manage up and down. These include:

• Organization skills. Having strong organizational skills allows for proper coordination of staff and resources within the company.
• Time Management
• Motivation. Effective managers often use different types of motivation to influence subordinates and tailor assignments to suit them.
• Leadership skills. These skills offer the  ability to understand and communicate the company’s needs and inspire others to work diligently toward goals
• Behavioral acknowledgements. Recognizing the behavior and perceptions of others enables managers to resolve conflicts, manage stress, improve themselves and others and increase efficiency.
• Authentic Leadership describes the ability to behave genuinely, regardless of hierarchical position or influence over subordinates.
• cross-cultural leadership pertains to the ability to understand the effects of culture on leadership style.
• Setting clear expectations. By setting clear expectations, and vocalizing exactly what actions are required, the risk of misunderstandings and missed deadlines can be mitigated.
• Consistent feedback. Soliciting and providing feedback ensures the performance rebalancing or acknowledgment of a job well done.
• Accepting Limitations. The ability to accept limitations and work off or around them is a skill that is beneficial to problem solving.

Communication

Communication is paramount.  Communication can be improved by investing in digital infrastructure for automating day-to-day communications.  This will free up time for managers to dedicate to personal communication skills, inclusion techniques, and coaching.  Recent studies have shown that management information systems help companies avoid redundancy by communicating activities between functional groups. The ability to express wants and needs related to work allocation sets a clear and coordinated roadmap and reduces the likelihood of misinterpretations.

Development

Managers are not only responsible for the success of their team, but for their own development as well.. Professional development is an ongoing process of learning to earn or maintain professional credentials through formal coursework, continuing education, job appropriate conferences, and informal learning opportunities.

Education

Management degrees can be obtained from colleges or universities that will prepare managers for the complexity of business operations. Notable degrees in business management include the Bachelor of Business Administration, Master of Business Administration,  Master in Management. Individual business will determine if a degree is required for the role, not all industries require secondary education.

See Also

Middle Management

Cross-functional team

Employee motivation

Open-book management

Authority (management)