Presentation by Jennifer Gould & Joshua Hettrick, Westfield State University Presented at a NEACUHO Conference www.neacuho.org

1. Managing Up:
Engaging your supervisor
in productive ways
Presented by: Jennifer Gould, M.B.A.
Joshua Hettrick, Ed.D.
NEACUHO Fall Drive-In, October 5, 2012

2. Managing Up
“Managing up is the process of consciously working with
your boss to obtain the best possible results for you, your
boss, and your organization. This is not a political
maneuver or kissing up. Rather it is a deliberate effort to
bring understanding and cooperation to a relationship
between individuals who often have different perspectives.”
~Thomas Zuber & Erica James

3. Isn’t this manipulation?
 No! It’s a way to create a win-win-win situation (the
people, the organization and the project at hand!).
 Failure to manage the boss can result in
misunderstandings and wasted time and effort.
 Don’t forget to manage down as well-only managing the
boss and paying no attention to the staff team can result
in looking a little bit like a suck-up! (And none of us
want that!)

4. Things to consider when Managing Up
 Communication  Understand your
supervisor’s preferences
 No surprises
 Understand your own
 Providing solutions, not
management style
problems
 Be aware of your boss’
 Be honest and
strengths and
trustworthy
weaknesses
 Be loyal and committed
 Know the hot buttons
 Understand your boss’
 Request Feedback
perspective and agenda
 Don’t go over your boss’
head

5. Communicate
 You know this is a two-way street!
 Good communication skills are the basis for success in
almost every situation.
 Brush up all of the skills-verbal and written (and know
which way your supervisor likes to get things).
 Readers will prefer notes or emails before hearing you say
things to give them time to digest
 Listeners often need to hear the information before
consuming the written version
 If you want to be heard, make it easy by using your
supervisor’s preferred method
 Ask questions to understand wants and decisions

6. No Surprises!
 No, not even the good ones. Those can backfire on you
too!
 Keep your supervisor in the loop regularly about what is
going on with specific projects and the staff team
 Stop by the office daily
 Send regular email updates if you can’t connect in person
 Use your scheduled one-on-ones and office hours
effectively to discuss important issues

7. Provide Solutions, Not Problems
 Yes, problems will happen, they always do…
 When letting your supervisor know about something
that’s gone wrong, be ready to propose at least 2-3
solutions to go with it
 It’s okay to push an issue-some of us like to avoid
problems, but they’ll need to be confronted in the end,
so help with that.

8. Be Honest and Trustworthy
 Things that will hurt you: dishonesty, covering up
problems or failures, sweeping issues under the rug
 The truth will come out eventually, and unlike a fine
wine, it doesn’t get any better with age!
 Maintain your honesty and dependability by honoring
your commitments, project schedules and constraints

9. Be Loyal and Committed
 Loyalty and commitment shows support
 This extends beyond your supervisor…think about your
hall staff, maintenance staff, central staff, etc
 If you don’t demonstrate these things to a boss, don’t
expect them in return (not a good place to be!)

10. Understand your Boss’s
Perspective and Agenda
 Put yourself in his shoes and align your priorities
 Many people think they understand the boss’s goals and
pressures, but don’t always understand strengths,
weaknesses, aspirations or work styles, or the
constraints they are under
 Explore these things to help identify commonalities and
gain insight on how to better interact effectively

11. Understand your Supervisor’s
Preferences
 …and try to conform to them!
 Does your supervisor want a daily update? To get the big
picture and not the details?
 Use tact when suggesting different methods for
completing tasks
 Don’t assume you know what your boss wants-ask
questions if you’re unsure to clarify his/her needs and
expectations
 Don’t set standards for yourself that you can’t
consistently meet

12. Understand your own
management style
 …and take responsibility for it’s effect on others
 Recognize your own strengths, weaknesses, goals and
personal needs; how you respond to being managed;
how others respond to you
 Know the effect you have on others and how they react
to you (especially your staff)

13. Be Aware of your Boss’s
Strengths and Weaknesses
 Use your boss’s strengths to your advantage! Go to your
supervisor for his/her expertise.
 Compensate for the weaknesses.
 Nobody is good at everything-provide support in those
areas
 Chances are you won’t be great and terrible at all of the
same things, so find ways to work as a team to get
things achieved

14. Know the Hot Buttons
 What are your supervisor’s triggers and pet peeves?
 Find out what these things are and avoid them!
 Ignoring items that are hot buttons for your supervisor
will likely sour your relationship and can lead to
unsuccessful projects or negative evaluations.

15. Request Feedback
 And learn to accept the feedback that you request
 Ask periodically if you aren’t sure how you’re doing-don’t
wait until end of semester evaluations
 If you get negative feedback, discuss concerns, but do
so maturely, not emotionally or confrontationally
 Listen to what is being said and act on it appropriately

16. Don’t Go Over the Boss’s Head
 Don’t go behind the boss’s back either
 Go to your supervisor first with any concerns-you’d want
the same courtesy
 IF something is VERY serious and not being addressed,
or if you supervisor IS the problem and can’t be
confronted, go up the chain
 If you do need to go over the supervisor, keep the
information as private as possible, discussing only with
people that need to know and be willing to document
what you are reporting

17. Case Study
Your department is currently in the process of collecting
spring intention forms from students in the residence halls.
This form is completed by all students in housing during the
fall semester to determine if they will be returning to
housing for the spring semester. The due date for these
forms to be turned in to the Assistant Director for Housing
is Monday, October 8th. It is now Thursday, October 11th.
The Director of Residential Life is waiting for results to pass
on to the VP of Student Affairs so he is prepared for his
cabinet meeting. The ADH realized late Wednesday that an
entire section was missing from one of the halls. The RA in
the section has already been given a written warning for
paperwork this semester by their RD. The Assistant Director
for Staff Development who supervises the RD and RA staff
has been made aware of the problem as well. Placing
yourself in this situation based on your current role, what is
the process you take to help bring a resolution to this
problem?

18. Managing up sounds simple, but
managers, and everyone else
need to learn this basic concept.
If we want someone to
understand what we have to say,
we must learn to speak their
language, rather than expecting
them to learn ours.
~Richard L. Knowdell
Building a Career Development Program: Nine Steps for
Effective Implementation

19. Resources
 Turk, W., (2007). The art of managing up. Defense AT&L,
March & April, 2007.