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J.T. O’Donnell is a nationally syndicated career strategist and workplace consultant. In addition to her book, 
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New here? Employee Evolution is a blog written by Ryan Healy. Ryan is a Co-Founder of Brazen Careerist, the webs #1 social network for young professionals. Ryan speaks with organizations on best practices for recruiting and retaining Generation Y and how to effectively use social media to reach your target market. To contact Ryan, please visit our contact page.
As a workplace consultant and career coach (and Gen Xer), I was thrilled to see Employee Evolution develop. I fully support the desire to change the American workplace, so I thought I’d share how I’ve seen ‘managing up’ get some new professionals heard – and ahead.
There are three rules to managing up. But before we can follow them, we must first embrace one principle: that all working professionals, even new ones, are salespeople. I realize this thought makes most people cringe, but we are all selling ourselves; our services, our ideas, and our visions for the future. Managing up is just another form of selling. I tell clients, “think of your co-workers and managers as customers.” That being said, successful selling on-the-job begins with a simple concept: “Ask, don’t tell.”
We’ve all experienced a bad salesperson. You know the type, an intense individual who has all the answers and makes it a point to bombard us with every single one so we supposedly have no choice but to buy. It’s such a turn off; we say to ourselves, “How dare he act like he knows exactly what I need when he doesn’t even know the first thing about me.” Worst still, when we balk, he acts frustrated, like we’re completely inept for not immediately wanting to buy what he’s selling. Sound familiar?
Unfortunately, I’ve seen and worked with young professionals who have unintentionally done this. They hit the work scene, complete a surface assessment, and determine what they think is wrong and should be fixed. They believe in teamwork, and so in a sincere effort to help, they start to make suggestions on how to improve things. I will also tell you that many times, their ideas are great, and with a little collaboration, could be very useful. However, great ideas can often take time to be accepted, just like a sale can take time to close. But, some young professionals find their patience running short - becoming immediately frustrated and angry when their ideas aren’t acknowledged or implemented. I’ve even seen some get so upset that they make sweeping generalizations about their job, manager, company, and even their industry, subsequently sending them looking for a whole new career. While in some cases the decision to move on made sense, I’ve seen plenty of instances where the new employee didn’t do their homework and left prematurely, missing out on a great opportunity to grow. From what I’ve seen, if we want to get older generations (a.k.a. upper management) to actually listen, make changes, incorporate our ideas, and utilize us in a more challenging capacity in the process, we need to prove to them we truly understand and respect their perspective.
At this point, you might be saying, “Why do I have to do all this work just to get my ideas heard? They should be more understanding. They are the ones who aren’t being good team players.” I know how frustrating it is. I also don’t agree with the older generation’s attitude towards us younger ones, but instead of getting mad, I really believe it’s wiser to be resourceful. Here’s a story to consider…
I recently worked with an executive whose management team ranged in ages of 24 to 67. I was impressed by how well they worked together and respected one another’s ideas. I specifically asked him how the younger managers had gotten positions of power at their age. His answer: “I don’t care about age. I simply hire managers who know how to manage me.” When I asked what he meant, he replied: “I look for managers who understand how to ask me things, people who know how to communicate and build consensus. In short, I look for people who are smart enough to know how to educate me, ultimately broadening my perspective and helping me see the value of the solutions they propose.” Now, you might think this CEO is a swell guy, full of compassion and understanding. Wrong. He is one of the most direct, intense executives I’ve ever met. He is no ‘people person’ and I’m sure he has scared many an employee away with his professional nature. But, the people that work for him have figured out what it takes to connect with him, and they are reaping the rewards.
In summary, I really believe managing up doesn’t mean “sucking up” or even “looking up” to those in charge, it means “teaming up” with them in a way they can relate to. And that means, in some cases, being the bigger person. For those of you who are still saying, “They are the older ones, they need to do the changing,” I say, you could be in for a long, lonely career progression. Managing up does more than help to overcome challenges with the older generations in the workplace, it shows the capacity to be an effective team player. Up, down, or across, managing in the workplace is every employee’s job. So why not practice managing up now in preparation for leading tomorrow?
If you want to learn the three rules to managing up, click here to begin.
Leave your thoughts here. (9 responses)
- 1 Pingback on Aug 27th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Very fine guest post on managing up and article on the 3 rules. I enjoyed reading them and very much agree.
I talk about managing up in my programs on Influence: working through others to get your ideas approved, your projects implemented, etc. Go to www.pdcounsel.com/managing%20up.htm for a short article as another resource.
Phyllis
J.T. - very smart post. I am 25 years old and just starting to learn how to manage the more experienced co-workers around me. When you describe the impatient young worker who thinks he’s got all the answers, you are describing where I am coming from! I think your tempered, experienced advice appropriately balances the youthful enthusiasm of the EE guys.
How very true. This is maybe the 5th time I’ve heard someone make a point out of this. Nice post, J.T.
Speaking of generalizations, I think you made a few in your article. But I can understand that. You are writing for a certain career-focused audience. But I did want to express my opinion, because those career-oriented people out there have to work with people like me. And it helps to understand where we are coming from.
Not all professionals are salespeople. Because not all professionals, especially those in the technical professions, are interested in climbing the career ladder. We do our job, completing our assignments on time and on budget. We a profficient at our tasks. We keep up to date on the latest advancements.
But we don’t sell ourselves. We aren’t interested in being the manager. We aren’t interested in building a larger arena of control. We enjoy our job for many reasons, but usually don’t see it as a stepping stone to something bigger.
I’m not saying that we don’t know how to work with other people. People skills are important at least for every day life, including the workplace. But we don’t practice the sort of intense, analytical, “how-can-I-manage-my-relationship-with-this-person-so-I-can-get-a-leg-up” sort of people skills that the career-climbers do. I’ve learned to work well with people because it greases the wheels to let me get my job done faster, reduces stress, and basically makes life more pleasant, not because I think it’s gonna help my career.
So what does this have to do with your article?
1. It’s important for people to know that it’s OK to be this way.
2. The majority of the employees in the workplace are like this. It helps for managers to realize so they won’t be frustrated when some of their subordinates don’t seem to want to “step-up”.
Scott,
Those are great points, not everyone is worried about climbing the ladder and the other politics involved in the corporate world. However, I would assume you must be somewhat concerned with these things if you are reading career oriented websites?
Regardless, the points you make are very valid.
Scott,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I understand completely your concern around making sure individuals who don’t feel they are ‘climb the ladder’ types know it’s okay and that the purpose of your post was to get readers to understand this type of co-worker. Here’s something to consider…
One trend we’re seeing in the workplace is an increasing number of professionals between the ages of 30-55 who end up struggling to maintain their income and a career. The career concept by which many of them live is the one I believe you are proposing: put in a good day’s work and be fairly compensated, with no need to go above and beyond or get overly involved in office posturing. Unfortunately, evidence supports this can lead to a career plateau. It’s really important to note that opting to not take initiative in the workplace is a personal choice - one that comes with potential consequences.
For example, people who have a track record of stepping up also historically have a better shot of keeping their jobs in situations that involve lay-offs or structural changes. Being proactive indicates a person who embraces change, and therefore adapts to it too. Moreover, people who don’t want to take on more can be misinterpreted as not actively learning and growing as a professional, which means over time, they can be perceived as worth less in the job market. There are thousands of unemployed tech workers from the last dot com bust. Many are of the persona you described. Now they struggle to differentiate themselves in a job market that expects a track record of success from employees. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve worked with in this situation. What eventually gets them re-employed is learning to be comfortable selling themselves in the market. That’s why I work hard to get people of all ages to recognize that like it or not, selling ourselves is a skill that everyone must work on to stay employable, and that the key to selling ourselves effectively lies in finding our own style of doing it.
That being said, here’s a few of the suggestions I give to clients who opt to follow the approach you outlined:
A) Insulate yourself from a potential employment hiccup by saving at least a year’s salary that can be used as a back up fund.
B) Dabble in a hobby-career that can potentially supplement your income in the event of a job loss.
C) Focus on becoming a subject-matter expert within your profession and do what you can to make sure you are known as the ‘go-to’ person for this work. Don’t expect people to just know it, that’s wishful thinking.
I agree with you, not everyone needs to be a go-getter on-the-job. Yet, based on what I’ve seen in my private practice, I think it’s important to share the information above so those who opt to not be as aggressive professionally, don’t have to struggle unnecessarily.
I’ve only recently heard the term ‘managing up’ and now, like most new things, I’m seeing it everywhere. The funny thing is, I’ve been doing this for awhile at my own job.
I work as a web developer, so it’s crucial for my job that I stay current with ever changing trends. This seems to get harder as you move up in management and are inundated with meetings, proposals, etc. Due to that, I tend to keep my immediate supervisors briefed on any of the cool new stuff I’ve found. It’s more of a geeking-out discussion than anything that feels professional or, god forbid, like a sales pitch.
Due to this, I’ve established myself as someone who knows what I’m talking about when it comes to web trends and new technologies and I think I’ve been given a lot more responsibility in managing and planning projects as a result.
It’ll only be a matter of time before I need some new guy to keep me current.
It’s all a manner of degree. Corporate climbers need to do much more of “managing-up” and “selling” than the average employee.
It’s stated there in the beginning of the article (”I thought I’d share how I’ve seen ‘managing up’ get some new professionals heard – and ahead.
“). And at the end of the article (”So why not practice managing up now in preparation for leading tomorrow”).
But if you don’t want to ‘get ahead’ and have no interest in being a leader tomorrow, then you can tone it down a lot.
Just stay current and make sure your boss is in the loop. You’ll do OK.