10 Great Tips to Manage Your Manager

Creating a good relationship with your manager is pretty vital if you want to be happy at work, get a bonus, get promoted and progress your career. In 10 Great Tips to Manage Your Manager I share practical tips I have used to build and maintain good relationships with wide range of managers and indirect “bosses”.

When thinking about how to manage your boss’ expectations, a great place to start is to ensure you are doing a good job or at least average compared to peers. That way, when managing your boss, they already view you as an asset to the team. Delivering what you need to is a great way to start building relationships at work.

Every manager is different, so when learning how to manage your boss, ask them how they like to be managed. How you manage up should be tailored to your specific manager.

As you plan how to manage your manager ask them what they expect of you. If you don’t know what good or okay looks like in their eyes, meeting that expectation is harder.

It is in your interests, when managing up, to take responsibility for managing relationships at work and particularly with your manager. Your boss influences so much of your working life therefore it must be a no-brainer to be proactive in creating a positive professional relationship.

A key part of expectation management at work is to reduce the number of surprises for colleagues and particularly your manager. Surprises, both positive and negative, hinder planning and impact how your manager in turn manages their boss’s expectations.

How to manage your manager is well is not as hard as it might seem at first. Think how you would like to be treated and replicate this for your manager. How to manage your boss effectively requires a little planning and effort on your part and taking some or all of the steps outlined in “10 Great Tips to Manage Your Manager” will make a significant positive different to your relationship with you manager. Make the effort – it really is in your best interests if you want to be happier at work, get interesting projects to work on, get a bonus and get promoted.

Good luck in practicing how to manage your boss!

00:00 Intro
01:10 Do a good job
01:32 Learn what your manager wants
02:03 Understand the pressures
02:28 Bring solutions
02:57 Communication styles
03:31 No surprises
04:03 Take responsibility for the relationship
04:33 Take some of your manager’s work
05:04 Give positive feedback
05:29 Don’t complain
06:03 Bonus Tips
07:28 In summary

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If you have any additional ways to manage your manager that are really effective, please add a comment below and share them.