Melt The Glass Ceiling
Are you a career woman? Do you work in a male dominated workplace? In Melt The Glass Ceiling, your career coach, Lisa Liszcz, will share tips and strategies on developing the career of your dreams. New episodes drop each week.
Melt The Glass Ceiling
Mastering the Art of Managing Up: Tips for Professional Success
Ever wondered how you can turn a challenge into an opportunity at work? ✅
Discover the secrets to managing up and transforming your professional life in our latest episode. We tackle the all-too-common issue of dealing with bosses who might lack strong leadership skills and provide you with actionable strategies to build a more symbiotic and productive relationship with your manager. 🤩 From adapting to your boss's communication style to practical tips on easing workplace tensions, we've got you covered. 🏋️♀️
Join Lisa as she shares real-life experiences and invaluable insights that highlight the effectiveness of these techniques. Hear about how mirroring your boss’s behavior can build rapport and why a supportive boss is crucial to your career success. 🚀 Whether you're facing a challenging manager now or want to be prepared for the future, this episode is packed with wisdom to help you thrive in any work environment.
And be sure to get your free downloads that Lisa mentions in this episode:
🌟 How to Effectively Manage Up Tips Sheet
🌟 Dale Carnegie Tips on How To Win Friends and Influence People
And then join us in the Private Facebook Group for Women and discuss what you learned. Can't wait to see you there!!
Hello and welcome. This week, we're talking about managing up, how you can help your boss to be successful and how you can help your boss to support you so that you can be successful. People say a bad job with a good boss is better than a good job with a bad boss, and I've always told my clients that if there's one critical factor to your success in a job, it is your boss. It is about how your boss supports you. Does your boss have your back? Does your boss give clear guidelines and coaching? Does your boss communicate effectively and share information? If not, if you are in a situation where your boss is not an excellent leader, an excellent manager, there are some things that you can do to help them along, which ultimately helps you as well. So let's talk about that today. Let's talk about managing up. I got a question about this recently in my Facebook group. One of our members shared my boss just does not know how to lead. What do I do? I'll address that today and I have some resources for you. Recently, I also coached a woman who is in communications. After our coaching, she landed a new great job. She and I were communicating this past week on LinkedIn and she said that one of her challenges in her new job is her boss in. And she said that one of her challenges in her new job is her boss. She said how do I manage up? So I'll share some tips with you today. Sometimes we all need to manage up. I have, and my guess is you have too, and if not, you will someday. So I've got three tips for you and some resources that will be helpful for you.
Speaker 1:Tip number one adapt to your boss's style. What do I mean by that? Well, it's up to you Really observe your boss's habits and preferences and see what you can do to kind of match them. That will help you build your relationship and help them to feel supportive, and people really do like to reciprocate when they are feeling supported. So how do you do that? Observe how they communicate with others and notice the differences between you and see if there's some ways there where you can adapt in ways that are comfortable for yourself, like I said, to help them feel more comfortable. They may be feeling threatened, they may be feeling challenged, they may feel like you don't like them, and by mirroring their behaviors a little bit, you'll help put them at ease and help them to feel more comfortable and that will help both of you. That will help both of you to feel good about this relationship and about collaborating in this relationship. This is a way to bond with your manager so that collaborating can come more easily.
Speaker 1:Let me give you an example. Years ago I worked for a woman who her style was very collaborative, very empathetic, very much oriented and focused on relationship building Really in every situation. She was looking to build and strengthen relationships and she was a talker and I have been told I'm a good listener and so I would listen to her. We would sit and talk and she would really process what she was thinking and some of the challenges she was dealing with through our talks and I would listen and I would empathize and those are things I naturally do and am good at and enjoy. So I gave that to her and used that style of support for us to build our relationship and for her to be able to process some of the things that she was dealing with. So that was a way that I matched her style. I adapted to her style to help her feel supported and to help her enjoy our relationship and for us to be able to spend time that way.
Speaker 1:I've got another resource for you. Last week I mentioned a resource that I highly recommend. It's a book called how to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. It has lots of great tips in it around how to build relationships, how to establish that bond. Last week I gave away a free tip sheet, a one-pager that really summarizes a lot in the book, and I've put the link to that download in the show notes today. So if you didn't get it last week, if for some reason you missed it, go ahead and click on that link and download that tips sheet, because you really want to use a few of those tips to help you build your relationship with your manager, and one of the ways to do that is adapting your style to theirs. But there are some other tips too. So get that tip sheet, okay.
Speaker 1:Tip number two be supportive. Again, we're going to tap into that natural tendency to reciprocate on behaviors. That's a very natural, embedded tendency for human beings. So the more supportive you are of your boss, chances are the more supportive they will be of you. Remember your boss is a human being, although I know sometimes they may not seem like it and you are on the same team. Show some empathy with the pressures that they face. Focus on finding ways to make them look good and to help make their job easier. You know, as an employee, that really is. Each of our responsibilities is to help our boss look good, to support them, and nine times out of ten when we do that, they will reciprocate, and by doing this you can make their job a lot easier. They will reciprocate and by doing this you can make their job a lot easier. You know, one of the ways that I have found for myself and for others who I coach to find ways to empathize with a supervisor is to always remember you don't always have the benefit of all of the information. They have more information at a higher level, with a broader viewpoint, than you have, so you don't know what they're dealing with and chances are, what they're dealing with on a regular basis is pretty challenging. And when you remember that, it's a little bit easier to support them and to have empathy for the pressures that they face so that they in turn can be more supportive of us. Here's one way that I have found to be supportive and empathize some of the people that I have worked with before or have collaborated with and who have been in leadership positions before.
Speaker 1:Think about a time five years ago, maybe 10 years ago, in your career. Think about that job that you were in, what your responsibilities were. Think about what action items, what tasks were on your to-do list. There's a good chance that at some time prior in your career you felt really challenged and overwhelmed. And when you think about that work now it doesn't seem particularly challenging or overwhelming. In fact, you may even look back and think, wow, I wish I had it that easy. Now that was pretty simple, but at the time it was challenging and overwhelming. We take on more and more responsibility and we find ways to make that work, but we always feel pretty challenged. Here's my point your boss, peers of your boss, your boss's boss may really be overwhelmed in a way that you can't imagine right now. So when you think about that, think about can you empathize with your boss? Is there something you can volunteer to do for them to take on some of their work? If so, what would that be Volunteer to do? That? It'll give you an opportunity to learn, it'll be challenging and it will be a big relief for them. This is another great way to manage up All righty.
Speaker 1:We talked about tip number one. Adapt to their style. Tip number two be supportive. Let's move on to tip number three anticipate their needs. Try to provide your boss with answers before they even have to ask the question. Try to anticipate what's going on. Monitor the company calendar. Pay attention to their schedule and what meetings they're attending, what projects they're working on, to see what meetings and events have come up. Be proactive about collecting and creating relevant information, reports, anecdotes. If they're working on a project and you hear or read something about it, share that with them. See if you can be helpful.
Speaker 1:There's an old rerun that I just love MASH. Do you ever watch MASH? I think that was on in the 70s. There's an old rerun that I just love MASH. Do you ever watch MASH? I think that was on in the 70s. There's a character on there, radar O'Reilly. He is the master of anticipation and particularly in some of the later seasons he was supporting Colonel Blake. But Radar was always a step ahead of Colonel Blake. Colonel Blake would shout from the next room, radar, and then turn around and be startled because Radar was standing right there. He'd already started coming into the room before Colonel Blake even shouted out for him. Radar paid attention. He definitely had some special skills, but he had paid attention to what was going on so that he could anticipate how to best support his boss.
Speaker 1:And there again, by anticipating their needs, you have the opportunity to support them, empathize with them, help them look good, help them accomplish their goals and that's your job is to support them in that way. And if they're doing well and achieving their goals, chances are they're going to support you and help you achieve your goals and help you be successful. Also, they're going to value you. I've shared three tips with you on how to manage up so that you have a mutually beneficial relationship with your boss. Hopefully, these tips can help you to avoid conflicts and build a good relationship so that you can both be successful. And when you have a good relationship with your boss, they are so much more likely to listen to your ideas, your suggestions, even your recommendations and your feedback. I talked about adapting to their style, being supportive and anticipating their needs. You can accomplish a lot with those three tips, but guess what? I have nine more tips for you. I have a tip sheet on what you need to know about managing up, and there are 12 tips on that sheet, including these three. Want more tips on how to manage up? Just download that tip sheet today. The link is in the show notes. You know it's my goal to help you accelerate your success in your career and to experience joy while doing it. One of the ways we do that is through our relationship with our bosses, so you're going to observe and adapt to their style, be supportive and anticipate their needs and also do some of the other tips on the tips sheet. That's a download this week. The more successful you are, the greater your sphere of influence is, and that is for the greater good and it benefits you and everyone.
Speaker 1:I'm looking for a topic for next week. Do you have a question you would like for me to answer? There is a link in the show notes that you can use to send me a direct message. That's a great way to send me a question that you have that you would like for me to answer in this podcast. If you have any questions, just email me or send me a DM, or join my private Facebook group for professional women. I'll put the link to that in the show notes too, and you can always send me a question in the Facebook group, and that's actually a quicker way to get an answer from me. Okay, thank you for listening. Now go melt the glass ceiling.
