What Is Managing Up? A Practical Guide
This article is Part 1 of The Art of Managing Up Series, a practical collection designed to help professionals create alignment, increase strategic contribution, and become the CEO of their career.
Mention the phrase managing up, and many professionals immediately think it means managing their boss.
Others assume it is about office politics, making senior leaders happy, or learning how to gain favor with people in authority.
It is none of those things.
At its core, managing up is about taking ownership of your career by intentionally creating alignment, communicating strategically, and increasing the value you create for your leader, your team, your organization, and yourself.
Professionals who manage up effectively understand something many others overlook.
Their job is not simply to complete assigned work.
It is to help ensure the right work gets done, that the value of their contributions is understood, and that leaders have the information and context they need to make better decisions.
That is managing up. Managing up requires both management and leadership skills: managing information, priorities, and execution while leading through influence, judgment, and trust.
And in organizations where priorities shift quickly, information moves constantly, and AI is accelerating the pace of work, managing up is becoming one of the most important leadership capabilities professionals can develop.
What Is Managing Up?
At N-BAC, we define managing up as:
Managing up is the practice of creating value for your leader, your team, your organization, and yourself by ensuring your contributions are understood, aligned with strategic priorities, and positioned for impact.
This definition goes beyond the common idea of simply helping your boss succeed.
Managing up is not about controlling your manager, keeping senior leaders happy, or navigating office politics.
It is about creating value and taking responsibility for how your contributions are communicated, understood, and connected to what matters most.
When you manage up effectively, you help leaders make better decisions, strengthen alignment, improve communication, and move work forward. At the same time, you increase the visibility, credibility, and influence that allow your own career to grow.
That is why managing up is ultimately about becoming the CEO of your career rather than waiting for someone else to recognize your value or direct your professional growth.
Why Managing Up Matters More Than Ever
The way organizations operate has changed dramatically.
Leaders today face increasing complexity, compressed timelines, competing priorities, distributed teams, and an overwhelming volume of information.
Success depends less on individual effort and more on alignment.
Yet many workplace problems are not caused by a lack of talent.
They are caused by information arriving too late, priorities being misunderstood, assumptions going unchallenged, and valuable work remaining invisible.
Managing up helps close those gaps.
Professionals who manage up well create clarity before confusion develops.
They surface risks before they become crises.
They connect daily work to organizational priorities.
They help leaders make better decisions.
And as a result, organizations execute more effectively.
What Managing Up Is Not
One reason managing up is misunderstood is that it is often confused with behaviors that have very different intentions.
Managing up is not:
Manipulating people to get your way.
Office politics.
Flattering senior leaders.
Blindly agreeing with your manager.
Self-promotion.
Going around your manager unnecessarily.
Doing your manager's job.
Instead, effective managing up is grounded in integrity.
It means communicating honestly, building trust, creating alignment, and making it easier for leaders and teams to succeed together.
Managing up is not about gaining advantage over others.
It is about creating greater value for everyone.
Why So Many Professionals Struggle with Managing Up
Managing up is valuable, yet many professionals still struggle to practice it effectively.
Usually, one or more of three things is happening.
1. They misunderstand what managing up is
Some professionals associate managing up with office politics, manipulation, self-promotion, or trying to control their manager.
That misunderstanding creates resistance before the practice even begins.
2. Something gets in the way
Even when professionals understand the value of managing up, deeply held beliefs can still limit how they show up.
They may believe their work should speak for itself, visibility is the same as boasting, alignment is solely the manager’s responsibility, or they should wait to be invited before contributing.
These beliefs can quietly reduce visibility, limit influence, and disconnect valuable work from organizational priorities.
3. They have not developed the skills
Managing up requires more than good intentions.
It involves creating alignment, communicating with strategic clarity, understanding organizational priorities, building productive partnerships, raising risks early, making recommendations, and increasing strategic contribution.
These are leadership and management skills that can be learned and strengthened over time.
What This Series Will Explore
The Art of Managing Up Series addresses all three challenges.
We will clarify what managing up is and what it is not, examine the beliefs and barriers that hold capable professionals back, and explore the practical skills required to manage up effectively.
Each article builds on the last, helping you move from understanding the practice to applying it with greater intention, integrity, and impact.
Continue Your Managing Up Journey
The next article in The Art of Managing Up Series explores why managing up is often misunderstood and how integrity separates ethical leadership from manipulation.
Read Article 2: Managing Up with Integrity: Why Managing Up Is Often Misunderstood
In the next article, we'll explore why strategic visibility is not self-promotion, how humility can unintentionally become self-erasure, and why changing your mindset is the foundation of managing up.
Join the Managing Up community to receive each new article in your inbox.
Ready to Go Deeper?
Read The Art of Managing Up Book by Nejat Abdurahman
Organizations that want leaders to think and operate at this level often explore this work through private masterclasses, leadership offsites, or cohort-based development experiences.
If you are interested in bringing Managing Up to your team or organization, I welcome the conversation.
