We’ve all seen the movie: the towering, imperious boss — speckled in fine jewelry and brooding behind an expansive walnut desk — rises like a storm before the floor-to-ceiling windows. The boss begins to pace, then begins to smolder, then begins to rage. The city beyond the windows trembles in response.
The boss bellows a name, loud enough to be heard in another room. Assistance is demanded. Immediately.
Cue the disheveled underling: a downtrodden and utterly overwhelmed caricature who sprints into the office with a stack of disordered papers, a half-spilled coffee (made incorrectly, no doubt) and the laces of a shoe either untied or missing entirely. Before the underling can even get a sentence out, the boss thunders a new command and scatters the underling away like hayseed in a gale.
In movies like this, managing up is like trying to control a force of nature. In real life, however, managing up is actually an art — with realistic strategies and techniques that any driven employee can use. In addition, the underling in real life is no disheveled caricature: they’re a motivated, confident member of the workforce and rising quickly to the top.
To learn more tips for managing up in the modern tech world, Built In NYC sat down with Cheyenne Horvat, senior people operations manager at RapidSOS. What we learned was logical, ingenious and always easy to use.
RapidSOS
What’s one strategy you’ve used to get to know your manager better and learn more about what makes them tick?
The strategy I first take to understanding my boss better is figuring out a communication plan that works. When I first start any role, I ask as many questions as possible up front about my position and what’s expected of me, with a focus on the priorities of my boss, the team and the company. I will then figure out how my boss likes to communicate. For instance, does my boss prefer an email, a text or a weekly meeting? What about bi-weekly? Lastly, I ask how I should approach my boss with issues, what feedback looks like and what are milestones for good performance.
I then check in periodically to make sure priorities remain aligned. If check-ins are continuously missed, cancelled or rescheduled, I get crafty. I start to plan out how I can get the information I need by any means necessary, even if I have to wait outside of a coffee shop like I’m in a concert line. I learned this in an old role as an executive assistant and it has played a monumental role in ensuring I get the information I need to execute effectively, keep miscommunication to a minimum and prevent headaches on both sides.
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned about managing up, and how do you apply that lesson to your relationship with your current manager?
The most important lesson I’ve learned in managing up is that my boss and I won’t always agree, and that’s OK. In these instances, it’s best not to take these sorts of disagreements personally.
While working in people operations can sometimes pull at the heart strings, I have a firm understanding that everyone on the team is working toward one goal, and my best work often lies in advising from my point of view, rather than stubbornly arguing.
I used to think that in order to make a positive impact in people operations, I had to move mountains and everyone had to agree. However, that strategy can lead to burnout — especially if what I deemed to be “correct” clashed with my manager’s perspective. It’s healthy to disagree and can often lead to a better outcome or a movement in the right direction.
At the end of the day, we both share the same north star — to make RapidSOS a best-in-class organization — and that is what guides all of our work and enables us to disagree and commit together.
Effectively managing up improved my relationship with my boss and made our interactions feel more like a partnership than a hierarchical relationship.”
How has managing up helped you improve your relationship with your boss or grow in your career?
Effectively managing up improved my relationship with my boss and made our interactions feel more like a partnership than a hierarchical relationship. Similarly, I find that when managing up is going well, I am less likely to be micromanaged, as there is a ton of trust built just from communicating effectively and “bubbling up” issues when necessary.
This trust has enabled us to have productive, ongoing feedback conversations that have supported my career growth and would inevitably be more challenging and less impactful if that underlying trust didn’t already exist.
Recently, my boss wanted to collect skip-level feedback from my direct reports. Although I was nervous, I knew that she had my best interest at heart and would share her findings with me so I could learn and grow. When she shared the feedback with me during our next 1:1, I found myself more open to receiving the feedback than I had thought. The strong partnership we had built — as a result of upward management — created a safe environment to learn and grow. In my book, that’s a win-win.
