Tips for How to Manage Your Manager
Do you want to learn how to manage your manager to improve your working relationship? Fortunately, common sense and 
following a plan will work wonders to improve the most important working relationship you have. After identifying the behaviors and characteristics you share with, or differ from, your manager, you are ready to select a specific issue or situation and work to enhance the relationship.
Think of a situation you recently experienced with your manager and consider these five points for how to manage your manager (example is provided below):
1. Your Situation: You have too many projects on your plate. Your manager just gave you a new one which shares the same due date as another high profile project.
2. Your manager’s preferred Behavior Pattern: TRENDSETTER 3. Your manager’s actions: Because the business unit became responsible for a new product, your boss assigned each team member additional various tasks required to meet the release date.
3. Your actions (to date): You started working on it knowing that you have a full plate.
4. Your planned strategy: Knowing he is a Trendsetter, keep him informed about the relative difficulty of sourcing supplies for the product (some went out of business overseas – complex instruments needed, with only 3 available suppliers). So you need to set up relationships with other vendors, and hopefully you can network across the organization to get practical insights.
5. Your planned actions: Inform the manager – in his/her style – brief, direct – need to find new suppliers and establish quality control!
Key Pointers:
• Think about what your manager says/does in specific situations and how you react.
• Then strategize/plan for ways you can manage him/her in these recurring situations.
• Be specific – think of a potential verbal response and or concrete action for each behavior exhibited by your manager.
• ‘Managing Up’ effectively is a continual process where you work towards developing and maintaining relationships that are mutual. It’s not a one time fix.
Perhaps the most important thing to take away from this material is that changing your working relationships with your manager is possible. You succeed when you help your manager succeed. By helping him/her achieve goals, you are more likely to advance as well. However, you must realize that this is a slow process and miraculous changes are not going to happen overnight. Just remember, take it slowly and practice consistency, and one day soon you will learn how to manage your manager like a pro.
