In "Managing Up - Lessons From Scaling Teams at Credit Karma and Lyft," Dor Levi (ex-EVP at Lyft), Valerie Wagoner (ex-VP at Credit Karma), Anne Lewandowski (ex-Product Lead at Apartment List), and Matt Greenberg (ex-VP Eng at Credit Karma) tackle the tough topic of managing up. Here are some highlights and added thoughts.
Managing Up is one of the topics that is critical to crossing the career canyon, but hard to tangibly grasp. It feels like a mystery skill. As a result, it tends to get confused or labeled with things like being political. Which is why I appreciated this more tangible approach:
"Managing up requires a similar approach to managing down."
There is a lot more understanding on managing down. So applying similar methods in a different direction is helpful. That comes down to three things:
Packaging Problems In A Way That Makes Helping Easy
"Good people managers avoid giving their reports poorly-defined problems that are beyond what they can handle. Similarly, good upward managers package problems in a way that takes their managers' constraints (e.g., lack of time, competing priorities) into account. When faced with a difficult situation, effective upward managers package the problem in a way that makes it easy for their manager to provide help.
Aligning Personal and Org Goals
"Good people managers find opportunities for direct reports to achieve personal goals (e.g., develop new skills, earn a promotion) in ways that also deliver results for the company. Similarly, good upward managers help their leaders achieve personal goals as part of their efforts to drive company goals. This requires clearly understanding your manager's goals and how they relate to the company's."
Building An Empathetic Approach To Working Together
"Good people managers understand what their reports need to do their best work, ranging from setting norms around working hours to establishing a sense of psychological safety and trust. Good upward managers take the same approach to working with their leaders taking into account things like preferred formats for information, scheduling, feedback, etc."
The team took on how to tactically implement these and more in the full piece.
Related Links: Crossing the Product Career Canyon, Crossing the Marketing Career Canyon, Impact = Environment X Skills
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