Leading Up: How to Lead Your Boss So You Both Win

By Michael Useem

Downward leadership and upward leadership are integrally reinforcing; if you are effective at the first, it will beget the second; if you are adept at the second, it can inspire the first.

General Lessons

Building your superiors’ confidence in you requires giving them your confidence.

The vital bond between commander and commander-in-chief, between manager and executive, cannot exist without an open flow of information and an open display of respect.

Persistence often pays, but it requires determination to stay a rocky path when you have persuaded those above and below you to take the course.

If your superiors are not appreciating a grave threat to the institution, it may be essential to transcend the normal channels of communication to drive home the message.

Asking your boss for elaboration and clarification of inadequate instructions can make the difference between survival and success.

When dealing with multiple independently ruling voices, it’s best to face and serve each superior as if he or she is your only boss.

However wrathful your superior, however merciless the message, the well-being of those in your hands must remain preeminent. Pushing up against a vengeful policy coming down from above sometimes requires all the upward leadership you can marshal, but the value of your intercession extends beyond you.

A mandate from your superior to reform an organization is a historic opportunity that calls for far-reaching advice and forceful implementation. The more uncertain those over you are about how to achieve the goal, the more clear-minded and determined you must be in formulating and executing your strategy.

Upward leadership is a two-way street: Your subordinates must render their best counsel, and you must seek to appreciate and then make good use of it.

Over-confidence in your governing board’s faith in you will blind you to the moves you should be making to ensure you retain its trust. Poor profit performance and declining share price are enough for your directors to question their confidence, and it is then that your upward work with them will become most critical.

Addressing director expectation is as important as meeting investor hopes, and directors expect that you’ll develop a talented top management team to ensure not only short-term results but also long-term success…Directors do care how your ranks respond even when the results are fine. Keeping the board in your column requires keeping your employees on your side, too.

Stay tuned to what your subordinates are implying or communicating through other means. Because their stake in you is so large, they often appreciate you and your situation better than you do yourself.

If you expect those below to support your leadership and step into the breach when needed, they will need to understand your strategy, your methods, and your rules. That requires repeated restatements of your principles and consistent adherence to them.

All institutions depend on a dynamic give and take among those on top, middle, and bottom. The success of any hierarchy depends on communication and flexibility across the vertical divides.