“Managing up” means really understanding your leadership’s strengths, opportunities and goals and then acting accordingly to place both of you in the best position for success. It may include holding leadership accountable to their commitments, understanding their goals and how you can help achieve them, supporting their efforts to stand in integrity and appropriately communicating to them when they aren’t meeting expectations or their team’s needs.

Voting for specific candidates or issues is one way the U.S. citizen “manages up” in our political system. Other tactics include writing letters to your representatives, scheduling a face-to-face meeting, expresssing yourself via various online vehicles, campaigning for issues that are important to you or even running for office yourself. These are all methods of communicating support, encouraging change, or transitioning support to another leader.

The beauty of our political process is that everyone has a voice in who our leaders are and what issues are acted upon. The question on Election Day is if and how the voters are using that voice to manage our elected officials.

Looking ahead – – In January, I will share a four part series highighting tips for managing up in the workplace. It can be done successfully and when it is, the reward is loyalty and opportunity.

As you look at your work life, what is your greatest challenge in managing your boss?  Or, what success tips can you share? Please add a comment to this post and share.

Please vote today. Managing up is about courage and communication.  So is voting.