Managing Up, One Conversation at a Time

Women at Work

Harvard Business Review

Entrepreneurship, Workplace, Business/management, Business/entrepreneurship, Progress, Resources, Gender, Equality, Business/careers, Women, Hbr, Careers, Management, Business, Harvard, Human

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Have you ever realized, mid-project, that you and your boss weren’t aligned on what success looked like or how to get there? Executive coach Melody Wilding explains why getting clear on goals and understanding each other’s working styles is essential, even when you’re already in a leadership role. They share advice on how to start these conversations in a way that feels natural and constructive, break down common style mismatches, and offer guidance for adapting without losing your authenticity.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Women at Work from Harvard Business Review.
0:02.9	I'm Amy Gallo.
0:05.6	Everyone reports to someone.
0:08.3	And managing up is how we proactively build a productive, mutually beneficial relationship with our boss, whether that person is a VP or the CFO.
0:17.9	It's the effort we put into understanding their priorities. It's the way we tailor updates
0:23.2	and feedback. It's balancing their needs with ours. It's a mix of skills you keep honing because
0:30.0	managing up isn't something you ever really finish. Thankfully, in executive coach Melody Wilding's
0:37.3	new book, she breaks the work of navigating your relationship with your boss into 10 conversations.
0:43.5	Her book's called Managing Up, How to Get What You Need from the People in Charge.
0:48.4	In it, she prepares us for conversations about boundaries, about visibility, about advancement, about money. Before those,
0:56.2	though, she strongly recommends having two foundational conversations, one about alignment and
1:02.0	one about styles. Very simply put, the alignment conversation is creating clear expectations,
1:09.6	getting on the same page with your manager about what success
1:13.0	looks like. If the alignment conversation is about what we're accomplishing, what's most
1:18.9	important to be spending time and energy on, then the styles conversation is how do we
1:24.5	accomplish it together, knowing that we may have different personalities,
1:28.8	approaches, preferences.
1:31.1	Melody's here to help us rethink managing up as a career-long practice.
1:35.9	And she and I will give examples of what to say so that these critical conversations
1:40.1	are easier to get started and lead to more impact.
1:44.2	Music are easier to get started and lead to more impact.
1:57.2	Melody, first of all, thank you for joining me. It's always lovely to be chatting with you.
	...

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