Politics and influence
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8 min read
Key findings
Upward ingratiation raised bosses' promotability ratings in one study and lowered team members' willingness to contribute.
All 40 employees interviewed in one study of workplace silence had failed to speak up at work at least once.
A recommendation that changed after a leader's first reaction, with no new evidence, is compliance.
Bad news travels upward best as the fact, the consequence sized, the action taken and the request.
A recommendation that changed after the leader frowned, with no new evidence, is compliance.
Managing up is the practice of making a senior person's decisions easier and better informed.
It means learning their goals and pressures, bringing them decisions in a form they can use, and telling them early what they need to hear.
Managing up without flattery adds one condition, which is that the adviser's agreement has to carry information.
An HR business partner or talent lead manages up in two directions at once, towards an HR director and towards the business leaders the function serves.
In both directions flattery lowers the quality of the advice, because the leader can no longer tell agreement from assessment.
What Managing Up Means
Most guides to managing up assume an employee improving the relationship with a line manager for the sake of a career.
The internal adviser's position differs in one respect that changes the method.
The business leader is a client who can ignore the advice, and who already hears agreement from a team that depends on them.
The adviser is most useful to that leader on the points where the team stays silent.
Peter Block reports that internal consultants often say their role is to satisfy the line manager.
They add that they are in no position to make demands of the people they serve.
He calls that pure service orientation self-defeating, because the adviser's own requirements go unstated and the work then lacks what it needs.
Managing Up Without Sucking Up
Flattery pays the person who uses it, and the research on ingratiation says so plainly.
Andrew DuBrin reports a South Korean study of 91 leaders, their 91 bosses and 215 subordinates in four organisations.
Leaders who ingratiated upward were rated as more promotable and reported higher job satisfaction.
Their own teams became less willing to contribute, because upward ingratiation damaged the relationship between those leaders and their subordinates.
For an adviser the cost is different and falls on the advice.
A leader who hears agreement every time learns nothing from the adviser, because the answer is predictable.
Peers stop bringing the adviser difficult questions, because they know where the adviser will land.
When a serious disagreement arrives, the adviser has no record of candour to draw on.
The pressure towards silence is well documented.
Amy Edmondson reports a study in which Frances Milliken, Elizabeth Morrison and Patricia Hewlin interviewed 40 full-time employees in consulting, financial services, media, pharmaceuticals and advertising.
Every interviewee had failed to speak up at work on at least one occasion.
The two reasons given most often were fear of being viewed negatively and fear of damaging a work relationship.
Edmondson also cites a survey by Renee Tynan, in which business school students described their relationship with a previous boss.
Those who had not felt safe either kept quiet or distorted their message so as not to upset that boss.
Distortion is the adviser's version of flattery, and it is harder to see than praise, because every sentence in the message can be true.
A Test For Compliance
Agreement drifts into compliance gradually, so the adviser needs a check to run each month.
Block treats a client's compliance as a form of resistance, meaning total agreement with almost no reservations and low energy.
His reasoning is that every client has some reservations, and those that are not said to the consultant come out somewhere else.
The same reading applies when the adviser is the compliant party, because reservations not voiced to the leader are voiced to peers.
Four questions cover most of the check.
When did I last tell this leader something unwelcome, and what was it
How many of my recommendations changed after the leader's first reaction, and on what new evidence
Did I learn the leader's view before forming my own
Would a peer reading my last three emails to this leader recognise my actual opinion
A quarter with no unwelcome message on record usually means the advice has softened.
A recommendation that changed after the leader frowned, with no new evidence, is compliance.
Monthly Contact Standard
A standard for monthly contact removes the choice of whether to raise the hard item.
Each month the business leader hears four things from the adviser.
One risk in the leader's people numbers, sized in the leader's own terms
One decision the leader needs to take, with a date
Progress on what was agreed last month, including what slipped
One point on which the adviser disagrees with the current plan, or is unsure
The fourth item is the one advisers drop first, and a leader notices when it disappears.
A Four Line Brief
A senior leader's constraint is attention, and every page an adviser sends competes for it.
Four lines carry almost any request upward.
The decision being asked for, with its date
The one number that matters
The recommendation, and the reason
What happens if the answer is no
A recommendation with no stated consequence of refusal reads as a preference.
For example, a talent lead writing to an operations director might send this.
"I need a decision by 14 October on who covers the maintenance manager role. Three of the four shifts have no qualified deputy. I recommend appointing the senior planner as interim from 1 November, with a formal assessment in March. If the answer is no, cover falls on the two shift leads who already hold the on-call rota."
The brief runs to four sentences and leaves the leader a choice between two named options.
Each executive also works in a particular unit.
A commercial director thinks in margin and pipeline, an operations director in cycle time and capacity, and a finance director in run rate and variance.
Translating an analysis into those units is part of the adviser's job, and it involves no flattery.
A Weekly Update With Bad News
Bad news travels upward in four parts, in this order.
The fact, in the first sentence
The consequence, sized
What the adviser has already done
What the adviser needs from the leader
An HR business partner writing to a plant's managing director might send this.
"Three of our eight engineering team leads have resigned since 1 June, two of them to the same competitor. The commissioning date of 30 October depends on two of those roles. I have briefed an agency on both roles with a 30-day deadline and asked their manager to hold stay conversations with the remaining five this week. I need your approval by Friday for a retention payment to the two commissioning leads."
The update states the fact without softening it and sizes the consequence against a date the leader owns.
It arrives with action already taken, so the leader is asked for a decision instead of a rescue.
Burying the fact in context reads as an attempt to soften it, and the leader will read the whole message looking for it.
Every interviewee had failed to speak up at work on at least one occasion.
The First Disagreement
The first disagreement with a senior leader sets the pattern for later ones.
It is survivable if it follows three rules.
Choose something small, factual and checkable, not a judgement call
Raise it privately and once
Stay visibly relaxed about the outcome
An adviser who disagrees well on a minor point is more likely to be heard on a major one.
The full method for a serious disagreement, including what to do after being overruled, is set out in challenging a leader you advise.
Questions Senior Leaders Ask
Senior leaders ask a small set of questions repeatedly, and preparing for them is most of the preparation.
What does this cost, in full
What happens if we do nothing
Who else has done this, and what happened
What would change your recommendation
What do you need from me
The fifth question is the easiest to leave unprepared, because advisers tend to arrive with information and no request.
Block lists what an internal consultant can reasonably ask a client for.
The list covers enough time, access to the right people and information, support at difficult moments and follow-up on the recommendations.
The Briefing Chain
Most senior decisions are shaped before the meeting by the people who brief the decision holder.
The chain can be used openly in three ways.
Find out who briefs the leader, and give that person the same material
Ask what has already been said on the subject
Give the point in one sentence that someone else can repeat accurately
A power map drawn before the decision shows who those people are for a particular decision.
Managing Up To A Difficult Boss
Some relationships with a senior leader do not improve, and persistence alone rarely fixes them.
The cause decides the response, and three are worth separating.
A mismatch of style. Workable through written material and shorter meetings
A dispute about the function's role. Needs the terms of the relationship renegotiated one to one
A judgement that the adviser lacks competence. Needs one piece of work done visibly well
When the difficult boss is the adviser's own HR director, the same three causes apply.
The terms of that renegotiation are covered in contracting as an internal consultant.
Managing Sideways
Much of what passes for managing up is managing across, because peers hold the cooperation a recommendation needs.
Tell a peer before their boss hears about it from you
Give credit specifically, in front of the person who allocates work
Ask for something small early, so the relationship has been tested before it matters
The same exchange logic runs through influencing without authority.
Managing Up And Office Politics
Managing up and office politics overlap, because both involve reading who decides and how.
The line falls at honesty about interests.
An adviser who states what they want, gives the evidence against their own case and accepts a no is managing up.
An adviser who flatters to gain access, or routes around a leader to win, is playing politics.
Signs The Relationship Works
A working relationship with a senior leader shows in three markers, and being liked is not one of them.
Being asked before a decision instead of after it
Being told the leader's worry as well as the conclusion
Being asked what the adviser would do, without prompting
The second marker is the strongest, because a leader shares a worry only with someone whose answer they expect to use.
Where The Tools Sit
Trusted Talent Advisor covers the monthly standard, the upward brief and the first disagreement in its component on stakeholder conversations.
Its template pack includes a stakeholder map and a recommendation record for tracking what was advised and what was decided.
Sources
1. DuBrin, A. J. Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills. Cengage.
2. Edmondson, A. C. The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth. Wiley.
3. Block, P. Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used. Pfeiffer.
From the system
Trusted Talent Advisor sets out the full method: seven components, 51 tools, The Talent Template Pack and The Prompt Library.
See the system
Questions this answers
What does managing up mean?
Managing up means making a senior person's decisions easier and better informed. It involves learning their goals and pressures, bringing decisions in a form they can use, and telling them early what they would prefer not to hear.
How do you manage up without sucking up?
Set a monthly standard that includes one point of disagreement or doubt, check for recommendations that changed after the leader's first reaction without new evidence, and translate your analysis into the leader's own units instead of praising their plan.
What are examples of managing up?
A four line brief with the decision, the key number, the recommendation and the consequence of refusal. A bad news update that states the fact first. Briefing the person who briefs the leader, with the same material.
Is managing up the same as office politics?
They overlap, because both involve reading who decides and how. Managing up is open about what you want and gives the evidence against your own case, while politics relies on flattery for access or on routing around people.
How do you manage up to a difficult boss?
Work out the cause first. A mismatch of style needs written material and shorter meetings, a dispute about your role needs the terms renegotiated one to one, and doubt about your competence needs one piece of work done visibly well.
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