Managing Up As An Assistant

We see it on job descriptions, but how does it work in practice?

Managing up is a crucial skill if you are to really excel as an assistant. It’s something which, if done well, is barely noticed. It is not telling your Exec what they should and shouldn’t do. It’s not giving them targets or goals as you might do with someone reporting into you. Think of it more like guiding your Exec, rather than managing them.

An awful lot of job specs have this term on them without explaining what is really required and it can mean different things to different companies and different people.

So, the first thing you need to do is to learn what your manager or Exec actually needs from you in the context of Managing Up. At a really simplistic level, they could need reminding that they have meetings to go to, or interrupting when their meetings are overrunning. You are guiding them to where they need to be, and what they need to be doing.

Of course, as assistants, we all live and breathe this kind of Managing Up. I’d be surprised if there was an assistant on the planet who didn’t have to remind their Exec every now and then that they should be on a call or in a meeting. So this article is going to walk you through some of the other ways you can leverage this skill to greatly benefit your Exec and the organisation.

If you master Managing Up, you are several steps forward to becoming that Strategic Partner your Exec doesn’t realise they need!

1. Build Mutual Trust

The first thing you should be doing is working on building a strong foundation of mutual trust. I see a lot of articles saying that Execs have to learn to trust their Assistant, but I promise you, it’s equally as important the other way around too. If you don’t trust your Exec, it’s going to be virtually impossible to do your job well.