Own the 1:1
How to Manage Up (Part I)
One of the most frequent questions I receive is, "How do I manage up?" So let's explore how to do this well through a series of videos over the next three weeks, starting today.
Managing up is all about building trust, rapport, and communication with your boss. One of the best places to do this is in your regular 1:1 meetings. Watch the video below for a step-by-step plan to take your 1:1s to the next level. You’ll learn how to proficiently prepare for and facilitate these meetings.
Get ready to impress your manager as you build ease and efficiency into your 1:1s.
BONUS: After watching the video, download my sample 1:1 project tracker template to put this practice into action right away!
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Well, one of the most common questions I get is, "Abbey, how do I manage up effectively?" And so we are going to spend the next couple of weeks talking about this, specifically.
How can you manage up effectively?
Managing up is all about building trust, rapport and communication with your boss and one of the best places to do this is in your one-on-one.
I'm curious, do you currently own your one-on-one or does your manager run your one-on-one? The truth is, your manager really doesn't want to have to prepare for and facilitate yet another meeting, and so if you can own your one-on-one, take some more ownership and initiative in it and you come to it prepared and ready to guide them through all the important topics for that day, that is going to feel so good to your boss.
And so here's what I want you to do.
I want you to create a standard template that you will use in every one-on-one.
In that template, you are going to list out all of the major projects, tasks, responsibilities that are on your plate, okay?
You're going to bring a printed copy of this, or share it online if you're meeting remotely with them, in advance of the one-on-one. This means you need to prepare it in advance of the one-on-one.
So for each of these projects, tasks, responsibilities, the first thing you will note in there is top priorities, okay? Typically, we have more on our plate than we can actually focus on at any given time, and so, you are going to communicate to your boss, “Of all these things, these three, these five things, are my top priority. Does that match up with what you think should be my top priority and focus currently?”
For each of the items, you're going to share a brief project status update, right? What progress has been made? What wins have we seen recently? Are we on track to meet the goals, or the timeline, the metrics in the end, for this project or task?
And are there any challenges that we're facing? If we're facing some challenges, guess what? Your boss wants to be aware of them and they also want to hear, what are your plans to mitigate or overcome those roadblocks? Certainly you can ask for insight from them too, but come with some ideas of what you think would be effective in overcoming those challenges or roadblocks.
This is also a time to ask for help needed or ask questions rather than emailing them throughout the week, you know, a hundred emails. Come to this meeting and go through quickly, concisely. Give them updates. Get their feedback. You can make it efficient and effective, and again, this will feel so good to them.
At the end of the one-on-one, what I want you to ask yourself is, do they have the information they need to be able to go effectively report out on the status to their boss regarding your responsibilities? Not too much information, not too little, do they have the right amount of information that they could capably report out on it as well?
If you start to take more ownership and initiative in your one-on-ones, you come prepared and ready to update them in an efficient manner, I promise it will build trust, rapport, and better communication with your boss as you strive to manage up.