Managing Up: Becoming a Better Partner at Work

Managing up is one of those phrases that gets tossed around on LinkedIn alongside words like “synergy” and “thought leadership.” It sounds like corporate speak. It might even sound a little disingenuous, like you’re trying to game your way into your boss’s good graces.

Strip away the buzzword packaging, and managing up is actually one of the most practical, career-shaping skills you can develop. 

At its core, managing up is the proactive practice of working effectively with your manager or team lead. It means building a proactive partnership with that enhances collaboration, keeps you both on the same page, and helps the people around you (teammates, clients, leadership) win alongside you. It means taking an active role in your own career (whether it’s a career at Timmermann Group or elsewhere) so that you bring ideas and perspectives to your manager rather than waiting for instructions for every move.

At Timmermann Group, we believe this skill is foundational. 

Our “Conversions, not Diversions” mindset means we want everyone focused on high-impact work, transparent problem-solving, and meaningful outcomes. Managing up is the mechanism that makes all of that possible. This article is about what managing up actually looks like in practice, why it matters, and how it can make you more effective, more communicative, and more successful in your career-here and beyond.

Key Takeaways

• Managing up is the proactive practice of working effectively with your manager by understanding their goals, adapting your communication, and making decisions easier for them-not flattery, not politics.
• A shared understanding of priorities, paired with proactive updates, eliminates surprises, reduces friction, and keeps client work on track in a fast-moving agency.
• Managing up is how you get what you need to succeed: clarity, feedback, resources-while building trust that compounds into career growth over time.
• This skill travels with you everywhere: it works at Timmermann Group, at your next role, and in any professional relationship where alignment matters.

Why Talk About “Managing Up” in a Digital Agency Anyway?

You’ve probably scrolled past a dozen articles about managing up. Most of them are vague, stuffed with advice like “understand your boss” without explaining what that means when you’ve got three client deadlines converging on a Thursday.

If you’ve worked in an agency environment before, our work moves quickly across a number of distinct but in-sync services: SEO, Paid Search, Paid Social Media, UX & CRO, Website Development, and Analytics. That’s a lot of moving parts. Shifting client priorities, tight timelines, and cross-functional collaboration are the norm, not the exception. When an Account Manager needs a decision on scope and a Paid Search Strategist needs clarity on budget allocation and a developer needs sign-off on a design direction –– all in the same week–– managing up is the mechanism that keeps projects on track without burning people out.

Consider this: directors and department leads are people too. They’re juggling their own projects, other stakeholders, and the bigger picture while also trying to support their teams. Managing up isn’t just helpful in this environment––it’s how you help your manager help you.

What Is Managing Up?

Managing up means deliberately shaping how you and your manager work together so both of you can do your best work.

A 2025 study published in the Journal of Vocational Behavior defined it as two things happening together: understanding your manager’s goals, communication preferences, and decision style –– and then adapting your own behavior to align with those expectations. The researchers found that managing up improves communication and reduces misunderstandings, which directly reduces role ambiguity and increases engagement.

In simpler terms, here’s what it actually looks like: instead of waiting for your manager to have the capacity to ideate, delegate, and check in with you, you step up and say, “I think we should do X, and here’s why.” You bring your own views. You take ownership of your work and projects. You don’t passively wait for instruction –– you own your role, demonstrate agency and build momentum in your work and your career.

Here’s what managing up is:

• Building a strong relationship with your boss based on shared understanding of goals
• Tailoring your communication style to make it easier for your manager to absorb and act on what you share
• Anticipating what they need from you and surfacing risks early
• Offering solutions alongside problems

Here’s what managing up is not:

• Brown-nosing or flattery
• Gossiping upward about teammates
• Hiding problems to look good
• Passive-aggressively “managing around” a manager you disagree with
• Trying to control your boss

This is not a magic “productivity hack.” It’s a shift in behaviors that set you and your manager up for short- and long-term success.

It’s about transparency, honest feedback, and aligned goals. Political performance is image management, surface-level agreement, and hiding real problems.

Managing up is a core professional skill you can use at Timmermann Group and in any role where you report to someone. It highlights your ideas and leadership abilities, which are exactly what help you advance in your career. The better you manage up, the more your manager sees your judgment, reliability, and strategic thinking-all of which open doors.

Managing Up vs. Managing Down: Two Directions of the Same Skill

Managing down is how you lead people who report to you-delegating appropriate work, setting expectations, and creating the conditions for your direct reports to succeed. Even if you don’t have direct reports yet, you manage down anytime you act as a lead on a project: setting priorities, communicating scope, and ensuring quality of output.

Great leaders do both. They manage up to give executives and clients a bird’s-eye view of what’s happening and what decisions are needed. They manage down to create clarity, trust, and engagement for their teams.

Here’s a quick example. Think of a Timmermann Group account manager leading a multi-channel client engagement. They manage up to leadership on budget and scope changes-flagging a client’s request to expand into a new paid social platform, for instance. Simultaneously, they manage down to the team on priorities and expectations for output quality, ensuring the SEO strategist and the paid search team are aligned on what matters this sprint.

A McKinsey study found that behaviors associated with managing upward and sideways predicted business impact nearly 50% more strongly than managing subordinates alone-and more than twice as strongly for career success. That’s a significant impact on both the organization and the individual.

Early in your career, you may only “officially” manage up. But how you do this is training for leading teams later. The habits are the same: clear communication, honest feedback, follow-through, and focus on outcomes.

One important note: managing up is not a substitute for good leadership. Even if your manager struggles, you still deserve reasonable support. Leadership still owns their part. Managing up doesn’t mean you must compensate for bad bosses indefinitely-it means you’re doing your part to make the relationship work.

Know Your Manager and Know Yourself

Treat the relationship with your manager like an important client relationship. It deserves curiosity and intentionality.

Start by learning what makes your manager tick:

• Communication style: Do they prefer Teams messages, email, or live meetings? Knowing their preferred communication style saves both of you time.
• Information format: Do they want headlines first or detailed analysis? Anticipate your manager’s questions and have answers ready.
• Decision style: Do they like to think overnight, or do they prefer making calls in the moment?
• Non-negotiables: What are the things that matter most to them-accuracy, speed, creativity, client responsiveness?

Respecting a manager’s time and setting appropriate boundaries is critical. Learning your manager’s priorities aligns your objectives with theirs. When you understand what your manager likes and needs, you can anticipate their needs and provide better support.

Now match that with self-awareness. What’s your own default communication style? What triggers stress for you? How do you tend to react when you feel pressured? Be honest about your blind spots and biases so you can correct for them or lean further into your strengths.

Use recurring 1:1s to trade “working preferences” and bring forward ideas to advance the workflow between you. Talk about what helps you do your best work, what derails you, and how you both prefer delivering feedback and receiving feedback. Clarifying expectations early can prevent confusion and enhance productivity on both sides.

Managing up isn’t about changing who you are. It’s about learning to be flexible-stepping out of your comfort zone into a growth zone-without losing your values or boundaries. You’re not abandoning your personal preferences; you’re expanding your range.

Create a Shared Understanding of Goals, Success, and Priorities

Managing up starts with clarity. What does success look like this week, this month, or this quarter-for you, your manager, your team, and your clients?

Only 23% of U.S. employees feel informed about company goals. That’s a staggering gap, and it means most people are operating with incomplete context. You can close that gap by asking direct questions in your 1:1s:

• “What can I do that would make the biggest impact this month?”
• “How does my role support the team’s goals right now?”
• “What are you being asked to deliver to your boss’s boss, and how can I help?”

Regularly confirm your manager’s top priorities for the quarter. Regularly clarifying priorities enhances workplace performance because it keeps everyone moving in the same direction. Proactively clarifying expectations prevents miscommunication before it takes root.

Tie your daily tasks to bigger outcomes. If you’re working on a website launch, connect it to the client’s lead volume goals. If you’re running paid search optimizations, link your work to revenue targets. If you’re tracking outcomes with analytics, show how that data informs the next decision. This is how your manager sees the bigger picture of your contributions and how your work fits into agency growth.

Practical habits that help:

• Restate priorities back to your manager in writing after meetings
• Use shared docs or project boards to keep focus aligned
• Ask for buy-in on your priorities early in the week, not at the deadline

A shared understanding is the foundation for a career-advancing relationship with your boss. When they can clearly see your impact, they can advocate for you with higher-ups, in performance reviews, and in conversations about career development.

Communication Style: Calibrating How You Share Information Upward

You can’t control your manager’s reactions, but you can control how you package information so it’s easy for them to absorb and act on.

Start by observing. Does your manager ask for the bird’s-eye view first, or do they dive into line-item detail? Do they prefer async docs or quick calls? Do they want a summary with recommendations or raw data to draw their own conclusions?

Adapting to your manager’s communication style improves effectiveness. Adjust communication to match the preferences of your supervisor-not because you’re performing, but because it shows respect for their time and attention. It usually gets you faster decisions and better support.

Here are a few examples of calibrating your preferred style:

Manager’s style	How to adapt
Wants headlines first	Start with a one-line summary and KPI impact, then offer detail below.
Prefers deep analysis	Show the data breakout first (e.g., ROAS per channel), then your recommendation.
Likes verbal discussion	Prep a brief agenda, have the conversation, then follow up with a written recap.
Skims written updates	Use bullet points, bold the action items, and keep it under 200 words.

 

Different communication styles require different approaches. Anticipate your manager’s questions and have answers ready before they ask. This doesn’t mean you’re getting inside your boss’s head-it means you’re thinking one step ahead.

Keep communication open by flagging risks early, sharing progress before you’re asked, and never letting a big surprise hit your manager or a client meeting unprepared. When you keep information flowing, your manager can focus on removing obstacles for you instead of chasing updates.

Using 1:1s as Your Primary Tool for Managing Up

Recurring 1:1s are the single best place to practice managing up at Timmermann Group, whether you’re remote, hybrid, or in-office.

The most important advice here: own the 1:1. Bring topics, decisions, and questions. Don’t wait for your manager to drive the entire conversation. When you show up prepared, you signal that your voice matters and that you’re invested in the working relationship.

Here’s a simple structure that works:

1. Progress since last time: Quick wins, completed deliverables, decisions made
2. Priorities coming up: What’s on deck, where you need input, what you’re focusing on
3. What I need from you: Approvals, resources, air cover, feedback

Start with a bird’s eye view of all your active projects-website launches, paid search sprints, social calendars-before zooming into the one or two items that truly need discussion. This gives your manager context without drowning them.

1:1s are also your space to talk about career growth, not just tickets and timelines. Talk about skills you want to build, areas where you want feedback, and longer-term paths at the agency. At Timmermann Group, every role has a path for advancement, and this mindset-actively managing your development conversations-is how you move forward. Encourage your manager to share what they see as your strengths and growth areas. That’s a productive working relationship in action.

Proactive Communication: No Surprises, Especially on Client Work

In agency life, surprises are trust killers. Late deliverables, unanticipated budget overages, scope creep-these are what make managers and clients lose confidence fastest. Proactive communication builds trust and reduces surprises before they become emergencies.

Build a rhythm of lightweight, proactive updates:

• Short Teams check-ins at the end of the day
• Concise emails with bulleted key info for bigger updates
• Brief notes on project boards highlighting status, risks, and next steps

Regular concise updates keep supervisors informed without overwhelming them. Proactive updates can help build trust and reduce the need for close supervision-which means more autonomy for you over time.

Learn to calibrate urgency in your phrasing:

• “FYI-no action needed” → keeps your manager informed without adding to their plate
• “Heads up-we may miss this date unless we do X or Y by Friday” → gives them time to help unblock you
• “Decision needed by Wednesday to keep the dev queue moving” → clear ask, clear timeline, clear consequence

This phrasing also helps you communicate to your manager what you need from them, so they are clear on what you need, when, and why it matters. Remember, 62% of managers say their workload feels unreasonable. The clearer your requests, the faster they can support you.

Proactively alert managers to risks and offer solutions. Proactively share potential challenges before performance reviews or client meetings-not after. Regular updates help avoid last-minute surprises for managers, and proactive communication helps avoid last-minute situations that erode trust and waste everyone’s energy.

Building Trust Upward Through Follow-Through and Ownership

Trust with your manager is built less by big moments and more by repeated follow-through: doing what you said, when you said, and being transparent and direct when that’s not possible.

Simple behaviors that compound:

• Confirm action items after meetings in writing
• Hit small deadlines reliably-the ones nobody’s watching
• Own mistakes early (misconfigured tracking, missed website standards, campaign errors)
• Follow up without being asked

Reliability builds credibility and earns flexibility over time. The more consistently you deliver, the more autonomy you earn and the more weight your recommendations carry in strategy conversations. Your manager starts to trust your judgment, and that trust translates into bigger responsibilities, better projects, and a seat at tables you weren’t at before.

Employees under high-performing leaders are 4.5× more likely to excel-and part of what makes a leader high-performing is having team members who build trust through consistency. You help make your boss succeed, and they help you grow. It’s reciprocal.

At Timmermann Group, we care deeply about learning from mistakes. Our Value Cards peer recognition program is one example of how we celebrate doing the right thing-including taking responsibility and being honest about what went wrong. Managing up well means bringing the full context and what you’ll do differently next time, not hiding the problem.

Trust is essential for effective upward feedback and collaboration. It’s the backbone of a healthy relationship with your boss and what allows direct, un-defensive feedback in both directions. Constructive feedback should be treated as data for improvement, not as a personal attack-and that goes both ways.

Using Managing Up to Get What You Need to Do Great Work

Here’s the reframe that matters: managing up isn’t just something you “do for your boss.” It’s how you secure the clarity, time, and resources you actually need to succeed.

Concrete examples of what this looks like:

• Asking for clearer scope from a client before starting a website design
• Requesting more realistic timelines on a multi-channel campaign
• Flagging when your plate is overfull and asking your manager to help you prioritize
• Saying: “To hit this launch date, I’d need X and Y removed or pushed”
• Saying: “I need a decision on this website design by Wednesday to keep the dev queue moving”

These aren’t complaints; they’re problem-solving. Bring solutions to problems instead of just highlighting issues. When you frame asks clearly, your manager can advocate upward for budget, headcount, or timeline shifts with leadership and clients. They become your ally, not your bottleneck.

This ties directly to our “Conversions, not Diversions” mindset. Managing up is how you reduce busywork and focus your time on the work that actually moves results. It’s how you ensure your own work is aligned with what matters most, rather than getting pulled into low-impact tasks that don’t serve the team or the client.

When you manage up effectively, you build a relationship where both sides are clear on expectations, and your manager can actually help you instead of guessing what you need.

What If Your Manager Is Missing the Mark? The Limits and Power of Managing Up

Not every manager will be a great leader all the time. Stress, bandwidth, and experience gaps are real-even in healthy cultures. Great managers are still human, and sometimes even the best ones drop the ball.

Here’s what managing up can do in this situation:

• Create structure where there isn’t any (e.g., proposing a weekly check-in format)
• Clarify murky expectations by asking direct questions and summarizing answers
• Reduce friction by proactively offering solutions and keeping your own work organized

Here’s what managing up cannot do:

• Fix repeated disrespect or chronic dishonesty
• Compensate for a refusal to engage in two-way feedback
• Replace the need for actual leadership from your manager

If you’re in a tough spot, document your efforts. Recap decisions in writing. Summarize agreements after conversations. Keep a record of patterns-both for your own clarity and for escalation if needed.

At Timmermann Group, we want people to raise patterns that are getting in the way of healthy work. Managing up does not mean you must quietly tolerate weak leadership or a bad relationship. Your voice matters, and leadership shares responsibility for creating a workable, respectful environment. If you’ve done the work of managing up with integrity and the relationship still isn’t improving, it’s time to engage internal support-skip-levels, HR, or another trusted leader.

Is Managing Up Just Kissing Up? In Brief, No.

Let’s address this perception head-on. Many people hear “managing up” and think politics, flattery, or gaming the system to look good. That’s not what we’re talking about.

Here’s the contrast:

Kissing up (political performance)	Managing up (supportive partnership)
Performative late nights to look busy	Consistent, reliable delivery
Constant agreement with everything	Honest, respectful pushback when needed
Public praise without substance	Clear communication about real outcomes
Hiding problems	Surfacing risks early with options

 

Great leaders don’t actually reward empty flattery in the long run. They reward people who make better decisions easier, who are candid when things are off, and who deliver results consistently.

Within Timmermann Group, we evaluate contributions based on impact on client results, reliability, and constructive behavior in the team-not who flatters whom and pays lip service. It’s about outcomes. You can learn more about what drives our culture to see how this plays out in practice.

You can manage up with integrity. Be honest. Be transparent about constraints. Align with shared goals, not personal image. That’s a better relationship for everyone involved.

Everyday Behaviors That Add Up to Managing Up Well

Theory is useful. Practice is what changes things. Here are concrete behaviors you can apply this week on live projects:

Daily Wrap and On Deck updates: At the end of each day, send a brief update highlighting work that’s been completed and what’s on deck for tomorrow. This doesn’t need to be long-three to five bullets. It keeps your manager informed, reduces Teams messages asking for status, and builds a rhythm of accountability.

Summarize client calls: After any client meeting, send a quick recap with clear decisions made and open questions that need answers. Tag the right people. This creates a written record and makes sure everyone is on the same page.

Give a bird’s-eye view before details: In any update-written or verbal-start with the overall picture: “Here’s how the campaign is trending overall; here are the two to three metrics that matter this week.” Then dive into specifics.

Speak up in meetings: Offer transparent feedback that improves the work. If you see a potential issue with a strategy, say so. If you have an idea that could improve a deliverable, raise it. This is where managing up meets real leadership.

Normalize asking for feedback: After a client meeting or a presentation, ask your manager: “Anything I could have done differently?” Use the SBI model for clear upward feedback too-describe the Situation, the Behavior you observed, and the Impact it had. This works in both directions.

Follow through visibly: When you say you’ll do something, do it. When you can’t, say so early.

Consistency matters more than heroics. Small, predictable acts of managing up are what build a strong relationship with your boss over quarters and years. They’re what turn a decent working relationship into one where you both do your best work.

How Managing Up Supports Your Long-Term Career

Managers who trust you and understand your goals are far more likely to invest time, resources, and their own credibility into you. They’ll sponsor you for bigger projects and advocate for your advancement with the organization. That’s the career development payoff of managing up.

Frame this as a transferable leadership skill. Whether you become a Director of Conversions, a Lead SEO, a Senior Paid Search Strategist, or move on to a product leader role somewhere else-these habits travel with you. The ability to communicate clearly upward, build trust through follow-through, and align your priorities with your manager’s goals is valuable in every industry and every job.

People who manage up well often get pulled into higher-level conversations: quarterly planning, strategy discussions, bigger client pitches. Why? Because their managers trust them to add value, not just execute tasks. They’ve proven they can see the bigger picture and contribute to it.

Use your 1:1s to articulate your own career direction. Tell your manager what you want to learn, what roles interest you, and what experiences would help you grow-whether that’s new platforms, certifications, or cross-functional exposure. At Timmermann Group, every role has a path for advancement, and managing up is how you ensure your manager sees what you’re working toward.

Employees under high-performing leaders are 4.5x more likely to excel, and the same is true in reverse: when you manage up well, you help your leader perform at a higher level, creating a cycle of success for the whole team.

Managing Up at Timmermann Group: How It Fits Our Culture

Timmermann Group is a digital marketing agency with a workplace culture that rewards clarity, reliability, and the willingness to speak up when something isn’t working.

We expect people at every level-from interns to directors-to manage up. That means asking for more clarity when you don’t have it, bringing solutions rather than just highlighting issues, and surfacing risks before they become problems a client can see and feel.

This connects directly to psychological safety. We want people to raise tough issues and trade-offs honestly, not silently grind behind the scenes hoping things work out. When you manage up well, you make it safe for your manager to trust your judgment, and that trust flows both ways.

Think of managing up as a way to reduce friction in our internal flywheel. Clearer decisions lead to fewer misunderstandings among the account, strategy, and production teams, resulting in faster learning loops and better outcomes. Building a proactive partnership with your supervisor means the whole team fits together more efficiently.

For potential hires considering a career at Timmermann Group, comfort with managing up is a strong signal you’ll thrive with our pace, autonomy, and expectations. It’s not about being told what to do-it’s about taking responsibility for how you show up in your working relationship with your manager and your team.

Managing Up: A Simple Playbook

Here’s what it all comes down to: managing up is about shared understanding, calibrated communication, proactive updates, building trust through follow-through, and having realistic expectations about imperfect humans-including your manager and yourself.

If you’re a new hire in your first 90 days at Timmermann Group, here’s a playbook to start with:

1. Week 1–2: Learn your manager’s preferred communication style and working style. Ask how they like updates and what their non-negotiables are.
2. Week 3–4: Start owning your 1:1 agenda. Bring priorities, questions, and at least one idea or observation each session.
3. Month 2: Begin sending regular proactive updates-Daily Wraps, client call recaps, risk flags. Build the habit before it’s needed in a crisis.
4. Month 3: Ask for feedback on how the working relationship is going. Share what’s working for you and where you’d like more clarity or support.
5. Ongoing: Keep refining. Managing up is not a one-time setup; it’s a practice you sharpen over your entire career.

Don’t try to overhaul everything at once. Pick one or two behaviors from this article and try them this week. The compound effect over months and years is what separates people who are good at their jobs from those who are great at their careers.

Managing up well doesn’t just make your job smoother-it makes our work for clients sharper and Timmermann Group’s work culture more honest and supportive.

If you’re reading this and thinking, “this is how I already work,” we’d love to hear from you. Check out our open roles and bring these habits with you.

Frequently Asked Questions

These are common, practical questions we hear from team members and candidates about managing up. Here are straight answers grounded in how things actually work in agency life.

How soon is “too soon” to start managing up with a new manager?

You can start from week one with low-stakes behaviors: ask how your manager likes to receive updates, recap meetings in writing, and clarify priorities. These are never seen as overstepping-they’re appreciated. Wait until you’ve built a bit of rapport (a few weeks) before offering upward feedback or pushing on bigger process changes. Thoughtful questions and clear summaries are always welcome for new hires at Timmermann Group.

What if my communication style is very different from my manager’s?

Have an open conversation about it. Admit your defaults and ask where you can meet in the middle-for example, combining brief headlines with linked detail so your manager can skim or dive deeper depending on their preferred style. Use written updates to bridge gaps between different work styles. Flexing your communication approach is part of professional growth, but you should never feel forced to abandon clarity or honesty in the process. A better manager will meet you halfway.

How do I manage up effectively in a remote or hybrid environment?

Lean on async tools: shared status docs, Teams channels, and short Loom-style walkthroughs for complex SEO, PPC, or website work. Consistency matters even more remotely. Maintain regular 1:1s, send weekly written check-ins, and set clear expectations about response times. In remote work, silence is easily misread, so over-communicating context and intent is key to keeping communication open and trust high. Don’t assume your manager knows what you’re working on just because you’re busy.

Can I manage up if I’m still early in my career or new to the industry?

Absolutely. Managing up is not reserved for senior people. Asking smart questions, summarizing your work, and surfacing blockers are valuable at any level and demonstrate real skills that managers notice. Focus on clarity and follow-through first; influence will naturally grow as you consistently deliver. At Timmermann Group, curiosity and proactive communication from junior team members is seen as a strength, not as being “too big for your boots.” It’s one of the strongest strategies for standing out.

What should I do if managing up isn’t improving the relationship?

First, check your assumptions. Ask your manager directly how they feel the relationship is going and what would help them support you better. If issues persist, use internal support systems-HR, another leader, or a skip-level conversation with your boss’s boss where appropriate-to get perspective and guidance. You’re not expected to “fix” a fundamentally unhealthy dynamic alone. Leadership shares responsibility for creating a workable, respectful environment, and sometimes the lead has to come from above.