357: How to Manage Up When Your Boss Is Not Giving You What You Need

Send us Fan Mail Your boss is not a mind reader, and hoping they become a better manager is not a career development strategy. When your one-on-one meetings keep getting canceled, priorities change without warning, and the only feedback you receive comes after something goes wrong, it is easy to feel unsupported, frustrated, and resentful. But a disappointing boss cannot be the thing that dictates the direction of your career. In this episode of The Mid-Career GPS Podcast, I break down how to manage up with clarity, confidence, and self-respect. Managing up is an essential leadership and communication skill for mid-career professionals who want more direction, stronger feedback, greater visibility, and better opportunities for advancement. Managing up is not about flattering your boss, participating in office politics, or becoming responsible for your manager’s job. It is about building a more effective working relationship by understanding what your supervisor needs to make decisions, how they prefer to communicate, and what pressures influence their priorities. I share practical strategies you can use to take greater ownership of your side of the relationship. You will learn how to bring a focused agenda to your one-on-one meetings, ask directly for the feedback you need, communicate your career goals, and explain the impact of your work so your visibility does not depend on luck. I also share a communication protocol I created with an overwhelmed executive leader. This simple fail-safe follow-up process helped me get timely decisions, protect my team, and close communication loops without creating unnecessary tension or drama. We also examine the limits of managing up. No communication strategy can fix retaliation, unethical leadership, repeated disrespect, or a toxic workplace culture. Part of leading your career is recognizing when a working relationship can be improved and when the environment itself is the problem. **In This Episode, You Will Learn:** - The common signs of an ineffective manager include canceled one-on-ones, constantly shifting priorities, and feedback that only comes when something goes wrong - What managing up means and what it should never require you to tolerate - How to treat the employee and supervisor relationship as a shared responsibility - Why owning your side of the relationship does not mean carrying responsibility for your manager’s behavior - How to ask for specific feedback instead of waiting for your boss to provide it - Why bringing an agenda to your one-on-one meetings can improve communication and accountability - How to tell your manager directly that you want to be promoted - How to communicate the results and business impact of your work - Why psychological safety, clarity, and manager quality affect engagement, performance, and burnout - What mid-career professionals can learn from strategic executive assistants about anticipating needs - How to create a fail-safe follow-up ladder that helps you get decisions and unblock your team - The red flags that indicate managing up is no longer an effective or appropriate solution **Three Questions to Consider After Listening:** 1. What are you currently known for within your organization? 2. What do you want your manager and senior leadership to know about your career goals? 3. What conversation have you been avoiding because you are waiting for your boss to initiate it? You do not need to become manipulative, political, or inauthentic to manage up effectively. You do need to communicate clearly, establish reasonable ground rules, advocate for your professional development, and stop expecting your manager to automatically know what you need. Listen to this episode to learn how to take greater ownership of your career, strengthen your relationship with your manager, and get the feedback, support, and visibility you need to move forward. After you listen, share this episode with a colleague who needs it. Subscribe to The Mid-Career GPS Podcast so you do not miss an upcoming episode, and leave a rating and review to let me know what part of this conversation resonated most with you. Remember, how you SHOW UP matters. Support the show If this episode resonated with you and you want more support in how you SHOW UP for your career and life, there are two ways we can work together. Learn more about my SHOW UP Leadership Lab, my monthly membership program, at https://www.johnneral.com/showup If you would like to learn more about how I can help you as your leadership and career coach, visit https://www.johnneral.com/workwithme. Get John's free weekly leadership and career newsletter at https://www.johnneral.com/the-mid-career-gps-newsletter Other ways we can connect: - Connect with John on LinkedIn here. - Get John's books on Amazon here. - Follow John on Instagram @johnneralcoaching. - Subscribe to John's YouTube Channel here. Please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts here. This podcast is listed in Feedspot's Top 90 Best Executive Career Podcasts. https://podcast.feedspot.com/executive\_career\_podcasts/