Why managing up may be the skill your team needs most
Managers are trained to lead downwards. But much of the pressure their teams feel arrives from above, and what happens in that conversation shapes everyone's week.
Most management training points one way: down. How to coach, how to delegate, how to give feedback. Yet the pressure your team feels most often starts above you: a deadline that moves, a target that rises, a priority that changes on a Thursday afternoon. What a middle manager does with that pressure decides whether the team gets stability or whiplash.
The squeeze is real
Gallup's 2025 global workplace report found that manager engagement in the US fell from 30% to 27% in a year, and that 42% of managers said they had felt a lot of stress the previous day. Less than half said they had received any management training. The report also warns that manager burnout leads to declining performance, more absenteeism and higher employee churn. A manager who is quietly absorbing the pressure has less to give the team.
Why silent buffering fails
Many good managers protect their teams by taking the heat. They soften a deadline, hide a changed goal, and work the extra hours themselves. For a while it works, but the strain is only postponed. Eventually the buffer cracks, and the pressure lands on the team all at once as a sudden pivot, a missed target or a resignation.
Senior leaders and managers often speak different languages. Senior leaders think in outcomes, risk and results. Managers think in people, capacity and the next deadline. When neither side translates, the executive sees a manager who resists change, and the manager sees an executive who is out of touch.
What managing up is, and is not
Managing up is not flattery or politics. It is working deliberately with your own manager to get the best result for you, your team and the organisation.
The research on influence supports that. A review of multiple studies covering almost 9,000 people found that a reasoned, evidence-based case was the one approach that worked reliably across outcomes, and that pressure was the one that did not. Much of the research relies on what people report about themselves, so some of what follows is craft rather than proof. It is craft worth practising.
Speak their language. Every senior leader watches something in particular: risk, cost, speed or revenue. Frame a request around what threatens or helps that, not around how hard your team is working.
Bring options, not only problems. State the problem, say what it means for the business, offer two or three ways forward with their trade-offs, and recommend one. It turns an escalation into a decision.
Adapt to how they take things in. Some leaders want a short written note beforehand. Others prefer a quick conversation and questions. Watch, then adjust.
Who benefits
Your team gets clearer priorities and the resources to meet them. You earn trust, and with it the freedom of being checked on less. Your own manager gets something rare: an honest account of what is happening on the ground, before it becomes a crisis. If you are a senior leader, invite it. Most managers will only say what they think you are ready to hear.
Two things to try on Monday
Bring one problem the way you would want to receive it. Pick something you would normally just absorb. Write four lines: the problem, why it matters to your boss, two options and your recommendation. Then take it to them.
Ask your boss two questions. What are you being measured on this quarter, and how do you prefer to be kept up to date? The answers will shape every conversation after that.
If you would like to see how your team is coping, the short team check on our home page is a good place to start.
About the author
Neil Tapinos is a leadership coach and the founder of Neil Tapinos Consulting. After more than two decades in media and senior commercial leadership, where he led sales teams and guided people through restructuring and turnaround, he now holds an MPhil in Leadership Coaching and an MBA. He helps middle managers, sales leaders and their teams keep growing through change. If something in this article sounds like your team, book a conversation.
Sources
Gallup (2025). State of the Global Workplace 2025. Also reported by ASIS Security Management and MindsetOnline.
Lee, S., Han, S., Cheong, M., Kim, S. L. and Yun, S. (2017). How do I get my way? A meta-analytic review of research on influence tactics. The Leadership Quarterly, 28(1), 210 to 228.
Comments