When ‘managing up’ is part of your job description, tread with care

Dear Bob …

I recently accepted a transfer offer that will unite me with my direct supervisor, who is the IT Operations Manager. I am a System Administrator with more than 25 years of various experience. My boss is younger than I am with less experience. I am getting conflicting “visions” from my boss and his boss, the IT director (who is more my age, probably with more experience than I have).

My boss sees my transfer as “empire-building.” He has already consolidated servers from remote locations to his location, and replaced remote System Administrators with new employees at his location. To be honest, his location is more dynamic with more potential for growth because it delivers more than half of the corporation’s profits.

[ There’s more than one occasion to “manage up,” and Bob Lewis has another example to share | Get sage advice on IT careers and management from Bob Lewis in InfoWorld’s Advice Line newsletter. ]

My boss’ boss (IT Director) sees this as more of a step up for me — almost an assistant manager of IT operations — though, of course, no one is calling it that. But his comments to me were along the lines of: “We need more maturity at that location” and “Your boss is too bogged down in the day-to-day fire fights and I need him to take a more strategic view, which he can do with you there to handle more of the daily activities.”

So, my question is: What should I be wary of in taking this transfer? I’ve already signed up for it and I want to be at that location anyway, so I am committed to making this work.

– Transferrer

Dear Transferrer …

What to be wary of? Start with yourself.

You say your boss sees your transfer as empire-building. Unless he’s spoken those words to you or to someone he trusts, I doubt he does. It’s more likely he sees the benefits of centralization more than he sees the drawbacks, or perhaps has analyzed the situation carefully and thinks the benefits simply outweigh the drawbacks. Even if he’s just rationalizing, I doubt he consciously said to himself, “You know, this would be a great way to help build my empire.”

Before you consider anything else, consider your personal feelings toward the guy. For the transfer to work to your advantage, the two of you are going to have to trust each other, and the ball is in your court, not his. (In case you aren’t clear why: It’s because you can do something about your own attitudes, and you have more skin in the game.)

So give the guy the benefit of the doubt, and when you aren’t sure, ask him how he arrived at his conclusion.

Second: For the first month in your new position, do more listening than talking. Offer no opinions on any topic, even if asked. The reason: Any opinion you offer might be a step on someone’s toes; every solicitation of your opinion might be a trap to get you to do so. It’s easy to duck questions like this, too. Just respond, “The answer to that depends a lot on the situation, and I’m still figuring out the situation.”

You need to figure out who you can trust and who you have to be wary of. Most important, you have to figure out who sees themselves as an heir apparent or “power behind the throne,” seeing you as a potential threat, and who you can trust.

And third: It seems pretty clear the IT Director sees your boss as having a lot of potential, and sees the need to develop that potential. That puts you in an awkward position: You’re there to provide adult supervision by managing up. Which probably causes you to wonder why your role and that of your boss aren’t reversed.

The answer is that the answer doesn’t matter. Your job is to make your boss look good.

Do everything you can to build rapport. Whenever something comes up that requires management more than leadership — that requires supervision rather than strategy — offer to take care of it. The IT Director wants your boss to be more strategic? At best, your boss has a 50/50 chance of succeeding, because if he were the sort who thinks strategically, chances are pretty good he’d already be participating in IT leadership at the strategic level.

Still, people can learn. If your boss wants to learn, he’ll welcome your offer to take over as much operational responsibility to free up his time. If he doesn’t, you’ll still end up looking good for having offered.

And if he succeeds, you’ll be the heir apparent. To me, that sounds like an opportunity.

– Bob