Upward management is both a communication skill and a form of workplace preservation intelligence. In a certain sense, every manager faces the issue of how to communicate with their superior, which is also the core problem that upward management aims to solve.
Landmines of Upward Management:
Landmine One: Making Private Conflicts Public
When conflicts arise between a superior and subordinate due to work methods or thinking, it is taboo for the subordinate to make originally small-scale, minor issues public, drawing widespread attention. This not only magnifies the impact of the matter but may also subject the superior to severe criticism in public opinion, inevitably leading to a rapid deterioration of relations between the two parties.
Landmine Two: Linear Thinking in Rejecting Superiors
In the corporate hierarchy, superiors have the right to issue orders or criticize subordinates. When criticized by a superior, regardless of whether the criticism is reasonable, the best response for a subordinate is to respond indirectly rather than argue directly. From the perspective of the superior, a direct rejection of their criticism is seen as a challenge to their leadership authority, making it difficult for them to back down and likely prompting them to take stricter measures to suppress the subordinate's resistance. For example, in the "email scandal," Lu Chunchu immediately fired her after being strongly criticized by Berryka. Thus, engaging in a head-on confrontation with one's superior using linear thinking can easily lead to a swift termination of dialogue between the two parties and worsen their relationship.
Landmine Three: Tacit Rules vs. Male Chauvinism
From a general management perspective, the reason why Lu Chunchu reacted so strongly to Berryka's defiance was because his authority as a leader was challenged. However, from the perspective of tacit management rules, Berryka, as a female employee, defying her male superior so strongly must have deeply touched on Lu Chunchu’s inner chauvinistic tendencies. Gender-based intense confrontations often occur in many Chinese enterprises, but the deeper causes are often overlooked - for many male leaders with strong patriarchal consciousness, they might tolerate being challenged by male subordinates under certain circumstances, but they absolutely cannot tolerate being challenged by female subordinates.
Upward Management: Bringing the Superior's Deviant Thinking Back on Track
Huang Xu is the manager of the Guangzhou branch of a private software company. Due to the rapid changes in industry technology and increasingly fierce competition, Huang Xu feels increasing pressure. During a major client bidding session, the competitor snatched the order, instilling a strong sense of crisis in Huang Xu. Under this anxiety, Huang Xu began putting pressure on the company employees, demanding they work overtime continuously; endless meetings discussing the company's growth opportunities, constantly revising the company's development plan in hopes of seeing short-term results; imposing stricter, even harsh demands on all employees, allowing no room for error.
What puzzles Huang Xu is that all these efforts have not yielded the expected results. Under his critical demands, employees aim for harmlessness rather than achievement. Moreover, Huang Xu's anxious emotions cast a tense atmosphere over the entire company: in front of him, employees are on edge, fearing criticism due to even minor mistakes. When reporting work, company executives try to use embellished words to report work rather than candidly addressing existing flaws and crises in the process. Worse still, several core members resigned due to inability to endure Huang Xu's "high-pressure" policy, significantly impacting the company's growth.
To rescue the company from its declining trend, Huang Xu made a bold and risky decision - planning to invest 3 million yuan to acquire a nearly bankrupt company. The senior management all knew this move was akin to self-mutilation, but no one dared to voice an opinion.
Marketing Director Chen Le, despite repeated unsuccessful advice, could not bear watching his superior be troubled by anxiety and keep making wrong decisions, ultimately leading to the collapse of the entire company. He decided to adopt upward management strategies to bring his superior's deviant management thinking back on track. He knew that although Huang Xu was a very self-centered person, he wasn't completely autocratic. The reason Huang Xu kept making wrong decisions was mainly due to being misled by the company's temporary poor performance and neglecting to consider the overall market growth situation from a higher level, thus unable to make more rational decisions. The first step in Chen Le's upward management strategy was to present convincing data and rational analysis reports to make Huang Xu realize his mistakes.
Chen Le quietly collaborated with a reputable market consulting agency to produce a detailed analysis report on the company and industry conditions. Before submitting this report to Huang Xu, Chen Le carefully discussed it with several senior executives, each preparing well for their roles, deciding to provide targeted suggestions based on the analysis report during a closed-door senior management meeting instead of merely opposing General Manager Huang Xu's decisions as in the past. At the meeting, expert authoritative concepts and extensive data analysis greatly shocked Huang Xu. Chen Le's meticulously prepared comparison charts of the company's growth over the years left a deep impression on Huang Xu – from the charts, everyone clearly saw that the company had been continuously declining in various aspects over the years, and the measures taken were fundamentally ineffective in stopping the bleeding. No one at the meeting sharply criticized the company's growth, but Huang Xu clearly understood the negative impact of his series of wrong decisions on the company, and the targeted suggestions from other senior executives made him realize that although the company was currently in a low point, there was still potential for resurgence.
The success of this upward management not only made General Manager Huang Xu realize his mistakes, but also earned Chen Le's abilities recognition from everyone. A year later, Chen Le was promoted to Vice General Manager.
Improving the Intelligence Index of Upward Management
The ability of upward management is a highly effective form of intelligence. It not only determines the harmony of interaction between subordinates and superiors and the smoothness of subordinates' work progress but is also sometimes a key factor in personal career advancement.
The focus of upward management lies in communication and coordination with leaders, meaning how subordinates achieve effective comprehensive balance in organizational and personal communications. From the following four questions, you can roughly test your intelligence index in upward management:
1. I have already proposed a suggestion to my boss, but he gave me no response. What should I do?
a. Ask the boss: "Do you need more time to think about it?"
b. Ask the boss: "Do you have any doubts or suggestions?"
c. Reiterate the key points of what I just reported.
2. When the boss raises an opposing concept, I should:
a. Carefully discuss with the boss to resolve doubts;
b. Ask the boss to explain the reasons for opposition;
c. Try to divert the boss's attention without making any comments.
3. After completing my report, the boss said: "Your report is very good, but some important parts are not mentioned." What should I do?
a. Remain silent and wait for the boss's instructions;
b. Supplement with additional relevant data or materials;
c. Ask the boss: "Could you let me know which contents?"
4. Due to differing opinions, the boss severely criticized me, and the criticism content is wrong. What should I do?
a. Stay silent and glare at the superior with resentment;
b. Insist on my position and respond strongly;
c. Patiently listen to his criticism and then find another opportunity to communicate with him.
A crucial aspect of upward management is truly understanding the superior's ideas and attitudes. Therefore, the best handling method for the first question is option (b) —— you need to first understand what your boss thinks about your suggestion before proceeding to the next step.
From the perspective of organizational communication, when the superior's opinion differs from yours, the most important thing for the subordinate to do is to clearly understand the superior's stance —— before persuading the superior, you must first clearly understand the key points where his opinion differs from yours. So the best handling method for the second question is option (b) —— the subordinate must understand the reasons why the superior opposes your suggestion.
Communication between subordinates and superiors, while often determined by the superior in terms of communication path and theme, can also be influenced by effective communication skills on the part of the subordinate, such as humbly seeking advice to encourage the superior to engage more deeply in the topic. Therefore, the best handling method for the third question is (c) —— subordinates should not rush to refute the superior's opinion but inquire specifically about what content they lack.
No one likes to be criticized, but what truly hurts people is often not the criticism itself, but their reaction to it and the resulting consequences. Clearly, the best handling method for the fourth question is (C) —— silently harboring grievances will lead to frustration in your work mood, and fiercely confronting your superior on the spot often results in mutual loss. Expressing your views indirectly and persuading your superior in an appropriate context is the essence of upward management.