manage up

Definition

The delicate art of influencing, educating, or subtly manipulating your boss to get what you need while making them think it was their idea. Reverse management disguised as good communication.

Example Usage

I had to manage up aggressively to get budget approval—three casual conversations and one 'spontaneous' hallway chat later, she suggested exactly what I wanted.

Origin

Management literature from the 1980s-90s, popularized by leadership development programs

Fun Fact

Research shows employees who effectively manage up receive 25% more resources and support than those who don't cultivate upward relationships.

Source: Leadership and organizational behavior terminology

Related Terms

Intermediate

oust

The professional way of saying 'kick them out' when firing, removing, or otherwise yeeting someone from a position of power. Popular in corporate boardrooms and political coups, it's what happens when your performance review goes spectacularly wrong. Less violent than it sounds, but equally devastating to one's career.

💼 Corporate / Business

Advanced

air sandwich

When executives set strategy and employees execute tactics, but there's no middle management to connect them, creating a leadership void. It's organizational structure as existential crisis, where big ideas meet ground reality with nothing in between.

💼 Corporate / Business

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pebblin'

To persistently annoy someone with constant small requests and tasks, like being pelted with tiny pebbles until you lose your mind. It's the verbal equivalent of death by a thousand cuts, except each cut is someone asking 'hey, can you do just one more thing?'

💼 Corporate / Business

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circle the wagons

Adopting a defensive posture against external threats, inspired by pioneers who probably didn't actually do this but makes corporate defensiveness sound frontier-tough.

💼 Corporate / Business

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north star metric

The single metric that best captures the core value a company delivers to customers, used to guide all strategic decisions. Your company's navigation system, assuming it's not leading you straight into an iceberg.

💼 Corporate / Business

Beginner

Best Practice

Something another company did once that worked and has now become an unquestionable commandment carved in corporate stone. The adult version of "but mom, everyone else is doing it."

💼 Corporate / Business

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