Do you feel fake when you try to manage up? Dan and Alison answer your questions with the help of Nashater Deu Solheim, a leadership consultant and author. They talk through what to do when you want choice assignments, you feel like higher-ups aren’t noticing your contributions, or you need a senior manager to be more responsive.

From Alison and Dan’s reading list:

HBR: Managing Up Without Sucking Up by Whitney Johnson — “When it comes to managing up, there is an underlying belief in an asymmetry of power, and you either manipulate your way around this, or resign yourself to the fact that the boss or the stakeholder on the other side of the table has the power and you don’t. Try turning this power struggle on its head and think of your boss as a client – as if you were working freelance.”

Book: The Leadership PIN Code: Unlocking the Key to Willing and Winning Relationships by Nashater Deu Solheim — “Being a professional expert doesn’t make you an effective leader. What you know is of little value if you can’t translate its use effectively to others or garner support for your ideas to make a difference. It boils down to being effective in all three aspects of your leadership: leading your team, collaborating laterally with peers and building alliances with senior and external stakeholders.”

HBR: Change the Way You Persuade by Gary A. Williams and Robert B. Miller — “All too often, people make the mistake of focusing too much on the content of their argument and not enough on how they deliver that message. Indeed, far too many decisions go the wrong way because information is presented ineffectively. In our experience, people can vastly improve their chances of having their proposals succeed by determining who the chief decision maker is among the executives they are trying to persuade and then tailoring their arguments to that business leader’s decision-making style.”

Book: Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader by Linda A. Hill and Kent Lineback — “Managing up is important because your boss plays a pivotal role in your success—or your failure. You can leverage your boss’s influence in the organization on your behalf in several ways—for example, by obtaining valuable information, winning needed resources, and securing important support for your personal development and career.”

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