David Maister in his Passion, People and Principles yesterday re-visited the difficult art of “Managing up”.

Five Point Strategy

I would like to offer a simple five point strategy, which I have lifted straight from the world of cricket coaching in England.  If you have ever played any sport or coached or been coached, you will readily identify with the simplicity of this approach as most sports follow a similar pattern.  The strategy is also offered as an alternative to more traditional business-generated concepts.

Brief Context

I was fortunate enough to go on the England & Wales Cricket Board’s Level III cricket coaching course in 2005.  The course was an 8 day residential course at the ECB’s National Academy, which is based at Loughborough University, and it provided a great learning environment.  It was up there with one of the best weeks of my life, but then again, I was doing something I am passionate about.

Level III is one of five levels of coaching standard and achievement in the English game. Levels IV and V are essentially the preserve of coaches at the professional end of the game in County and Test Cricket.  Level III is nevertheless a pretty good standard and the high point of most coaches in the amateur or semi-professional end of the game.  The Level III course is centred on the delivery of one-to-one coaching and is based around five core areas: 

Technical.

Tactical.

Physical.

Mental.

Lifestyle. 

Effective Coaching

An effective coach is one who is player-centred and not coach-centred and one who provides each player with a balance of coaching in each of the five areas.

To put the player in the centre, the coach generally asks lot of questions (and open questions rather than closed questions), and ensures an appropriate balance between telling (not too much) and asking.

Many sports players spend too much of their available training time on the technical aspects of the game (a good example to corroborate this is Humphrey Walters, guru to rugby union coach, Clive Woodward – see England’s sports teams can win in 2007 / 31 December 2006).  A good coach must find time with his players to work on the other four aspects listed above, especially the tactical and mental sides of the game, and not forgetting the player’s lifestyle in which cricket (and any other sport played) must remain a balanced part.

Managing up

So, transferring this methodology to a young professional trying to manage his / her boss up, I would suggest the following four principles:

1. Put the boss, rather than yourself, in the centre.

2. Make the boss feel valued through your attention.

3. Ask relevant open questions across each of the five areas (but clearly not all at once!).

4. Ask open questions which trigger the boss to use their own self-awareness to become a better boss, and the answers or actions from which directly help you to learn more about your job and be more effective and productive. 

Questions to ask

The following questions should not to be taken too literally.  It is the broad theme of each question, which is the message I am trying to convey. 

What makes the boss tick outside the office? (Lifestyle)

(Discretely) Does the boss tend to like colleagues / subordinates / clients who share the same interests?  (Lifestyle)

What areas of work or which clients does the boss most enjoy and why? (Technical)

Does the boss like detail or only big picture or even both?  (Technical)

What tricks does the boss use during a difficult face-to-face negotiation or on the phone? (Tactical)

What areas of business documentation or business process or continuing education or business development find the most difficult and why? (Technical)

What types of knowledge does the boss like to trade internally with fellow leaders in the organisation? (Tactical)

What technologies and organisation systems does the boss like using / not using and why? (Technical)

How does the boss keep fit for work and when are the best / worst times of the day for the boss / subordinate to fit in healthy activities? (Physical)

What tricks does the boss use to handle pressure situations? (Mental)

Does the boss dress differently for different aspects of the job and why is this important? (Physical) 

And the list of questions / themes goes on.

I should stress that one is certainly not suggesting an interrogation each time you meet or work with the boss.  In the same way a sports coach intervenes with the player only when appropriate, so the subordinate needs to pick the right moment, and be sufficiently streetwise to be ready to be present in a series of moments in and outside the office during the course of employment, to ask, to learn and then do.

Summary

These questions provide just a flavour, but the five main headings (Technical, Tactical, Physical, Mental and Lifestyle) are easily memorised, and can provide a natural trigger to ask the right question at the right time, especially when the boss may have time only for one question and time only for one answer.