The Art of Managing Up and Down
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Being a manager means you are in the middle. You have a team reporting to you, and you likely have a boss you report to. You have to be good at both.
Lesson 3.1: Make Your Boss Look Good
This might sound like "sucking up," but it's actually about being a professional. Make your boss look good, and you are more likely to get promoted.
Managing up means understanding what your boss cares about and making sure those things are handled. If your boss is worried about a specific deadline, give them updates before they have to ask. If they have a meeting with the board of directors, give them the data they need to shine. When your boss succeeds, it opens doors for you and your team.
Lesson 3.2: Manage Your Emotions
Management is stressful. Things will go wrong. Products will break. Customers will be unhappy. As Thomas Jefferson once said, "Nothing gives a person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances."
When you stay calm, your team stays calm. If you panic, they will panic. Your job is to be the "steady hand" on the wheel, especially during the "white water" of startup life.
Lesson 3.3: Managing Down (The Relationship)
Success in management is built on relationships. On his blog, Irv Shapiro notes that while technology changes, human relationships haven't changed much in thousands of years. Trust, honesty, and dignity are still the keys.
Always remember: "Be nice to people on your way up because you'll meet them on your way down." In a startup, roles change fast. The person you manage today might be your boss tomorrow. Treat everyone with respect.