Knowing your leader inside and out

Knowing and understanding what motivates your leader is a great way to manage from the bottom up. Remember from previous articles not to disproportion the roles of leaders mentally, but to treat them as a partner, working towards the same mission and goal. You are all striving for efficiency and effectiveness within the organization and when you can understand what makes them tick, you can aide your leader in being the best leader he or she can be. Here are some tactics to manage up as a follower, because how followers manage their leaders is just as important as how their leaders manage them:

Be a resource for the leader:

• Determine the leader’s needs
• Zig where the leader zags
• Tell leader about you
• Align self to team purpose/vision

Help the leader be a GOOD leader:

• Ask for Advice
• Tell leader what you think
• Find things to thank leader for

Build a relationship:

• Ask about what the leader was like at your level/position
• Welcome feedback and criticism. Ask questions like, "What experiences led you to that decision?"
• Ask leader to tell you company stories

View the leader realistically:

• Give up idealized leader expectations
• Don’t hide anything
• Don’t criticize leader to others
• Disagree occasionally

If you follow these simple techniques in managing-up, you will see improvements in your leader/follower relationship and you will get to know what makes your leader light-up and become the leader he was originally hired to be.Effective followers transform their leader-follower relationship by striving to improve their leaders rather than just criticizing them.