Managing up means focusing on the relationship with your boss to obtain the best results for you, your boss and your organization, according to Joanne Murray, Managing Up, An Overlooked Factor in Career Success (2008).  Michael Watkins, in Harvard Busines School article: How to Succeed with Your New Boss (2002), says "Managing up is as important as managing down."

Since women are natural nurturers, they generally have a harder time saying 'no' which tends to make them respond to the needs of everyone relatively equally, and not rank the boss's needs first, according to Jan McDaniel, Guarding Your Time: How to Say No (2008).  Thus managing up feels risky to many women.

For a faster, smoother route to the top, focusing on your relationship with your boss makes sense for several reasons.  Your boss has a perspective of the bigger picture.   Meeting her needs will result in better results for the business.  It is your boss who can give you more interesting work, more responsibility, and better work conditions upon seeing the evidence of your committment.  Sometimes when it feels like you are letting someone down by sticking to your boss's priorities, the broad view is that you are doing the greater good for the business, as you cannot please everyone. 

The Basics on Managing Up:

Make sure you know what is important to your boss, what her priorities are.  You may look or feel like you look not so good asking how she ranks her priorities, but being clear on that is critical to meeting her needs.  And they may change. She will ultimately be glad that you kept to her objectives. 

Communicate to her the way she receives information best.  If she reads best, write it.  If she hears best, speak it.  If she likes numbers best, quantify your message. Make it a point to know which numbers matter most to her.

Make your boss aware when projects and tasks that she's interested in go well.  Send a congratulation e-mail to your team copying your boss, which not only draws attention to the success of your project but also to your leadership skills.

Seek new responsibilities. Find important holes in your department before your boss notices them. Take responsibility for filling those holes and your boss will appreciate not only your foresight, but also your ability to do more than your job, as long as you keep doing a good job with your original responsibilities.

Learn.  Read.  Listen.  Observe.  Participate.  Ask thoughtful questions. This is refreshing to the team and makes you more interesting to work with.  Your boss will enjoy having you on the team and feel like it improves everyone’s work, including hers.

The risk of managing up is the discomfort of drawing unfamiliar limits and sometimes saying no to customers, associates, and even to your boss when you have to remind or share what is already on your plate, as your boss does not always remember or know, or maybe her priorities have changed and she can tell you to rearrange projects to fit her new priorities.  This way you stay in line with your boss's priorities and spend your time, her time and the company's time most productively.