Recently I got into a conversation with my daughter about Upward Management. She had never heard of it and was absolutely astonished her Dad would ever practice it! The question now, Upward Management, does it still exist?
I can’t quite remember how we got onto this, nevertheless it was a fun convo. I explained how I would often try to keep my managers slightly at arms’ length – I never liked being closely supervised, I always preferred to get on with my job but always with the bigger picture in mind.
All this manifested itself by getting involved in interesting projects. I became adept at sometimes ‘trading’ work i.e. if something wasn’t going well, or I didn’t have the skills to do it, or it was too much hassle, or I lost interest, then I would often persuade someone of the benefits of them taking it over. Much of this took place without my managers necessarily knowing until later on.
The real Upward Management came when I managed to adopt a Yes Minister mindset, in the form of a Sir Humphrey. An example of this was when I thought we needed to improve a certain situation for people coming out of prison. Suffice to say, it was a grim picture and something needed to be done about it.
After pushing a few doors without much success, I persuaded a superior that he would be the high profile hero if we organised a multi agency conference, which I quite fancied doing. I even said he could have the keynote speech slot and so he readily agreed. All of this was going swimmingly well and then my own manager found out what I was doing, as it was taking up quite a lot of my time and was met with some frustration. Being able to deflect one superior off against the other, pointing to inspection reports, strategic plans and so on worked a treat as everyone had seen the importance of the conference and recognised we would look so foolish if we changed our direction.
Perhaps the most ridiculous thing I ever did was swanning off to Sweden, visiting prison and being guests of the nice people in the Kriminalvarden (the Swedish Prison and Probation Service) without telling anyone I was going! It only came to light when my manager spotted airport car parking on my monthly expense claim, which then led to an interesting discussion (another agency had kindly paid for the other expenses). Any doubt that I had done the right thing was when I expressed there was so much to learn from the Swedish system, together we could make a difference, and now was the right time to push for some changes closer to home.
It worked a treat, until it was suggested I did a presentation in the monthly manager’s meeting. Afterwards a colleague came to me and said
“Doug, you bastard, you’ve done it again haven’t you. I’m stuck at my desk counting paperclips and you fly off to Sweden”. For a while my popularity sunk to an all-time low amongst my peers.
Even in the Courtroom there was an element of this Upward Management going on, although sometimes that was fairly tricky. Once I had got to know the players and formed a good working relationship, it was nice being invited into the retiring room for afternoon tea, where I could then plant a few ideas.
There were, however, a few times when things were dumped on me. Sometimes a senior colleague or even the Chief would have a diary clash, so deputising for them was peppered with “a developmental opportunity has cropped up” or even “I have complete confidence with just you representing me”. Nevertheless I quite liked doing those things, it got them out of a tight situation and it was often an interesting thing to do. The photo at the top shows me at the House of Lords, where I went on a number of occasions to fly the flag, nurture some connections and build up a few Upward Management points.
My daughter was astonished I would get up to all of these antics and shenanigans. “Mind you” I said, “I always knew when I was falling for a bit of Upward Management myself”. I never let on that I knew it was happening, that I was being played and manipulated. Instead I regarded it as an essential skill to pass on in the workplace for colleagues still climbing the career ladder. Of course if anyone ever asked, naturally it was a case of me helping to enhance the skills of influencing and negotiation in my colleagues.
Alas I fear this kind of Upward Management might be becoming a thing of the past. Fewer face to face opportunities, more remote working, slicker working practices and so on. Or perhaps I am wrong? Do these new working arrangements lend themselves to a bit of good old fashioned Upward Management?
So here’s to all the Sir Humphrey civil servants and local government officers out there. May they truly serve their departments well!