How to make your manager’s life easier

Key Concepts:

• Cognitive Load: The mental effort required to process information.
• Managing Up: Proactively working to make your manager's job easier and more effective.
• Strategic Thinking: Considering the broader business context and potential future implications.
• Hypothesis Formation: Developing potential explanations or solutions based on observation.

Reducing Cognitive Load on Your Manager

The core idea is to reduce the mental burden on your manager by proactively offering solutions instead of simply asking for instructions. When you ask "Hey manager, what should we do?", you force the manager to:

1. Understand the problem.
2. Generate potential solutions.
3. Evaluate those solutions.
4. Communicate the chosen solution to you.

This places a significant "cognitive load" on them.

Proposing Solutions and Seeking Feedback

A more effective approach is to say, "Hey manager, here's what I think we should do. How does that sound? Where do you see gaps? Am I thinking in the right direction?" This provides the manager with:

1. A concrete proposal to react to.
2. An opportunity to refine or redirect your thinking.
3. A clear indication of your thought process.

This significantly reduces the mental effort required from the manager, as they are building upon your existing work rather than starting from scratch.

Demonstrating Strategic Thinking and Initiative

By proactively proposing solutions, you demonstrate that you are:

• An "active rigorous thinker" who is strategically considering the business.
• Not passively waiting to be told what to do.
• Actively "looking around the corner" to anticipate and solve problems.
• Forming "hypotheses" based on your observations.

The Value of Managing Up

"Managing up is one of those skills that if you invest in learning it, it serves you now and for the rest of your career." This skill is valuable regardless of your seniority level. Even junior employees can practice managing up by:

• Observing and noticing problems.
• Forming potential solutions.
• Presenting those solutions to their manager for feedback.
• Backing up your point of view with evidence.

Conclusion

The key takeaway is that proactively offering solutions and seeking feedback from your manager, rather than simply asking for instructions, reduces their cognitive load, demonstrates your strategic thinking, and ultimately makes you a more valuable and effective employee. This skill, known as "managing up," is a valuable investment for your career at any level.