Managing up training helps employees build a productive working relationship with their own manager. It covers understanding the manager's goals and style, agreeing priorities, giving useful updates, disagreeing respectfully and handling two managers in a matrix. Bodhih runs it as a 1-day workshop or two 3-hour virtual sessions for individual contributors, team leads and middle managers.
- Recommended: 1 day in person, or 2 × 3-hour live virtual sessions, customised to your structure and culture
- Level: Foundation · In person · Live virtual · Blended
- Designed with the ADDIE model and customised to your context
- Offered by Bodhih since 2008 to 2,000+ organisations across 7 regions
Also known as: managing your manager training, managing upwards workshop, working with your boss training, upward communication skills
Where and how: managing up training as an in-person workshop in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Jaipur; as a live online course; or delivered overseas in Dubai, Singapore and across the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Last reviewed by Siddharthan VGJ, Founder · Bodhih Training, Bengaluru
Why your manager needs you to manage up in 2026
Managers today carry wider spans, AI rollouts, hybrid teams and constant change, and many are running on empty. Waiting for a stretched manager to notice your work, clarify your priorities or ask how you are coping rarely works.
Managing up training puts some of the relationship in the employee's hands. In matrix-heavy GCCs, where one person may answer to a local lead and a global owner, and in hierarchical cultures where contradicting the boss feels risky, it is a practical career skill.
Global manager engagement fell from 31% in 2022 to 22% in 2025.
72% of HR professionals say workers have higher expectations of their employer today.
What participants will be able to do
Read your manager
Identify your manager's goals, pressures and preferred working style, and adapt how you communicate with them.
Agreed priorities
Hold a short expectations conversation that settles what 'good' looks like, deadlines and decision rights.
Updates that build trust
Send concise, regular updates that surface progress, risks and asks before your manager has to chase you.
Respectful disagreement
Challenge a decision or deadline with evidence and options, without sounding defensive or insubordinate.
Bad news, early
Raise mistakes, delays and overload promptly, paired with a proposed fix or trade-off.
Two-boss balance
Handle conflicting requests from multiple managers by making trade-offs visible and getting them resolved.
Who should attend
- Early-career professionals building their first strong manager relationship
- Team members in matrix structures with a line manager and a project or global manager
- Employees whose manager sits in another city, country or time zone
- New joiners and internal movers adjusting to a new boss
- Middle managers who manage up to senior leaders while running their own teams
- High potentials preparing for roles with more senior exposure
Program outline
Recommended design, customised to your context after a short needs analysis.
01What managing up is (and is not)Module 1 · 45 min+
- Shared success versus office politics
- The manager's world: pressures you may not see
- Self-check: where your current relationship stands
02Decoding your manager's styleModule 2 · 75 min+
- Detail-first or big-picture, fast or reflective
- Preferred channels and timing for updates
- Mapping your manager's own goals and scorecard
03The expectations conversationModule 3 · 90 min+
- Clarifying priorities, quality bar and deadlines
- Agreeing how and when you will update
- Role-play: a new-boss first one-on-one
- A simple working agreement template
04Updates, one-on-ones and visibilityModule 4 · 60 min+
- A three-line weekly update format
- Bringing an agenda to your one-on-one
- Making your work visible without self-promotion
05Disagreeing and delivering bad newsModule 5 · 90 min+
- Framing disagreement around shared goals
- Offering options, not just objections
- Saying 'I'm overloaded' with data and a proposed trade-off
- Practice with realistic, culture-specific scenarios
06Many managers, one youModule 6 · 60 min+
- Surfacing conflicting requests transparently
- Escalating a priority clash constructively
- Keeping remote and global managers in the loop
Sample training plan: 1-day hands-on design
This one-day workshop helps employees build a productive working relationship with their own manager, based on shared success rather than flattery. Participants work on their real boss throughout, using anonymised details. They map their manager's goals and pressures, decode their style, plan and rehearse an expectations conversation, build a three-line weekly update, and practise disagreeing and saying 'I'm overloaded' with data and options. Trainers play demanding, distracted and indecisive bosses. Everyone leaves with one conversation to hold within a week.
Participants can understand their manager's world, agree expectations, update well and disagree or say no constructively.
- 09:30–10:00Boss weather reportEnergiser
- 10:00–10:45Inside my manager's worldDiagnostic
- 11:00–11:45Decoding the styleGroup challenge
- 11:45–13:00The expectations conversationRole-play
- 13:45–14:30Three lines a weekBuild sprint
- 14:30–15:30Saying 'I'm overloaded'Real-play
- 15:45–16:45Capstone: two bosses, one youSimulation
- 16:45–17:30One conversation this weekAction planning
Every session’s activity, timings, outputs and materials, plus pre-work, a 90-day reinforcement plan and how impact is measured. Free, emailed to you instantly.
Recommended: 1 day in person (09:30–17:30), or 2 × 3-hour live virtual sessions, plus one real conversation within a week and a 60-day repeat of the priorities check. A sample design: every Bodhih program is customised after a short needs analysis.
How long is managing up training?
The recommended design is one day in person, from 09:30 to 17:30, followed by one real conversation within a week and a check at day 60. It also runs as two live virtual sessions of three hours a week apart. A shorter version suits new joiners.
What activities are included in managing up training?
Participants map their real manager's goals and pressures, rewrite an update for four manager styles and rehearse an expectations conversation with trainers playing distracted or vague bosses. They present an overload case with trade-offs and face a two-manager priority clash in the capstone simulation.
How we deliver it
Real relationships, safely
Participants work on their own manager situations using anonymised scenarios, so insights apply immediately without exposing anyone.
Role-play with realistic bosses
Trainers play demanding, distracted or indecisive managers so participants practise the actual conversation, not a textbook one.
Culture-aware scripts
Phrasing is tuned for hierarchical workplaces in India and the Gulf, where respectful directness needs care.
Commitment and follow-through
Each participant leaves with one conversation to hold within a week and reports back in a short follow-up.
Tailored versions
For matrix and GCC teams
Emphasises dual reporting, global stakeholders and time-zone-aware updates for teams serving headquarters.
For new joiners and graduates
A shorter version that sets up a strong first manager relationship during onboarding.
Paired session for managers
An optional companion session that helps managers invite upward feedback and set clear expectations in return.
How we measure impact
Following ADDIE's Evaluate stage, participants complete a short pre-program self-assessment on their manager relationship, clarity of priorities and confidence to disagree, then repeat it after 60 days. Where the client opts in, managers give brief feedback through a 360° pulse on AssessAll. We also track completion of each participant's committed conversation and review common blockers at a 30-60-90 day check-in, so HR sees what changes in practice.
Pair this program with AssessAll, Bodhih’s AI assessment platform, for pre- and post-program skill measurement.
Frequently asked questions
What does managing up mean?
Managing up means consciously working to make the relationship with your manager effective for both of you. It includes understanding their goals and style, agreeing priorities, keeping them informed, raising problems early and offering solutions. The aim is better results for the team, not pleasing the boss at any cost.
Is managing up the same as sucking up?
No. Flattery tries to win favour regardless of results. Managing up is about honest, useful communication: clear updates, realistic commitments, early warnings and respectful disagreement when something is not working. Managers generally trust people who manage up well precisely because they bring problems and options, not just agreement.
How do you handle two managers with different priorities?
Make the conflict visible instead of quietly trying to do both. List the competing requests, estimate effort and impact, and ask both managers, or the person above them, to agree the order. The program gives participants scripts and a simple priority table for these conversations in matrix organisations.
How do you tell your boss you are overloaded?
Come with facts and options rather than a complaint. Show what is on your plate, the realistic timeline for each item and what would have to move to take on something new. Then ask your manager to choose the trade-off. Participants practise this conversation in role-plays tailored to their workplace.
Is managing up training useful in hierarchical cultures?
Yes, and arguably more so. In many Indian and Gulf workplaces, openly questioning a senior person can feel uncomfortable. The program teaches respectful ways to raise concerns, such as asking questions, linking points to shared goals and offering alternatives, so people can speak up without seeming disrespectful.
Should managers attend too?
They do not have to, but it helps. Some organisations add a companion session for managers on inviting upward feedback and setting clear expectations. When both sides share the same language and tools, one-on-ones and updates improve faster. Bodhih customises the mix through ADDIE-based analysis of your context.
Can this be delivered online?
Yes. The live virtual format runs as two 3-hour sessions with breakout role-plays, which suits teams with remote managers. Bodhih has facilitated over 18,000 programs since 2008, in person and live virtual, across India, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and other regions.