A few years ago, I was working as Editor of a fairly well-known talent management magazine and found myself engaged in one of my frequent discussions with the publisher over something.
I don’t remember what the subject was, but at some point I said something that seemed to startle my publisher. His face contorted, turned red, and he barked something at me I had never, ever heard a boss say to me before — “Stop trying to manage me!”
This surprised me. I always thought that managing your boss was a good thing, but in the eyes of this guy — a very controlling person who really did need to be managed most of the time — it somehow was not.
Why managing up makes a lot of sense
So, imagine my surprise when reading a New York Times interview with Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, the founder and chairman of Joyus, a video shopping site. What jumped out of the interview was her management philosophy, because she makes a great case that managing up — yes, managing your boss — is not only a good thing, but pretty much expected in today’s workplace.
Here’s what she said when asked, “Do you have any early leadership lessons?”
I have this philosophy now, which I tell my team all the time — “Either you manage me or I manage you. Which would you prefer?”
I like to give people a lot of rope. I like to see what they can do, but I also have an amazing capacity for detail. I know what they said they were going to do, and if they’re not doing it, what’s happening? Then I’m starting to pull the rope back.
And if I’m starting to manage your time, you’re not at your best and I’m not at my best. Because when I’m managing your time with the opinions I have, I’m going to start telling you what to do, right? I’d rather bring my vision collaboratively with somebody else’s vision. But if you show up with no vision, you’re going to walk out with my vision, which I don’t think is a very empowering place to be.”

John Hollon is an award-winning journalist and nationally recognized expert on leadership, talent management, and smart workforce practices. He currently works as Managing Editor at Fuel50, the career experience company built on thought-leading research and a game-changing platform that mobilizes talent, delivers career path transparency, and evolves the workforce for the future.
He is also a Contributing Editor at ERE Media, where he writes for recruiting website ERE.net as well as for TLNT.com, the popular talent management website he founded and edited for six years.
John was also Editor of RecruitingDaily.com, and before that, Editor-in-Chief of Workforce Management magazine and workforce.com.
During his long career he has held senior editing positions at two metro newspapers – the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and the Orange County Register — and was Executive Editor for the Gannett Co. at two statewide papers —Montana’s Great Falls Tribune and The Honolulu Advertiser in Hawaii. He also has deep experience in magazine and online publishing, serving as editorial director and group editor at Fancy Publications, Vice President of Editorial at Pets.com, and Editor of the San Diego Business Journal.
In addition, John is an adjunct professor in the College of Communications at California State University, Fullerton, and a board member at the Kronos Workforce Institute, where he wrote a chapter on hiring for transferable skills for the Kronos book Being Present: A Practical Guide for Transforming the Employee Experience of Your Frontline Workforce, that will be published in November 2019.
John holds an MBA from Pepperdine University’s Graziado School of Business & Management, a Bachelors in Journalism from California State University, Long Beach, and lives in Southern California.