Michael Useem's 'Leading Up: How To Lead Your Boss So You Both Win'

In Leading Up: How To Lead Your Boss So You Both Win Michael Useem writes, "Contemporary leaders aren't just bosses, they're self-starters who take charge even when they haven't been given a charge." Useem, professor of management and the director of the Center for Leadership and Change Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, goes on to illustrate this thesis with examples drawn from both historical and corporate sources while offering several useful tips to help the reader incorporate upward leadership into his or her daily life.

Despite his academic background, Useem's writing is crisp and succinct and his examples are thoroughly explained. The book succeeds because of the variety of subjects studied and the accessible way Useem explains the challenges surrounding each situation.

Useem believes that if today's managers wish to be effective, they must learn to lead the people they report to as well as the employees they oversee. Useem calls this act of working with one's superiors "leading up." Useem believes upward leadership benefits organizations by providing the direction from below they need to think strategically, communicate persuasively, and act decisively.

According to Useem, upward leadership is not the radical idea it first seems. "Leadership has always required more than a downward touch: It needs to come from below as well as from the top, and leaders today must reach up as never before," he writes.

In Leading Up: How To Lead Your Boss So You Both Win, Useem devotes one chapter to each of the following eight examples to illustrate the importance of upward leadership and what happens when those who should step forward fail to do so:
• Civil War generals openly disrespected their commanders, with tragic consequences.
• David Pottruck learned how to lead with his superiors to change the core business of Charles Schwaab & Co.
• Romeo Dallaire, United Nations Commander, could have prevented a genocide that claimed 800,000 lives if he had been able to convince his superiors of the dire situation in Rwanda.
• The CEO's at CBS, Compaq, and British Airways were fired after concentrating on leading down when they should have been leading up to their boards.
• U.S. Marine Corps general Peter Pace successfully managed six supervisors with varying agendas by keeping all of them informed and challenging them when necessary.
• Mountaineers admitted they might have protected themselves and others from harm if they had questioned their guide's flawed instructions during their Mount Everest ascent.
• Examples from the United States and Argentina illustrate that in government, representatives must sometimes strike a deal before leading their supervisors to embrace the plan.
• Old Testament prophets Moses, Abraham, and Samuel interceded with the ultimate authority.

While these examples detail more challenging circumstances than the average reader is likely to face, Useem is quick to note that the lessons presented can be applied in any situation. "Heroic moments and moments of great crisis make the best accounts and the best accounts make the best teachers," he writes. "But even when the scale of our endeavor is smaller, opportunities for leading up come to almost all of us."

However, Useem cautions that upward leadership is not always an easy task. "Leading up can require enormous fortitude," he writes. "Sometimes we fear what the boss will say. Sometimes we question our right to say it. Yet all of us have a transcendent obligation to convey what our superior should hear."

Throughout each chapter, Useem also presents several small, essential leaderships tips titled "Lessons for Leading Up." These lessons offer wisdom that any reader can relate to. For example, Useem offers the following "Lesson for Leading Up" in the first chapter: "Building your superiors confidence in you requires giving them your confidence. Once you and they have established it both ways, your organization may have an unbeatable competitive advantage, whatever the battlefield." This is a particularly helpful bit of advice for people who are questioning how their superiors managed to get into a position of authority, yet hesitate to offer them any assistance.

To develop a company wide culture of upward leadership, Useem recommends the following initiatives:
• Identify mangers for development. Useem recommends selecting managers from various parts of the organization who have show both fearlessness and a willingness to be open to new ideas.
• Coach managers one on one. According to Useem, an open dialogue is essential to upward leadership.
• Create new development programs. Useem believes his theory of upward leadership can be successfully used in new or existing training programs.
• Focus managers on upward experience. When managers consider what others have achieved through upward leadership, Useem believes they will be better able to appreciate their own opportunities for leading up.
• Set examples for all. According to Useem, the easiest way to create a culture of upward leadership is to begin behaving as though the concept is a natural extension of traditional leadership theories.

In Leading Up: How To Lead Your Boss So You Both Win, Useem concludes by stating that leadership and management are two different concepts, and leading up is in many ways more challenging than managing up. Keeping one's superior informed about the needs of customers is an example of managing up, while offering one's superiors a strategic insight or plan that could open a new market for the company is an example of leading up. "Managing up strengthens the organization; leading up can save it when the peril is greatest and the right course of action is most difficult to see from the lofty heights of the boardroom," Useem writes.