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 Leading up to your boss is as important as leading your subordinates
If you ran a Google search on leadership, you would find 167 million hits. These include books, courses, consultants and companies that teach leaders and would-be leaders how to lead their team members and companies to success. Many offer excellent advice and techniques on leadership. Very few, however, examine how a person can lead his or her boss. In examining the successes, and failures, of sixteen individuals from business, politics, war and religion, Michael Useem has elegantly shown how subordinates can change the course of history by leading their leaders (Leading Up: How to Lead Your Boss So You Both Win 2001).
Starting with the Civil War, Useem presents a birds' eye view of how Joseph Johnson, the commander of the Confederate Army, lost the confidence of President Davis and ultimately lost his command of the army by not keeping the President appraised of the battlefield situation. Useem counterbalances Johnson's unwillingness to appraise his boss with his replacement's insistence of keeping the President informed, even by inviting him to witness the progress of the encounters. His replacement was Robert E. Lee.
Useem describes how David Pottruck of Charles Schwab & Co. was able to persuade his boss, Charles Schwab, that internet trading was the new revolution and the company had to move in that direction to preclude financial ruin and reestablish its dominance in the industry.
He relates how Romeo Dallaire's attempts to convince UN Secretary General Boutris Boutris-Gali to send additional UN troops to Rwanda fell on deaf ears, resulting in the slaughter of 800,000 Rwandans. Had Dallaire flown to the UN headquarters in New York, he may have led up to Boutris-Gali, convinced him of the imminent danger and saved hundreds of thousands of innocent lives from being massacred.
Robert Ailing, Eckerd Pfeiffer and Thomas Wyman, the powerful CEOs of British Airways, Compaq and CBS respectively, found themselves out of their jobs by not leading up to their boards of directors.
Peter Pace of the US Marine Corps led six bosses by serving each one as if they were his only boss. Sandy Hill Pittman, by not questioning her guide leading the team up to the summit of Mt. Everest, was unable to save his life. Charlene Barshefcky was able to lead President Clinton to accept the free trade agreement with China. Domingo Cavallo, the head of Argentina's economy, was able to lead his President to align the country's inflation raged national currency with the US dollar, ending years of turmoil.
Perhaps the most profound examples of leading up were conducted by Abraham, Moses and Samuel, the biblical sages, who were able to lead up to God to convey the needs of their followers, sometimes reversing God's decisions despite rampant hedonism within the community. They were the ultimate practitioners of leading up.
As diverse as these examples are, the unifying concept is that no matter where in the chain of command a person is, he or she not only needs to lead up to the boss, particularly when the bosses' judgment is wrong or the facts are inadequately delivered, but also to lead down to subordinates. Concurrently, bosses need to be cognizant of voices within the organization who warn of imminent danger that could be detrimental to the company and possibly innocent lives. Michael Useem has presented a superbly researched and elegantly written work that deserves your attention, especially if you are a leader, intend to be a leader or are under the influence of a leader.
Some memorable quotes from the book follow:
"Your effectiveness in leading up therefore depends in part upon your success in leading down. If you have not done the latter well, your board is likely to know it".
"Executives always sit on a three-legged stool, supported by directors, investors, and employees. If the stool lacks either investor or employee support, the directors will find it difficult to keep it upright with their leg alone". pg 150
"I didn't realize this at the time, but the more I tried to give them and take care of them, and the more they realized I was taking care of them the more they gave me". Peter Pace pg 175
 The "ups" and "downs" of effective leadership
I read this book soon after it first appeared (in 2001) and recently re-read it, curious to know how well its core concepts and insights have held up. My conclusion? Very, very well. At the outset, for those who have not as yet read Michael Useem's brilliant book, it would be helpful to understand what he means by "leading up." As he explains, "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. As organizations decentralize authority, they put a premium on a manager's capacity to must support above as well as below...The challenge is to help both those below us and those above achieve what we all want accomplished. If we expect our subordinates to furnish us with unvarnished information, unbiased advice, and unswerving support at the times when it really counts, we need to have cultivated a culture that encourages and rewards them for doing so."
Thus there are two separate but related leadership challenges: To create a culture in which both "leading up" and "leading down" are among the most important core competencies, and, to do everything humanly possible to develop those skills in those at all levels and in all areas of the given enterprise. In this book, Useem explains with meticulous care how to achieve both objectives. At this point, I presume to share two opinions of my own with which Useem presumably agrees. First, that mutual trust is the "glue" that holds all organizations together. Healthy relationships are nourished and sustained by it. Also, that both "leading up" and "leading down" must be among the core competencies of greatest importance and highest priority. Everything humanly possible must be done to develop the skills they require to generate and sustain a continuous flow of "unvarnished information, unbiased advice, and unswerving support at the times when it really counts."
In this volume, Useem focuses on eight quite different real world situations to demonstrate what the consequences can be when there is a presence or absence of "leading up" and "leading down." For example, in Chapter 1, he explains how General Robert E. Lee kept his Commander in Chief (Jefferson Davis) fully informed whereas General George B. McClellan did not. In fact, McClelland scorned President Lincoln as "not a man of strong character." At the same time, General Joseph E. Johnston viewed his own Commander in Chief, Davis, with equal scorn and was eventually replaced, as was McClelland. As Useem suggests, the "leading up" business lesson to be learned is that "the vital bond between commander and commander in chief, between manager and executive, is an enduring and enriched relationship. For that, an open flow of information and an open display of respect are essential." Lee and Ulysses S. Grant exemplify that; Johnston and McClelland do not.
In Chapter 7, "Designing a Future Your Boss Can't Quite Envision," Useem explains how Charlene Barshefsky negotiated the U.S. trade agreement with China on behalf of president, Bill Clinton, and how Domingo Cavallo stabilized the Argentine currency on behalf his president, Carlos Menem. Obviously, these are quite different situations in terms of ultimate goals as well as perils as well as opportunities. Each situation required different strategies and tactics. However, there is a "leading up" business lesson to be learned from both: "Building the lateral backing that your superiors need to implement a contentious but otherwise sensible initiative is an essential precondition for ultimately making it happen. The indispensable elements for success: a judicious combination of compelling concepts, detailed prescriptions, and retail persuasion."
If anything, this book is even more relevant and more valuable now than it was when first published several years ago. Thank you, Michael Useem.
 weLEAD Book Review from leadingtoday.org
Leaders are not just bosses. In fact, some of the most effective leaders in an organization may be those leading the boss! Leading up is about helping your superiors lead and do their job better. Everyone can lead up. Even if you are a CEO you will need to lead your board and stockholders.
Michael Useem, the author of Leading Up, is professor of management and the director of the Center for Leadership and Change Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His writing style uses detailed cases from military history, politics, business and even stories of Biblical figures to emphasize the need to lead up. I found some of the stories a bit long and detailed, going beyond what some readers might desire in order to grasp the point being made. However, if you enjoy this presentation style, the cases are well written and provide fascinating insights into actual historical events.
Professor Useem says that business has often looked to the military model for lessons in leadership "because of the seemingly impervious top-down authority system." Using actual military stories, the author demonstrates that the military model can also offer invaluable lessons that are just the opposite. Encouraging your subordinates to say what is positive or negative about a plan before you impose an order can often avoid costly errors, or even save lives. Creating a culture that stimulates and rewards upward leadership is critical in today's complex environment where no single individual can possibly have all the answers. Useem says, "The military might appear to be the last place on earth where upward leadership is tolerated, but in fact such leadership is obligatory." Encouraging upward challenges can keep a leader on course regarding adherence to principles.
The book also forcefully demonstrates that redefining an institution's reality is one of the greatest tests of leading up. Changing well-established worldviews is certainly a difficult task, but the very fact that it is so difficult underscores the "overriding importance of achieving it." Often the redefining of a superior's misplaced perceptions, or clarifying a superiors' understanding of a situation requires extraordinary steps. This is one of the greatest challenges to leading up.
Sometimes a subordinate must exercise the courage to ask the boss to elaborate and clarify inadequate instructions or an unclear strategy. Often a superior does not specifically seek this type of leading up. Nevertheless, such challenges can often make the difference between failure and success.
If you enjoy reading detailed, but interesting leadership stories, accompanied by succinct lessons in leading up, then this is a book for you. If you are looking for a quick read of principles and leadership philosophy, you will not find that in this work.
Review by Dr. J. Howard Baker
Good book.....you should pick it up....
Typically when someone thinks about leadership, they believe the flow of power and authority to take a downward course. Although leadership usually gets delegated in such a manner, in Michael Unseem¡¦s book, Leading Up, he recommends that leadership must come from below as well as from the top. During the course of this book, examples taken as far back as biblical times are used to compare and contrast between individuals who were constantly in tune with their superiors to those individuals who were not in close communication with their superiors. I will be discussing the decisions that David Pottruck and Thomas Wyman made during their roles of senior company executives that caused them to dominate or disintegrate in their industry. By and large, based on the experiences of various individuals in this book, it is vital that a person become comfortable with and communicate to their superiors for the overall success of all parties involved in any endeavor.
STRENGTHS
„X Keep your superiors well informed of what you have done, what you are doing and what you plan to do.
„X Persuade your boss of a new course with a path that is right, a rationale that is airtight, and a determination that is steadfast.
„X Step up to a moment when you can make the difference even if your superiors fail to see it and the risks are grave in seizing it.
„X Even if you are CEO, remember that your directors and investors are your bosses, and never surprise any of them
„X Convey intents downward and interests upward, transforming what your superior and subordinates want into what all deserve (Useem 281)
WEAKNESSES
I felt that the author did a good job using actual examples and consequences of existing CEO¡¦s and various other individuals. The one thing that bothered me about Mr. Useem¡¦s presentation in this book was in the example of Romeo Dellaire. ¡§If your superiors need to appreciate a grave threat to the institution but are simply not getting it, you may find it essential to transcend the normal channels of communication to drive home a message that they must come to appreciate¡¨ (Useem 88). Useem stated this as the lesson in leading up. I believe that there is only so much of a circumstance that is under your control and if one was to challenge authority in an unprofessional manner it will not resolve the matter at hand regardless of consequences by staying steadfast. Useem needed to constructively break down what he meant by that lesson. Or he should have given a means to make that lesson applicable.
RECOMMENDATION
I felt that the book was very informative. Although during certain instances in the book, the flow of information tends to slow down because of some of the examples. Despite this flaw, I highly recommend this book to anyone who is considering a career in business or management. This book makes one realize how important communication between channels is in this growing era of decentralized management. Without proper teamwork efforts of keeping internal affairs efficient, any corporation can diminish and loose its competitive advantage.
Excellent resource for companies with communication problems
I was really disappointed to read several of the other reviews that felt this book was so poor. I found the style of the book to be quite helpful. The historical analysis of events were interesting and useful to me in my everyday business interactions. My company needs to be able to "Lead Up", let the boss know what is going on without fear, and "Lead Down", to bring in the ideas from all quarters of the company.Our company is currently in crisis and the book is giving me ideas about how to get inforamtion and ideas up and down the chain of command. There is nothing worse than the image of employees ideas rotting on the shelf while the business goes under. This book encouraged me to speak my mind, lead up, lead down and in general be a better leader. The book also addresses the leadership culture that promotes leading up and leading down. The only reason I can think that other people did not get much out of this book is that they already knew about these concepts, or they did not identify with the stories/analysis.
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(based on 12 reviews)
