Managing Up is your guide to the most valuable 'soft skill' your career has ever seen. It's not about sucking up or brown-nosing; it's about figuring out who you are, who your boss is, and finding where you meet. It's about building real relationships with people who have influence over your career. Managing up is good for you, good for your boss, and good for the organization as a whole. This book gives you strategies for developing these all-important connections and building more than rapport; you become able to quickly assess situations, and determine which actions will move you forward; you become your own talent manager, and your boss's top choice for that new opportunity. As a skill, managing up can do more for your career than simply 'networking' ever could--and this book shows you how.

Real-world strategies give you a set of actionable steps, supplemented by expert advice from a top leadership consultant that helps you get on track to advancement. It's never too early or too late to start adjusting your alignment, and this book provides the help you need to start accelerating your trajectory.

• Develop robust relationships with influential people
• Enhance your self-awareness and become more adaptable
• Gain new opportunities and accelerate your career
• Stop 'schmoozing' and develop true, lasting connections

Managing up helps you build the sort of relationships that foster more communication, collaboration, cooperation, and understanding between people at different levels of power, with a variety of perspectives and skills. This type of bridge-building builds your reputation for effectiveness and fit, so you can start skipping rungs on the ladder as you build a strong, successful career. Managing Up is your personal manual for building this vital skill so you can begin building your best future.

MARY ABBAJAY is the president and co-founder of Careerstone Group, LLC, a woman-owned, full service organizational and leadership development consultancy that delivers leading-edge talent and organizational development solutions to the public and private sectors. She currently serves on the regional Market President's Board of BB&T Bank. She was Chairman of the Board for Leadership Greater Washington where she led the adult Signature Program, the Youth Leadership Program, and the Rising Leaders Program.