Up Managing

Had a really in depth conversation with Tom Moore, despite how skeptical Rose has taught me to be, he is a nice guy (either Tom, Paul and Royston are genuine or they all have some ulterior motive for the youth commission... Do Rose and Kaytea not realise by now that I have the best interests of the youth commission at heart, or are they afraid of me being me being manipulated by the police? Rose is concerned about them taking over the YC). Tom taught me about 'up managing' and fortunately he wasn't surprised when I'd never heard of it, he said it takes making a few mistakes to learn how to up manage and keep your boss happy whilst also advancing your career. Well considering I have Tom, Paul and Kaytea all offering to mentor me, I don't intend on repeating any mistakes.

So, up managing is essentially matching your values to those of your manager so that when you speak, they may as well be speaking and therefore you get listened to. You do this by keeping them updated on their needs: Sir Clive wants numbers, "by the way we reached 200 people at tackling drugs week that I set up with Leicester College" is what I want to say, and "Paul I've set up a series of workshops with hard to reach people from the South Asian and Somalian communities in Belgrave" is what I want to say to Paul after setting up workshops with Watershed Youth Centre in Belgrave. Therefore keeping Paul and Sir Clive happy.

By finding gaps (gap analysis) in the project which also match the values of the organization, I'll be able to have an influence by introducing new ideas without them impacting on the project. Tom explained this by asking why I think people are sharing their work with me? It's so that I talk about it and everybody knows how they're contributing to the organisation (police). I can now introduce my idea of YC Certificates because Tom is interested in piloting it with the new police cadets because every single one who applied failed the application, that is the same as the Specials application, that asks for customer service skills. The certificates would improve customer service skills that the cadets need (gap analysis) and match the organisations goals of training police cadets without impeding on the YC (up managing) because Tom is going to take it out of my hands. If successful I'll then be recognised for my contribution, setting up the new partnership, and then this can be piloted as YC certificates next year. I'll have then 'up managed' by keeping Sir Clive, Paul and Rose happy by focussing on the YC, but also by promoting myself within the organisation  by contributing to the Police Cadet training and improving the youth commission. Everybody's happy.