Leading Up: How to Lead Your Boss so You Both Win

Leading Up: How to Lead Your Boss so You Both Win

BY MICHAEL USEEM, CROWN

BUSINESS, RANDOM HOUSE OF CANADA, $38.95

If you're itching to give your boss a tip or two, or just feel shortchanged by your superiors, Leading Up will give you some pertinent advice on how to take charge in the workplace.

Using real-life scenarios from world events, author Michael Useem illustrates why leadership should come from below as well as from the top, particularly when a supervisor is micromanaging rather than "macrothinking."

Useem draws on a rich lore from history to validate his theories - from David Pottruck, chief operating officer of brokerage firm Charles Schwab & Co., who led his superiors to successfully transform the company's core business to make way for the Internet age, to the Everest mountaineers who admitted that a failure to question their guides' flawed choices may have contributed to the deaths of eight climbers in 1996.

Interspersed throughout these case studies are Useem's kernels of advice on how to "lead up" successfully. For example, he suggests questioning your boss behind closed doors rather than publicly to get your ideas into the room while avoiding a power struggle.

Leading Up is aimed at all levels of management. After all, even a CEO ultimately answers to a board of directors or investors.

In the final chapter, the author offers five concrete initiatives for establishing a company-wide culture of upward leadership -- even for organizations where it seems like an improbable concept.

In an era of burgeoning business growth coupled by widespread downsizing, Leading Up is sure to inspire some contemplation on why daring to lead, no matter what your rank, is always better than sitting on the sidelines.