There are very few leaders who don't have a boss and, as any leader knows, sometimes it's necessary to lead the boss as well as subordinates. But how? As the book's title suggests, such leadership is a subtle art.

John Baldoni presents a laundry list of techniques for the leader who wants to lead up. After all, helping the boss succeed is really a basic part of leadership responsibility. You want your subordinates to help you succeed and you should strive to help your boss succeed. In Lead Your Boss: The Subtle Art of Managing Up, he breaks the subject into three areas, each building on the next.

It's important to know what the leader needs. Remember, the goal is to help him or her succeed and knowing what they need is essential. Like the boss, a subordinate leader needs to be able to think strategically, while also being creative. Of course diplomacy usually leads to success. Probably one of the harder parts of leading up is knowing when and how to push back. Good leaders appreciate honest feedback from subordinates and good subordinate leaders know how to provide it.

Being a leader means being in a team. To be effective, the leader must know what the team needs. Of course teams are complex things and so Baldoni's next step, knowing what the team needs is also complex. Here he suggests a number of techniques that will help the leader understand the team's and most importantly the team's members', needs. Armed with that knowledge, the leader can then more effectively lead, both up and down.

With knowledge of what the leader needs, and what the team needs, the leader in the middle can now ask the pivotal question; what can I do my help the leader and the team succeed. Here Baldoni spends some time on two skills that are essential to leading, whether it's up, down, or sideways. First is resilience. A leader won't always win, especially not the first time, making this a critical skill for the leader's own sanity. The other is to treat other people well. People are what leadership is all about and the leader who treats people well is much more likely to succeed. Of course, being able to deal with the word "no" is important as well.

In Lead Your Boss, Baldoni gives us a handbook of leadership skills that apply to all levels of leadership. A word of caution though. If you're looking for a book that spells out in simple steps how to get your boss to do what you want him or her to do, this isn't it. The title states this is a subtle art, and indeed it is. It's also a subtle theme in this book and in reading one learns that perhaps the best way to lead the boss is to first master the art of leadership itself.

PLAN - LEAD - EXCEL