Managing Up: How to Get What You Need from the People in Charge

Date/Time
Date(s) - 10/04/2025
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Managing Up: How to Get What You Need from the People in Charge
with Melody Wilding

Feeling powerless in your workplace can be draining. Whether it’s being micromanaged, constantly overlooked for promotions, or burdened with endless busy work, these challenges can make your professional life miserable. But what if you could change how your superiors treat and value you without changing your job title? Join Melody Wilding, an esteemed professor of human behavior and an award-winning executive career coach, for a transformative webinar that will empower you to navigate and improve your workplace dynamics effectively. In this engaging webinar, Melody will explore practical strategies rooted in the latest research on trust, influence, and persuasion to help you gain more authority, freedom, and confidence at work. Drawing from real-life client stories and her extensive background in psychology, she will demonstrate how to manage up successfully—not to make your boss’s life easier, but to take control of your own work experience.

Key Takeaways:

• Learn the Alignment Conversation technique to better understand your boss’s needs, motivations, and goals.
• Discover the Styles Conversation to determine whether a direct approach or building rapport will earn you more respect from your manager.
• Master the Boundaries Conversation to say no and manage excessive workloads effectively tactfully.
• Acquire a toolkit of ten key conversations that anyone, at any level, can use to make their work life more rewarding and respected.

Who Should Attend:

This webinar is ideal for professionals at all levels who want to improve their influence and standing in the workplace. Whether you are a new employee, a middle manager, or even a senior leader, you will find valuable insights and tools to enhance your professional interactions and career trajectory.

Register to learn how to subtly yet effectively teach those above you to value your ideas and treat you with the respect you deserve.

Melody Wilding is a professor of human behavior and was recently named one of Insider’s “most innovative career coaches.” Her background as a therapist and emotions researcher informs her unique approach, weaving evidence-based neuroscience and psychology with professional development. She is the author of Trust Yourself.

This session is offered by McMaster Office of Alumni Engagement and is open to all McMaster staff, faculty, students, and alumni. Please contact the Office at alumni@mcmaster.ca with any questions you may have about this session.