Melody Wilding (00:02.89)
Welcome to Psychology at Work. Today’s episode is very special because I have news that I have been waiting to tell you about for three years. And I am truly pinching myself because it even feels surreal that we’re here now. And I am so excited that for the very first time, I can tell you that my new book, Managing Up, How to Get What You Need from the People in Charge, is available for pre-order.

right now, you can head to managingup.com and find all of the details there. And this is really a pinch me moment because I have been working on this book for you since 2021, and I can’t wait for you to actually have it in your hands. I’ve never been more proud of anything I have created before. And I really didn’t think that was possible because I was extremely proud and am still extremely proud of my first book, Trust Yourself, which has helped

thousands and thousands of you across the entire world. But this working on Managing Up has really just been next level. You have no idea how many hours I spent wrestling with these concepts, how much joy, excitement, frustration, maybe even a few tearful breakdowns thrown in there. Just so much emotion went into this project. So many high highs and so many low lows.

getting this to be the most impactful book possible for you. I really truly pushed myself. I gave it my all, not just to make sure that everything is very tangible and actionable in the book. I cared about that a lot, but also relatable, entertaining, that it’s filled with a lot of science-backed strategies that actually work in today’s workplaces. Because I want you to see yourself. I want you to find something useful

and immediately applicable on every single page. Whether you are someone who is struggling to get your voice heard in meetings, you are feeling overlooked for opportunities, you’re watching maybe less qualified colleagues get promoted ahead of you, you’re tired of feeling like you are at the mercy of your boss’s moods. You’re unsure about how to ask for what you need. You’re trying to build allies across different departments. You want to influence the decisions

Melody Wilding (02:27.426)
that affect your team. Whatever the case is, as long as you are trying to get what you need from the people in charge, then managing up shows you exactly how to make that happen. Now, for the last three years, I have been really obsessing over getting this book right, and that’s because your time is very valuable. We all know you only get one life on this earth, and you will spend the majority of it

nearly about 70 % of that working. And that means you are going to have periods of your life where you spend more time with your boss, your leaders, your colleagues than you do with even your family members. And because of that, you deserve, I truly deeply believe that you deserve to approach each day with confidence, a feeling of control and personal power.

even with people that have more positional power than you. And so I wrote, I rewrote, I rewrote, I reworked the manuscript four times, four times. We pretty much started from scratch, hundreds of thousands of words on the cutting room floor. We would get to a full draft and I would have this gnawing sense that this is okay, but it’s not clicking yet. We’re not there yet.

And as I said, I pretty much started from scratch every time again and again and again. And that’s why this is such a huge moment to be sharing with you. That’s why it’s so meaningful to finally get hold the first printed copies of this book in my hand and why I am so dead set on getting this book into your hands and making sure that as many people know about this as possible because I

deeply believe to my core, I know this is one of the most valuable career and professional growth resources there is out there. There is just nothing like it in terms of depth and specificity and I stand behind that. I have poured my heart and soul into this and that may sound weird, like Melody, okay, this is a book about getting along with your boss better, let’s just chill out for a second with that. But.

Melody Wilding (04:48.906)
It’s so much more than that. You’re going to learn exactly how to handle a boss who keeps changing priorities. One that gives you vague direction. One that plays favorites, how to push back when yet another project is dumped on you, how to position yourself as a strategic partner rather than just an order taker and a subordinate. All of that is important. But what’s even more important is that you are going to learn how to step into what I call

your professional power position and your professional power position is that sweet spot where influencing others and confidence in yourself, where those two things come together, how to quiet that inner critic that holds you back when you want to speak up, how to get people to actually lean in when you talk, how to create opportunities for yourself instead of waiting and sitting back for them to be handed to you.

how to shape your role into one that energizes you rather than drains you. And what I hope to do, and I think I have accomplished, is presenting in this book a totally new definition of what it means to manage up. We are not talking about being a suck-up or a people pleaser. Instead, you are going to learn how to master the human dynamics that determine your success at work.

This is really about becoming someone who commands respect, who can influence decisions, who creates the career they truly want and the one they deserve. so managing up really represents countless hours of research over 12 years of coaching thousands of top performers at major companies across the world. Deep conversations I had with professionals just like you. And if you were one of them, thank you for taking your time to speak with me about it.

people who are feeling stuck, overlooked, maybe even powerless at work. Now, over the course of my own career, I have worn many different hats. Therapist, executive coach, human behavior professor, and through all of that, I have seen firsthand how smart, capable, thoughtful, caring people can get thrown off course and derailed at work despite their best intentions. And being kind,

Melody Wilding (07:12.992)
and caring, emotionally intelligent, should be a superpower at work. It should not feel like it’s your Achilles heel. Yet all too many thoughtful people that we work with, they second-guess themselves. They’re every move. They’re trying to read between the lines. It’s like they hit these invisible walls. These deep thinkers get labeled as too quiet in meetings. Conscientious managers have their expertise undermined by office politics.

And then there’s empathetic types who struggle to assert themselves with more dominant personalities. And I wrote Managing Up because I refuse to accept that you need to become someone else to succeed at work. You shouldn’t compromise your integrity to get ahead. And you definitely shouldn’t have to feel like you are at the mercy of other people’s moods or the organizational change and whims that are happening around you. But

What you do need to know is how to leverage your smarts, your sensitivity, your emotional intelligence to persuade, to get in the heads of people in power more effectively. Because once you master those skills, you’re not just playing the game, you’re able to change it. You’re creating a new model of success where thoughtful people like you can be successful. They can be at the table where decisions are being made without losing themselves.

in the process. And so that’s exactly why I structured this book around what I call 10 key conversations to manage up. You’re going to learn how to have the alignment conversation where you get crystal clear on expectations as well as the styles conversation. So you can work with bosses and leaders that have different personalities. There’s also the boundaries conversation where you learn how to push back and say no to

maybe unreasonable requests, extra work that comes on your plate without coming across as difficult. The feedback conversation will show you how to give criticism up your chain of command. And don’t worry because also later on in the book, we cover step by step exactly how to also have conversations like the advancement conversation, the money conversation. So you get the recognition and compensation you deserve. Now this 10 conversation framework

Melody Wilding (09:39.402)
in and of itself is really a game changer for how you think about managing up because all too often it’s just thought as this random collection of lightweight tips. You may have come across, you know, managing up advice in the past that is things like, well, you need to come to the table with solutions, not problems, or make sure you really know your boss’s priorities. All of that is helpful to an extent, but it’s

Not in depth. It’s not nuanced for the different, more complex challenges you’re going to face day to day with your boss. And so that’s why I spent so many years digging into the psychological, the behavioral research, studying what actually works in today’s workplaces, distilling our experience from working with clients all into really practical, actionable strategies.

And the best part, probably my favorite part is that each conversation framework gives you exact words to say. This book is packed with so many scripts. I can’t even tell you. We also cover common pitfalls to avoid specific techniques for applying the practices and adjusting your approach to any surprise that may come your way. So hopefully you can see why I can’t wait to get this book into your hands.

As I said, you can pre-order it right now at managingup.com. And you’re gonna wanna do that ASAP because I am giving you some amazing bonuses worth over $300 for anyone who orders just one copy, any format. So this is available to you whether you order a hard copy, audio book, ebook, all the same, you qualify for this. And so the first of those bonuses is that you will get a free ticket to a private pre-order buyers

only masterclass that I’m hosting this December 4th through 6th. It’s called the Promotion Playbook. And we’re going to meet every day for about 90 minutes as a very small exclusive group where I’m going to guide you through acing your year-end review with confidence, strategically positioning yourself for advancement in 2025, and negotiating for the compensation.

Melody Wilding (12:04.846)
You deserve now this private event alone is valued at $247. We’ve never done anything like this before, where you get a chance to work with me. You’ll also get the opportunity to work with my co-coach Wendy in a very small group setting for free. When you purchase the book, your ticket is included when you pre-order. And the second bonus you get is instant access to chapter cheat sheets. This is our 10 page readers guide that.

distills all of the key concepts from each chapter, including featured scripts, techniques, and that is delivered to your inbox immediately as soon as you enter your pre-order confirmation. And I want you to think of these chapter cheat sheets a little like a quick reference toolkit. It’s meant to really be your backstage pass. You’re gonna get a sneak preview to all of the strategies in the book way before it actually comes up.

So you’re gonna have your hands on this way before anyone else. And the point of these being chapter cheat sheets is to give you easy to implement action steps, ready to use scripts for each concept. These are perfect to review before important meetings and conversations. And so even better, when you pre-order now at managingup.com, you’re going to get these bonuses that I mentioned today, your free ticket.

to the promotion playbook masterclass, as well as the chapter cheat sheets. And because you’re pre-ordering early, you’re pre-ordering now, you’re also going to lock in any future bonuses we announce between now and when the book comes out in March. And I have some fun things up my sleeve, so you’re wanna do that. All right, just one more thing. I know if you are listening to this show, you are the kind of person who loves supporting the people who support you. So.

If you have ever felt supported by me, whether it’s in this podcast, my articles, my content on LinkedIn, my first book, Trust Yourself, if you’ve ever found something useful in what I have shared with you or anything I have done has brought you some small piece of joy, inspiration, motivation, it would mean everything to me if you could go support me by going to managingup.com and pre-ordering today. Pre-orders matter so much.

Melody Wilding (14:26.69)
to authors and I’ll tell you why, because a lot of people have said to me, I never really understood why this matters and I appreciate you telling me because now I’m so much more motivated to support you. So here is why pre-orders matter. First of all, it tells the publishers to print enough copies to make sure that they have enough copies on hand to send out and to meet readers demands. Second, bookstores judge whether they want to carry the book based on pre-orders.

Because guess what? Now more than ever, bookstores have limited space. They have limited shelf space. And so they have to make decisions about which books readers actually want to read. And so they look at pre-orders as a proxy for which books to cover. And then last but not least, you may or may not be aware of this, but pre-orders are really what drive bestsellers lists. pre-orders matter because all of those sales count towards day one. And so…

Day one, when the book comes out, all of those pre-orders that have happened last month count, and that’s what bestsellers lists look at. And so that’s why you hear authors like me, you hear many other people say, please, please support me, pre-order now. And as I said, better yet, we’re giving that $300 worth of bonuses away. And if you pre-order now, you’ll also get any other bonuses I announce in the future. And so again, all you need to do is head to managingup.com.

You’re going to see options there about which format you want to purchase it. Hardcover, ebook, audiobook. We also have several international additions available now. You can choose from that as well. And then all you have to do head to your retailer of your choice, whether it’s Amazon, bookshop.org, Barnes and Noble, wherever it is, place your order there and then come back to managingup.com and you’ll see a form there to enter your details. All you need to enter is your

name, your email, and your order confirmation number. And then my team will just validate your order, and then we’ll send you all of the information about your bonuses immediately to your inbox. And if you have any issues at all with that form, you can also send your receipt to us at hello at melodywilding.com. All right, I am so excited to hopefully see you at our master class in December, and I just wanna thank you again.

Melody Wilding (16:51.31)
for being here, for supporting me in this work. And I can’t wait for this book to be in your hands. I’ll see you next time, everyone.