Tell me about a time you managed up effectively.

Question

Accepted Answer

Managing up means **helping your leadership make better decisions** by giving clear context, surfacing risks early, and making their job easier — not flattery or politics.

## How to approach it

```text
1. Understand your leader's goals and pressures
2. Bring solutions and options, not just problems
3. Surface risks early with proposed mitigations
4. Communicate in their format — concise, decision-ready
```

## Worked example

```text
S: My director was about to commit to a delivery date I knew was unrealistic.
T: I needed to change course without undermining him publicly.
A: Before the commitment, I sent a one-page note with the risk, two scope
   options, and a recommended date with reasoning. I framed it around his goal
   of a credible launch.
R: He chose a phased plan, hit the revised dates, and started looping me in
   earlier on planning.
```

## Good vs weak

```text
✓ Anticipates needs, brings options, decision-ready
✗ Dumping problems with no proposal
✗ Telling leaders what they want to hear
```

## Why it matters

Your manager's decisions shape your team's success — helping them decide well is high leverage.

Bringing options instead of problems makes you someone leadership pulls *into* decisions, not around.

Surfacing risk early, privately, builds the trust that lets you push back when it really counts.