Be Your Boss’s Boss: How to Effectively Manage Up

This week's The Better Leader Newsletter is a guest post from Ethan Evans, author of Level Up with Ethan Evans

This edition of The Better Leader Newsletter is a guest post from Ethan Evans. Ethan is a Retired Amazon Vice President, and the founder of Level Up, a Substack that’s an excellent source for executive insights, high performance habits, and specific career growth actions. Learn more about Level Up.

If you're in a high-growth company, odds are you're working with a boss (founder, manager, senior leader) who has too much on their plate. This means that you, your work, and your career often take a back seat to the thousand other things on their plate. It also means that many of the “leftovers” from their plate get dumped onto you, overwhelming you as well.

They aren’t doing this on purpose, but you still need to get their attention and explain what you need so things can change. The way to do this is by “managing up”-actively planning to influence their actions rather than just letting them happen to you without your input.

Here is how you can do that in a way that allows you to have more control over your work, create a strong relationship with your manager, and give your career momentum when no one is doing that for you (they almost never will!).

First, Perform

Before trying to manage up, make sure your own performance is solid. If you are not doing well with the basic requirements of your role, it is unlikely your manager will listen when you try to shape the conversation or ask for things from them.

Do your work well, meet deadlines, and communicate clearly. Doing this will earn you the leverage to ask for better clarity on initiatives and/or more sustainable workloads when things get tough to handle.

Make Your Work Visible

One of the most common causes of overwhelm is a lack of shared visibility. When leaders introduce new ideas, shift directions, or add more work, it is often because they have forgotten what they previously requested.

Make sure you are keeping a shared tracker or summary of the things you are working on. List current asks, status, and timelines. Bring this tracker to your regular 1:1s and say something like, “Here’s what I’m working on from your requests. Can we review and make sure I’m focused on the highest priorities?”

This approach helps your leader see the big picture and gives you the chance to reset expectations. You are not saying no to what they ask you to do, but you are offering transparency and requesting alignment on what the most impactful work will be.

Bring Clear Choices

Overloaded leaders are often bottlenecks for decisions. In order to help them make decisions more quickly, bring them options instead of open questions. Explain the pros and cons of each option and make a recommendation.

For example, instead of saying, “We can’t hit the deadline, what should we do?” say, “We can launch on time if we reduce scope or add support, or we can push back the launch date. My recommendation is to reduce scope because of XYZ reasons. Is that okay with you?”

Use clarity and structure. Executives and senior leaders often operate best when they are asked to choose between paths, not asked to generate solutions to every problem.

Understand Their Style

Founders and senior leaders often have strong communication preferences. Some love brainstorming, some prefer written updates, some want data, some want stories.

Always try to communicate with your manager in a way that will resonate with them. Take time to understand how they process information and make decisions. One way to do this may be using personality tools like the Myers-Briggs or the enneagram, but the best and easiest way to do it is by actively observing, listening, and asking them how they like to communicate.

Also, share your own working style. You might say, “I do my best work with a bit of uninterrupted time each day. Can we talk about how to handle urgent requests?”

Clear communication like this can reduce stress and create stronger partnerships.

Use the Loop

I teach a method called ”The Magic Loop.” It is a simple and effective way to continuously upgrade your work to higher value tasks and create an ongoing dialogue with your manager.

It works like this:

1. Do your job well

2. Ask your manager what else you can do to help them or the team

3. Do that too

4. Repeat

This creates trust, positions you as a partner, and creates an active discussion around the new work you are assigned. When that workload becomes too much, you already have an existing line of communication to revisit your tasks and ask what is truly essential, what can be skipped, and what can be delegated to someone else.

This loop is how you get more agency over your time and how your manager starts to see you as someone they can depend on when it really matters. It also creates the base of trust and performance that you will need if you ever need to set a boundary.

Setting Boundaries

When your boss is disorganized, the temptation is to push back emotionally or to disengage. Neither helps.

Instead, stay calm and say, “I want to make sure I’m still aligned with what matters most. Should I pause X and focus on Y?”

This makes it so you are not resisting, but you are managing what they give you based on the team’s priorities. Leaders who are under pressure need steady hands around them- Be one of them.

Final Note

Managing up is not manipulation or politics. It is a way to build a working relationship that fosters win/win scenarios for you, your manager, and the business. Part of building this relationship is having conversations about limits and priorities.

P.S. Want to get better at managing up? I have a whole course on the topic: https://ethan-evans.mykajabi.com/managing-up

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Follow Ethan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanevansvp/