Stop 11 · Stakeholder Management & CommunicationTopics · 2/9

Managing Up

In short

Your manager hates one thing more than bad news: hearing it first from someone else. Managing up is making sure that never happens.

Proactively keeping your manager or leadership informed and aligned — surfacing risks early, asking for the right kind of help, and not letting them be surprised in a room full of people.

The purple blob sits in a rally car reading a notebook and pointing at a bend in the road.

Think of it like this

The rally co-driver

In a rally, the co-driver reads out every bend before it arrives: "Sharp left in 100, gravel." The driver never gets surprised, so they can go fast. A co-driver who stays quiet until the car is in the ditch is useless, however good their notes were.

Watch it happen

Flagging a risk before it becomes a fire

You

Manager

Spot: API is late

1/5A partner's payment API is two weeks late. Your launch depends on it. You don't wait to see if it fixes itself.

The big ideas

What you need to know

No surprises

Share risks the moment you see them, along with what you're doing about them.

Bring options

Don't just bring problems. Bring two choices and your recommendation, so the decision is quick.

Learn their style

Some managers want a daily line on chat, others a weekly doc. Ask, then match it.

Ask for specific help

"Can you unblock legal review by Thursday?" gets action. "Things are hard" doesn't.

Save yourself the pain

Common mistakes

Oops

Hiding a slipping deadline hoping you'll catch up.

Do this instead

Flag it early. A two-week warning is a plan; a two-hour warning is a crisis.

Oops

Sending long updates where the key risk is in paragraph four.

Do this instead

Lead with the one thing they must know, then the details for anyone who wants them.

Your mission

Write a risk heads-up

~15 min

Quick check

You discover a key launch dependency is slipping. What's the best first move?

Go deeper

1Draft a short weekly update template you'd send to your manager or a stakeholder.
2Learn to bring a recommendation, not just a problem, when escalating.
3Practice the 'no surprises' rule: bad news travels up before it travels sideways.