Managing Up
Employee
Executive
Giving upward feedback to a senior leader
You need to tell someone two levels up that something is not working.
Strategy
Ask permission, deliver one observation, tie it to their goal. Executives respond to impact on outcomes, not to feelings about style.
Can I give you a piece of feedback? It is one thing and it will take a minute. In the all-hands you said the roadmap is locked. Three teams read that as their input is closed, and I am seeing them stop raising risks. I do not think that is what you meant, and it is going to cost you signal before the launch.
If they push back
If they get short with you: "Understood, and I will drop it. I would rather you hear it from me than find out in the postmortem."
What not to say
- A lot of people are saying
- I am probably out of line here
- No disrespect but
- Everyone is scared to tell you this
Follow-up
Thanks for taking that. If it is useful, I can pull the three specific risks the teams have been sitting on and send them over.