Managing Up and Across — Communicate effectively with leaders above you
Ethan Evans
Former Amazon VP; 70+ patents; led 800+
Build great relationships with bosses and key stakeholders
Most high performers don’t stall from lack of skill — they stall because managing up and across is messy: a boss with a different style, shifting priorities, unclear expectations, and peers who don’t align. The result is great work that is misunderstood, under-credited, or derailed by surprises and politics.
This workshop gives you specific, ethical, repeatable steps to build high-trust relationships with your manager, skip-level, and key peers — so you execute faster, reduce friction, and increase your influence.
You’ll learn how to understand your boss (preferences, pet peeves, strengths/weaknesses) and communicate upward with clarity, brevity, and the right timing. You’ll run better 1:1s, ask sharper questions, separate fact vs. opinion, and give upward feedback without triggering defensiveness.
When things get tense, you’ll handle conflict, emotion, and tough decisions without breaking trust: avoid surprises, manage expectations, set boundaries, and “quit and commit” when needed.
You’ll also leave with tools to drive your growth, navigate remote work and frequent boss changes, and spot when managing up crosses into manipulation — so you stay effective and principled.
Workshop agenda
- 12:00PM EDT
Managing Up and Across
Live lecture from Ethan Evans
- 1:30PM EDT
Break (5min)
Ask your AI to summarize your prompts while you take a short break
- 1:35PM EDT
Get Your Questions Answered
Live Q&A with Ethan
What you’ll learn
Specific actionable steps to create effective and ethical relationships with your manager, skip level, and peers.
Understand your boss: Communication style, preferences and pet peeves, strengths vs weaknesses
Effective upward communication: Clarity and brevity, timeliness, fact vs opinion, active listening, ask sharp questions, lead good 1:1s
Give upward feedback and share your own style and preferences: Choose your battles, ask permission, bring examples (SBI)
Problem solving and decision making: Avoid surprises, ask to be involved, manage emotions, reference preferred style
Conflict resolution: Extreme problems and decisions, leadership & stress management, when to compromise or quit and commit
Managing expectations: Clarify and propose, personal vs team, measurement and reporting, follow-ups, shifting priorities, set boundaries
Intentionally and thoughtfully ask for career support: Get feedback, give permission, ask honest questions, ask for examples
Earn and get investment (growth) from your leaders: Goals and timelines, ask for opportunities, executive mentors
How to navigate remote situations and frequent boss changes
Mange up to your skip level leaders: Important to engage, less time, ally with your boss, escalations
Mange up to senior peers: Leverage expertise and interests, power dynamics, negotiation, collaboration, keep your boss in the loop
Enable people to manage up to you: Publish your preference, psychological safety, favoritism, help your team understand auditing
When managing up becomes unethical or manipulative
Positioning vs lying: Sandbagging, withholding information
Face time
Learn directly from Ethan
Explore more from this school
Ethan Evans
Former Amazon VP (15+ years); 70+ patents; led global teams of 800+
Who this workshop is for
High-performing IC: Delivers strong work but struggles with alignment, visibility, and no-surprise updates across boss + partners.
New or stretched people leader: Needs a clean system to manage up, set expectations, give feedback, and navigate conflict without politics.
Cross-functional driver: PM/ops/finance/sales/eng partner who must influence peers + skip-levels and get decisions without burning trust.
What's included
Live sessions
Learn directly from Ethan Evans in a real-time, interactive format.
Lifetime access
Go back to course content and recordings whenever you need to.
Community of peers
Stay accountable and share insights with like-minded professionals.
Certificate of completion
Share your new skills with your employer or on LinkedIn.
Maven Guarantee
Your purchase is backed by the Maven Guarantee.
Frequently asked questions
$495
USD