Show Notes
How to manage up is the half of the job nobody trains you for. You learn to lead the people under you, and then you find out that a third of what your team needs has to come from somebody above you.
Your boss isn't ignoring you. You've brought it up three times, you got a nod and a "we should look at that," and nothing happened. They heard you every time. They just couldn't do anything with what you handed them.
Two things are going wrong. First, you and your boss keep score in different currencies — you are measured on workload, fairness and morale, and they are measured on cost, risk and whatever their own boss asks them about every week. Second, you brought a problem. A problem is homework. A decision is a signature.
In this episode I walk through The Upward Ask — three moves that get a real decision out of the person above you:
ONE. BRING THE DECISION, NOT THE PROBLEM. The four-line ask: the situation, your recommendation, what you need from them specifically, and what you will do if you do not hear back. That fourth line turns silence into a yes.
TWO. PRICE IT IN THEIR CURRENCY. Find out what your boss actually gets asked about, then say your team's problem in that language. Translating is not betraying your team. It is the job.
THREE. ASK FOR A DATE, NOT AN ANSWER. "No" is workable. "Let me think about it" is what kills you, because you cannot plan from inside a hold. Leave with a day on the calendar, then come back on it.
Plus how it maps to the LEAD Framework: Listen, Envision, Align, Drive. And the years I spent being a very good complainer with a very good point. Get my coaching frameworks behind the scenes. One idea and one small shift to your inbox every week. Start here: https://www.thejohnespinosa.com/start-hereReady to take your leadership to the next level?Join our Coaching Program and start building clarity, focus, and real momentum.👉 Apply here: https://www.thejohnespinosa.com/workwithjohn
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