Tell me about a time you had to manage up — influencing your own manager or leadership.
Why This Is Asked
Interviewers want to see that you can influence decisions above you when you don't have formal authority. They're assessing your political savvy, communication skills, and ability to advocate for your team or your perspective—without being pushy or undermining your manager.
Key Points to Cover
- What you were trying to influence (resource, priority, decision, visibility)
- How you prepared (data, framing, understanding your manager's priorities)
- How you made your case (timing, channel, tone)
- The outcome and what you learned about managing up
STAR Method Answer Template
Describe the context - what was happening, what team/company, what was at stake
What was your specific responsibility or challenge?
What specific steps did you take? Be detailed about YOUR actions
What was the outcome? Use metrics where possible. What did you learn?
💡 Tips
- Frame it as partnership, not manipulation—you're helping your manager make a better decision
- Show that you understood their constraints and priorities before making your case
- Emphasize that you respected the final decision even if it didn't go your way
✍️ Example Response
STAR formatSituation: My manager wanted to consolidate our team's on-call with another team to "reduce load." I believed it would hurt both teams—different domains, different runbooks, and our team already had sustainable coverage. I needed to influence the decision without undermining her.
Task: I had to make my case in a way that respected her authority and helped her make a better decision.
Action: I studied her priorities: she cared about cost, engineer satisfaction, and reliability. I gathered data: our current on-call load (pages per week, MTTR), the other team's stack complexity, and the cost of cross-training. I requested a 1:1 and framed it as "I want to share some data that might affect the consolidation plan." I presented the trade-offs: consolidation would save one FTE but increase MTTR by an estimated 40% and require 3 months of cross-training. I proposed an alternative: keep teams separate but create a shared escalation path for overlap. I made clear I'd support whatever she decided.
Result: She paused the consolidation and asked for a 90-day pilot of the shared escalation model. It worked—we reduced overlap incidents without merging. She later told me she appreciated the data-driven pushback. I learned that managing up works when you understand their constraints, come with alternatives, and respect the final call.
🏢 Companies Known to Ask This
| Company | Variation / Focus |
|---|---|
| Amazon | Earn Trust, Have Backbone Disagree & Commit — "Tell me about managing up" |
| Collaboration, influence without authority | |
| Meta | Cross-functional alignment |
| Microsoft | Growth mindset, collaboration |
| Netflix | Candor, direct communication |
| Professional growth, influence |