What Your Manager Won't Tell You: The Art of Managing Up with Wes Kao (Cofounder of Maven & altMBA)

Level Up Newsletter & Community paid members were invited to join this live event with Wes Kao (Cofounder of Maven & altMBA) and Jason Yoong discussing the art of managing up.

Wes emphasizes the importance of proactive communication, understanding manager's needs through observation, the iterative process of aligning with senior leaders, actionable tactics to build trust with managers, enhancing the perceived value of non-glamorous projects, gracefully navigating the dynamics with intense or insecure bosses, and how to stay connected with influential mentors.

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Topics discussed:
00:00 Introduction
00:49 Diving into Managing Up
02:25 The Virtuous Cycle of Managing Up
05:38 Observing and Understanding Your Manager
11:01 Building Rapport with a New Boss
13:30 Handling Low-Priority Projects
18:02 Engaging with Senior Executives
27:33 Building Trust and Avoiding Surprises
28:43 Reducing Cognitive Load for Managers
29:55 Effective Problem-Solving Communication
36:03 The Importance of High Standards
39:26 Navigating Feedback and Manager Relationships
41:53 Handling Unreasonable Expectations
50:33 Managing Up with Insecure Managers
53:07 Maintaining Professional Relationships
55:14 Final Thoughts

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About Wes Kao
​​Wes is an entrepreneur, speaker, coach, and advisor. A few highlights:

​-- Co-founded Maven, a platform for live online courses. Raised $25M from First Round & Andreessen Horowitz.

​-- Co-founded the altMBA with bestselling author Seth Godin.

​-- Advised CEOs of Section (Professor Scott Galloway), Outlier (co-founder of Masterclass), and Morning Brew on go-to-market, positioning, and growth.

​Now Wes works with founders and senior leaders via 1:1 executive coaching, typically in areas like setting a high bar of excellence, leveling up your strategic communication, and managing lean teams with ambitious goals.

​Wes writes a newsletter read by 40,000+ high-performing leaders, operators, and marketers, and teaches a course on Maven.

​Follow Wes on LinkedIn:   / weskao  
Subscribe to Wes' newsletter: https://newsletter.weskao.com/
Wes' Maven course (inaugural cohort sold out in 24 hrs): https://maven.com/wes-kao/executive-c...
Book Wes for 1:1 coaching: https://www.weskao.com/coaching

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About Level Up
​​​Level Up is your source for career growth solutions & community by retired Amazon Vice President, Ethan Evans.

Paid newsletter subscribers get: Every issue of the newsletter (~8 per month); Access to a private Slack community with networking events; and Access to member-only content such as Ethan’s Career Talk classes (includes live attendance with Q&A), watch Ethan live coach a real client, fireside chats with leaders, and more.

To become a subscriber, join here: https://levelupwithethanevans.substac...

Jason Yoong is the operating partner at Level Up (and ex-Amazon).

Connect with Jason on LinkedIn:   / jasonyoong  

Explore Ethan's website: https://www.ethanevans.com/

Ethan's leadership development courses https://maven.com/ethan-evans (live online) and https://ethan-evans.mykajabi.com/ (on-demand)