A senior stakeholder always bypasses you and goes straight to your engineers.
What would you do?
👋 Hey, it’s Stephane. Welcome to my weekly newsletter where I share lessons, and stories from my journey to help you lead with confidence as an Engineering Manager.
You open Slack. There’s a message from your engineer, Priya:
Hey, just got a request from Jen again.. she wants changes to the reporting dashboard ASAP. She said she already told you but wanted to speed things up.
You stare at the message. You know Jen. She’s a senior leader from sales. And no, she did not talk to you.
This isn’t the first time. She often skips you and goes straight to your team with new requests, feedback, even rework. She’s not rude but she is… pushy. And she seems to think your team works for her.
It’s messing with your plans, priorities, and team focus. And frankly, you’re the one who has to deal with the consequences.
How do you deal with it?
Outline
- 🔒 What are your options?
- 🔒 Breaking down each approach
- 🔒 What I would do (and have done) in this situation
- 🔒 Takeaways
- 🔒 Some useful links from me
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