4 Critical Communication Skills for Managing Up with Style and Grace
Why influence beats frustration, and how to build it with elegance and impact.
Let’s be honest, most marketing leaders don’t feel fully heard.
You’re juggling conflicting goals. You’re trying to prove the value of your team’s work. You’re keeping stakeholders happy, motivating people through ambiguity, and translating marketing metrics into business language - often for people who still think marketing is “just colouring in.”
So it’s no surprise that one of the most common frustrations I hear from marketing leaders is:
“How do I get my boss to listen?”
Whether you're reporting to a CEO, a Chief Revenue Officer, or even a non-marketing GM, managing up is one of the most underdeveloped, yet absolutely essential skills for modern marketing leaders. The unfortunate truth is that you can’t change your boss. You can’t control their behaviour. But you can influence it.
Managing up well won’t just reduce your stress. It will build your strategic credibility, enhance your team’s performance, and help you turn stakeholder tension into traction.
This week we will unpack four communication skills that will help you manage up with confidence, clarity, and a dose of professional charm, without sucking up, playing politics, or selling your soul.
1. Understand What Matters Two Levels Up
To influence your manager, don’t just look up. Look two levels up.
Most marketing leaders make the mistake of framing their ideas through a marketing lens when they should be speaking in business outcomes. This is where two-level thinking comes in: understanding not just what your manager cares about, but what their boss is focused on. (If your boss is the CEO, think about the board). Strategic influence starts when your message hits the mark at the top table.
Before pitching an idea, making a request, or raising a concern, ask:
What results is my boss directly accountable for?
What pressure is being passed down from their boss?
What are they trying to achieve, or avoid?
How do I position my message to support those goals?
Instead of:
“My team is burnt out.”
Try:
“The current pace is beginning to affect quality, which risks undermining client retention. Can we explore ways to stay on track while protecting delivery standards?”
The more your message aligns to what leadership is trying to drive, the more influence you have.
How to Find Out What Matters Most:
If you're thinking, “That’s great, but I don’t have a line to the CEO,” don’t worry. You don’t need one. Here’s how to tune in:
Ask your manager directly:
“I want to ensure I’m working strategically. How does our work connect to what [senior leader] is most focused on this quarter?”
Observe patterns:
Which metrics, issues, or themes repeatedly come up in your 1:1s or team meetings? What keeps getting airtime or resources?
Attend senior updates:
In Town Halls or all-company briefings, listen to what’s repeated. What themes are reinforced? Which KPIs are non-negotiable?
Review leadership comms:
Press releases, internal newsletters, annual reports - they all give clues about what matters at the top.
Ask trusted peers or mentors:
Especially in matrixed organisations, cross-functional peers may have more visibility. Don’t be afraid to ask:
“What seems to be most important to [X] right now in your experience?”
Follow the money (or people):
Where leadership allocates budget, hires, and attention is where priorities lie.
Marketing doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Position your work in the context of what the business is trying to achieve, and you stop sounding like a functional lead and start sounding like a commercial partner.
2. Communicate with Data and Insight
If you want to be taken seriously at the leadership table, bring more than metrics. Bring meaning.
Your boss needs more than just the data - they need your insight, perspective, and recommendations too.
That’s not to say that you need to run out and dump your dashboards. But you do need to start to tell the story.
What do the numbers mean?
Why does it matter?
What should we do next?
What’s the business impact?
Example:
“We’re seeing strong awareness growth - organic traffic is up 27% and brand search volume has increased quarter-on-quarter. But there’s a widening gap between awareness and revenue contribution. The data suggests our commercial impact is capped by weak lead-to-opportunity conversion in two key segments: enterprise and public sector.
I recommend we pause further awareness investment for 60 days and focus on two strategic shifts:
Co-developing new vertical propositions with sales for those underperforming segments.
Aligning our nurture and ABM efforts around deal-critical buying signals.
I’ve outlined the resource trade-offs and have a proposal ready. Happy to walk you through it if it’s helpful.”
Marketing leaders earn trust when they can turn information into action. Numbers get attention. Narrative gets buy-in.
3. Say Yes to Say No
Your boss wants more.
More leads. More speed. More content. More deliverables.
And while we want to be team players, constant yeses lead to burnout, misalignment, and sub-par execution.
But saying “no” can feel political, or risky. That’s why the art of “yes, and” matters so much.
Affirm the goal, explain the constraint, and offer an option.
Example:
“I understand how important this request is. Adding it now will delay Project X, which we agreed was critical for this quarter. We could either extend the timeline or bring in freelance support. What would you prefer?”
This approach shows you're solution-oriented, commercially aware, and committed to the bigger picture, not just managing up, but managing wisely.
4. Ask Permission Before Offering Feedback
There will be moments when you see something that isn’t working. You’ll spot a communication issue, a misalignment, or a missed opportunity and you’ll want to raise it.
But giving upward feedback is a high-stakes game. One wrong move can sour trust.
That’s why permission is power. Tie your point to a shared goal and ask if they’re open to hearing it.
Example:
“I know increasing client retention is a priority. I’ve spotted something that might help - would you be open to a quick idea?”
If they say yes, share it respectfully. If not, let it go. Influence is cumulative. You don’t need to win every point - you just need to protect the relationship and pick the right moments.
Why This Matters So Much Right Now
Marketing leaders are under immense pressure. You’re asked to show ROI on long-term brand work, respond to tactical firefighting, manage cross-functional politics, and lead teams through complexity - all while trying to maintain credibility and influence in a boardroom that often misunderstands the actual value of marketing.
These four skills don’t just help you survive; they help you lead.
They help you step out of survival mode and into strategic presence. They allow you to easily navigate competing demands, communicate with more confidence, and influence without burning bridges.
Here are some reflection questions to consider:
Which of these communication strategies do you most need to strengthen
What are your manager’s top three priorities right now, and how can your work align more closely with them?
Where are you currently saying “yes” when a more strategic “yes, and” is needed?
What’s one upcoming conversation where you could use permission-based feedback?
You don’t need a title to lead strategically. You need influence. And it starts with how you communicate up.