Managing Up and Expectations Questions

This topic focuses on how you communicate with and manage expectations of senior leaders, sponsors, or managers. Provide concrete examples of proactively informing leadership about risks, delays, or trade offs; negotiating or pushing back on unrealistic requests; and keeping sponsors aligned without waiting for crises. Examples can range from product or project updates to situations where you had to escalate, seek decisions, or reframe trade offs for higher level stakeholders. For entry level candidates, academic or project sponsor examples are acceptable. Emphasize clarity, honesty, timing of communications, stakeholder sensitivity, and outcomes demonstrating maturity and influence.