At its core, managing up is about owning your narrative and communicating in a way that earns you trust in your organization. And when done right, managing up (and across) can help you level up your career.

In this keynote, Jess Wass shares her proprietary DUCK™ framework for managing up, including how to leverage the 3 Ps of proactive communication to improve your trust and reputation inside your organization. Whether you’ve been overlooked for a promotion, frustrated by a micromanaging boss, or unsure how to get credit for the work you’re already doing, this talk gives you a concrete, immediately actionable toolkit.

Because here’s the thing: your work does not speak for itself. You speak for your work. And most people were never taught how.

BEST FOR: Leadership conferences, General leadership and professional development conferences, Industry conferences, Corporate workshops and ERG programming, Manager training programs

AUDIENCES WILL LEAVE WITH:

• A memorable, practical framework (DUCK™) they can apply starting Monday

• Strategies to communicate proactively and stop micromanagement before it starts

• Tools to own their narrative and get credit for the work they’re already doing

• A new understanding of how trust is built and how to build it intentionally

DESCRIPTION

Your team isn’t taking initiative. You’re micromanaging more than you want to. You keep having to follow up, step in, and pick up the slack and you know that’s not sustainable. You’ve started wondering if you just have the wrong people.

Before you go there, this talk is for you.

In this keynote, Jess Wass makes the case that most leaders who think they have a people problem actually have a clarity problem. When teams stall, duplicate work, wait to be told what to do, or can’t seem to execute without constant oversight, the root cause is almost never who’s on the team. It’s how the team has been set up to operate.

Drawing on her Get a GRIP™ framework, Jess walks leaders through the four areas where a lack of clarity quietly drives friction, kills initiative, and creates the dependency leaders most want to escape. She helps leaders diagnose exactly where their team is breaking down and what to do about it without overhauling everything or letting anyone go.

Because the most expensive leadership mistake isn’t hiring the wrong person. It’s failing to set the right people up to succeed.

Best For: Industry Conferences, Leadership conferences, Corporate off-sites, Manager training programs, Corporate All-Hands Conferences, ERG Programming

LEADERS WILL LEAVE WITH

• A diagnostic framework to identify where their team’s friction is actually coming from

• Clarity on the specific leadership behaviors that create team dependency and how to shift them

• A concrete starting point to delegate more effectively and get their team running without them

Most high achievers don’t have an ambition problem. They have an alignment problem.

You’re performing. You’re delivering. You’re hitting the goals. But somewhere along the way, the work stopped feeling like yours. You’re succeeding…you’re just not sure it’s at the right things anymore.

In this talk, Jess Wass introduces the I CARE framework, a five-point diagnostic for understanding exactly where your motivation has broken down and what to do about it. Drawing on her own story of building a career that looked right on paper while her body was quietly keeping score, Jess helps audiences identify which of five core drivers is creating friction in their work, and how to address it without blowing up everything they’ve built.

The takeaway isn’t “quit your job.” It’s something more useful: a clear-eyed understanding of what you actually need to thrive, and the language to start going after it.

Best for: Women’s leadership conferences, general leadership conferences, corporate ERG programming, high-potential cohorts, company all-hands