The Senior Manager (L7) Talk

Collaboration with David Glick (SVP Walmart, ex-Amazon VP)

Amazon L7 is the manager of managers, or “Senior Manager” level.

Team sizes vary by discipline, ranging from 20 to 80, and represent the first time a leader manages through other managers. Equivalent FAANG levels include Meta M2, Microsoft 66, and Google L7.

Success at this level takes different skills than small team management, particularly at the high end to be promoted to Director.

Dave Glick and I separately developed “L7 manager talks,” which we gave to new Senior Managers on our teams and when coaching others.

Each shown in our goatee eras

In this post, we explain how a leader must change their actions and learn new skills to be successful. We hope it helps people as well as their Directors, who must support their growth.

The Senior Manager level is where leaders make the transition from line managers — who are mainly focused internally on their teams to get things done — to executives (Directors on up), who are mainly focused on working across organizations to meet company goals.

Leaders at this level find that they cannot know the intimate details of each employee’s work.

At the Senior Manager level, it is assumed that you run your teams and have them deliver. While this used to be considered the core of your performance as an L6 Manager of a small team, it is only the beginning.

To be a successful Senior Manager you are expected to start thinking about your larger organization or company goals, and to do work that not only benefits your team, but that raises the overall level of delivery for your whole organization.

In short, in addition to looking inwardly at your team, you must now look outwardly at your peers and adjacent teams to help them succeed.

In terms of behaviors, this requires change, you must:

1. Hire and develop managers capable of running their own teams as you used to do.

2. Then trust them to do so and delegate your old internal focus so that you have time for other work.

3. Put time into understanding the larger group or company strategy.

4. Once you understand, you must direct your teams in ways that support this strategy, even if that makes things harder for your teams. You are now optimizing for the larger world, not your own ease.

5. Finally, you must put effort into improving the entire organization, contributing your expertise to others, and accepting their help in return.

Until now, you have been able to put your head down and “Do work.”

Interpersonal skills with peers weren’t as important.

One of the biggest changes as a Senior Manager is that you need to be able to work across the company with people who don’t have the same interests as you, and whose time and performance you don’t control.

Many folks at this level will want to write off some of their colleagues who are optimizing for different things as “They’re dumb” or “I can’t work with them.”

To continue to grow your career, you will be exposed to people from other backgrounds and training, and you will have to learn to work with them, even if you don’t see eye to eye.

Some of this can be summarized as “Don’t be a jerk” — success starts with your own attitude and emotions when other leaders do not share your priorities.

One of my most popular articles is The “L7” Problem — Stuck at Senior Manager — How to Break Through to Executive which outlines the 3 main reasons people get stuck and what you can do about it.

If you want to go deep on this topic (but not hire a 1:1 coach), I teach a live online cohort-based course called Stuck at Senior Manager - How to Break Through to Executive. I go in-depth on HOW to address key problems in getting promoted. The first cohort sold out. Students rated it 4.7/5 and here are a few testimonials:

• “Ethan unveils what every senior manager wants to know about what happens behind the scenes of an executive promotion, and how to position yourself as the best choice. Extremely insightful, transparent, honest, and resourceful. The value I got out of this program is 20x its cost.” — Tech Leader, FAANG

• “Ethan delivers on his brand of truthful and pragmatic career advice that's brought to life with real anecdotes from his career.” — Senior Manager, Airbnb

• “This course provides vital guidance for professionals aiming to enhance their career prospects. Ethan, an industry expert, effectively conveys his insights with sound reasoning, real-world examples, and stories, establishing instant credibility among participants.” — Senior Manager, Amazon

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Audience Insights

I have consolidated additional ideas worth considering from my LinkedIn audience, including:

1. Ways to stand out as a Senior Manager:

   1. Move from execution to strategy and presence.

   2. Coach your direct report managers to replace you.

   3. Develop a strong POV and collaborate with peers and skip-levels to drive company-wide change.

   4. Step into the tough influence conversations.

2. Part of being a Senior Manager is being good at gently guiding people back ontu reasonable ground when they index too much on certain Leadership Principles (LPs) or traits. For example, you can cloak almost any demand as “High Standards” or lack of cooperation as “Earn Trust.” I’ve written about Weaponizing LPs either intentionally or subconsciously and a follow-up on Degenerate LPs where an overly simplistic form of an LP is applied.

Share this article with your team and peers if you found the insights helpful.

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Level Up is a free newsletter from retired Amazon Vice President Ethan Evans that breaks down how he succeeded and how you can get to the next level.