u/Dazzling_Grape_3115

I’m currently a manager in training. My previous manager left unexpectedly, and in the meantime their manager has become my temporary manager.

Because he’s heavily tied up with operational responsibilities, he asked another experienced manager (who reports to him) to temporarily oversee my work.

The issue is that I don’t directly report to this person, but they are actively involved in reviewing and escalating my work, which is creating some structural and communication challenges.

This is leading to a few recurring issues:

Escalations sometimes happen before I’ve had the chance to fully address the issue, which can affect how ownership is perceived externally.

A lot of time is spent aligning on urgent decisions, sometimes slowing down execution.

There are frequent differences in approach due to them not having deep context in my specific area, which I’ve been working in for around two years.

In addition, discussions around decisions can sometimes be difficult to navigate, as there is limited flexibility for back-and-forth or alternative viewpoints. This often means that once a direction is set, it’s hard to revisit or adjust it, even when new context is provided, which can make alignment on urgent decisions more challenging.

I understand this is a temporary setup, but I’m trying to figure out whether this is mainly a structure/clarity issue or something I should adapt to better.

What would be the best way to handle this without creating friction or coming across as resistant to the current arrangement?

I’m trying to figure out the best way to navigate this situation, so any advice would be helpful.

I’m currently a manager in training. My previous manager left unexpectedly, and in the meantime their manager has become my temporary manager.

Because he’s heavily tied up with operational responsibilities, he asked another experienced manager (who reports to him) to temporarily oversee my work.

The issue is that I don’t directly report to this person, but they are actively involved in reviewing and escalating my work, which is creating some structural and communication challenges.

This is leading to a few recurring issues:

Escalations sometimes happen before I’ve had the chance to fully address the issue, which can affect how ownership is perceived externally.

A lot of time is spent aligning on urgent decisions, sometimes slowing down execution.

There are frequent differences in approach due to them not having deep context in my specific area, which I’ve been working in for around two years.

In addition, discussions around decisions can sometimes be difficult to navigate, as there is limited flexibility for back-and-forth or alternative viewpoints. This often means that once a direction is set, it’s hard to revisit or adjust it, even when new context is provided, which can make alignment on urgent decisions more challenging.

I understand this is a temporary setup, but I’m trying to figure out whether this is mainly a structure/clarity issue or something I should adapt to better.

What would be the best way to handle this without creating friction or coming across as resistant to the current arrangement?

I’m trying to figure out the best way to navigate this situation, so any advice would be helpful.

I’m currently a manager in training. My previous manager left unexpectedly due to personal reasons, so their manager became my temporary manager.

Because he’s heavily occupied with operational responsibilities, he asked another experienced manager who reports to him to temporarily oversee and monitor me. However, I do not directly report to this person, which I think may be contributing to some of the communication and escalation issues.

The issue is that while this person has management experience in general, they don’t really have experience in my specific area. I’ve worked in this area for several years, and we often disagree on priorities and how situations should be handled.

A few recurring problems:

Escalations are sometimes raised before they even get discussed with me or get asked about it, which creates the impression that I’m not taking action when I haven’t actually had the opportunity to address the issue yet or already internally handled it with the team.

I frequently feel like I have to repeatedly extensively defend why certain actions are necessary or urgent.

There have been several situations where my recommendations were initially pushed back on heavily, but later turned out to be the correct call based on the outcome.

Additionally, feedback discussions can sometimes become difficult to navigate, as disagreement or pushback can lead to prolonged discussions, which slows down decision-making in time-sensitive situations.

I genuinely don’t think this is personal, and I’m trying to stay professional about it. I just feel like the current structure is slowing down decision-making and creating unnecessary friction.

I also think there may be another temporary fit within leadership who would align better with the operational needs of my role until a permanent replacement is hired as they have relatively more experienced with what I'm working on.

How can I professionally raise concerns about the current arrangement without sounding defensive, personal, or like I’m trying to choose my manager?

Edit: I also want to add that she sometimes introduces ideas or issues that are already on my radar, but I haven’t had the capacity to action them yet due to higher priority operational work. These are also not areas that fall within her direct responsibilities, so her involvement can sometimes create confusion about ownership and priority. This can give the impression that I’m not aware of or not prioritizing them, even though they are already tracked.

I’m currently in a trial period for a management role after my previous manager left.

I’ve run into an ongoing issue where a senior colleague (not in my reporting line and not my direct manager) frequently escalates or reintroduces issues that my team has already actioned or is already actively handling. This sometimes leads to leadership questioning my initiative or why certain issues were not already addressed, even though they were already in progress.

In some cases, this colleague has also directly engaged with my team and influenced task prioritization without going through me, which has caused confusion and disruption in workflow.

When I try to clarify that items are already being handled, the impact still remains because leadership has already received a different framing of the situation.

Another challenge is that direct conversations with this colleague are difficult because they tend to become defensive quickly, so it’s hard to resolve issues at that level.

Individually these incidents may seem minor, but over time they are creating a pattern where I feel I constantly need to defend or re-explain decisions, and it is starting to affect how my leadership perception is forming during this trial period.

I’m trying to understand the best way to handle this professionally.

Should I:

Address it directly with the colleague despite the defensiveness risk?

Escalate it to my manager/leadership to clarify boundaries and decision-making authority?

Or handle it differently given I’m still in a trial leadership role?

Any advice from HR or management perspective would be appreciated.