Updated September 2026: this November 2020 post described a leadership call where my manager's last-minute version of a document was set aside, I presented mine, and the leadership team acknowledged the work. I have rewritten it into advice on presenting your own work well when there are competing versions, without undermining your manager.
My manager and I had spent a weekend on a request from the leadership team. He kept asking for changes I thought unnecessary, then shared his own updated version just before the call. On the call, the onsite team was unhappy with his updates and wanted the latest information. I politely offered the slides I had prepared. After a short silence, the leadership team acknowledged the work, and the onsite team went ahead with my version.
When is it right to put your own version forward?
When the audience is asking for something your version contains and the other version does not. That was the situation on my call: the onsite team wanted the latest information, and I had it. Offering it served the meeting's purpose. Offering an alternative only to prove a point in front of senior people rarely ends well, whatever the outcome.
How do you offer it without undermining your manager?
- Frame it as additional input: "I have a version with the latest figures if that helps."
- Keep it about the content, not about whose document is better.
- Credit the joint effort if the version is accepted.
- Talk to your manager afterwards, privately, about how to avoid two versions next time.
How do you avoid two competing versions at all?
Agree one master document and one owner at the start, with a shared location both of you edit. Last-minute versions usually appear because someone was working in parallel without saying so. A single file and a checkpoint before the call remove most of that.
What should you do with recognition when you get it?
Record it. Save the email or note the call, the date and what was appreciated. Leadership recognition is strong evidence at appraisal time, and it fades quickly from memory if nobody writes it down. If it came in a meeting, a short follow-up email thanking them and summarising the next steps creates a written record naturally.
How do you repair things with your manager?
Assume they felt exposed, even if they said nothing. A calm conversation about what happened, focused on process rather than blame, protects the working relationship. The goal is the next document going smoothly, not winning the last one.
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