How to come on top of re-orgs and manager changes
Learn to navigate re-orgs instead of feeling victimized
Hey, Prasad here 👋 I'm the voice behind the weekly newsletter "Big Tech Careers."
In this week's article, I share what helped me navigated multiple re-orgs and manager changes and come on top.
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2024 was a year of constant change for me at work. Two re-orgs. Four manager changes. By the time performance review season arrived, my rating depended on my new manager who became my manager just one month before.
If you've been through corporate re-orgs, you know the drill. Your goals shift overnight. The metrics that mattered in your previous org suddenly become irrelevant. You're scrambling to understand new structures, new priorities, and new expectations—all while trying to maintain your performance trajectory.
If you have been in industry for a while there is no way you can escape a re-org which are becoming way too common. You can either learn to navigate them or play victim and blame re-orgs for your slow growth.
Here's exactly how I navigated the turbulence and came out ahead. Hopefully these insights will help you navigate better if you ever go through re-orgs.
The Re-org Reality: Why Traditional Strategies Fall Short
Before diving into solutions, let's acknowledge what makes re-orgs particularly challenging beyond just manager changes.
When your manager changes but your team and objectives remain the same, you're dealing with relationship management and communication style adjustments.
Challenging, but manageable.
Re-orgs are different beasts entirely. Your goals change. Your team changes. The very definition of success in your role gets rewritten. What you were being measured on in your previous org often holds zero value in your new structure.
The traditional advice of "build strong relationships with your manager" becomes nearly impossible when you're cycling through four different managers in one performance year. You need a fundamentally different approach.
Strategy 1: Build Your Influence Beyond Your Role
The single most important decision I made was dedicating 30-40% of my time to company-wide initiatives that create impact beyond my current team and organization.
Here's what that looked like in practice:
Content and Thought Leadership - I became one of only 10 authors globally writing for the AWS News Blog channel—the official blog for AWS Tier 1 service launches. This visibility transcended any single org chart.
Cross-Functional Collaboration - I spent considerable time working directly with service teams on new features—testing, providing early feedback, and evangelizing new services with customers and partners. These relationships existed independently of my formal reporting structure.
Mentorship and Community Building - I mentored people across AWS, not just within my team. I participated in promotion panels and hiring processes across multiple organizations. I also ran BeSA (Become a Solutions Architect), a free mentoring initiative for the external AWS community.
Speaking and Conferences - I spoke at major AWS conferences like re:Invent and AWS Summits, representing the company on public stages.
The key insight: when your formal role keeps shifting, your informal influence becomes your anchor. These activities created a body of work that mattered regardless of which team or organization I belonged to at any given moment.
Strategy 2: Take Ownership of Your Role Definition
The best way to ensure you are able to influence beyond your role and make an impact outside of your current team and organization is to create your own role definition. Don't wait for your manager to define your success criteria!
Write Your Own Scope Document
I made it a practice to write my own role scope document and share it with each new manager. It’s basically is the activities I will focus on the the time allocation for each of these activities.
The credits goes to one of my previous manager who asked me to do it for the first time. It was hard but it gave me the required clarity. And then it became a practice.
This approach offers multiple benefits.
When you define your role, you maintain autonomy over the activities you focus on. Yes, you need to align with team and org goals, but you still retain enormous flexibility in shaping your responsibilities.
It demonstrates bias for action to your manager and gives them an opportunity to course-correct if they want your focus elsewhere.
Most importantly, when you align with your manager on agreed-upon scope and deliver on it, you're far less likely to face surprises during performance reviews.
Establish Regular Check-ins
I maintained a regular cadence call (ideally every two weeks) with each manager to update them on my activities and progress. More crucially, I used these sessions to ask for genuine feedback and ensure we remained aligned.
This consistent communication becomes even more critical during periods of frequent manager changes—it helps new managers quickly understand your value and trajectory.
Strategy 3: Ace the Manager Transition Process
When manager changes are inevitable, you need a systematic approach to ensure your performance narrative doesn't get lost in the shuffle.
Step 1: The Exit Interview
Before your current manager transitions out, have a candid conversation about your performance. Ask them to share their assessment honestly with your incoming manager. Don't leave this to chance or assume it will happen naturally.
Step 2: The Intake Verification
When your new manager arrives, have an explicit conversation to double-check whether they received feedback from your previous manager. This isn't about being pushy—it's about ensuring continuity in your performance narrative.
Step 3: The Expectation Reset
Ask your new manager directly: "Based on the feedback you received from my previous manager, would you consider me among your top performing candidates? If not, what should I focus on and deliver to be considered in that category?"
This conversation serves two purposes. It forces your new manager to articulate their expectations clearly, and it gives you the opportunity to adjust your role scope document if needed.
The goal is not to be confrontational but to establish clear expectations and alignment from the beginning of the new relationship.
The Compound Effect: Why This Approach Works
These strategies work because they address the core challenges of organizational changes:
Visibility Beyond Your Direct Chain - Your company-wide contributions create advocates throughout the organization who can speak to your value regardless of current reporting structures.
Clear Documentation of Impact - Your self-defined role scope and regular check-ins create a paper trail of agreed-upon expectations and delivered results.
Proactive Communication - Your systematic approach to manager transitions ensures your performance story doesn't get lost in organizational shuffle.
The Mindset Shift: From Victim to Navigator
The biggest realization through this experience was a fundamental mindset shift. You will not be able to predict your org or manages changes. But ensuring you are prepared for any potential changes is completely up to you.
Instead of feeling victimized by constant organizational changes, you need to learn to navigate them strategically.
Re-orgs and manager changes aren't just disruptions to endure—they're opportunities to demonstrate adaptability, leadership, and strategic thinking. Companies value employees who can thrive in ambiguous environments and maintain performance despite structural changes.
Looking Forward: Building Anti-Fragile Career Resilience
As organizations continue to evolve rapidly, the ability to navigate structural changes becomes increasingly valuable. The strategies I've outlined here aren't just about surviving re-orgs—they're about building anti-fragile career resilience.
When you create impact beyond your immediate team, take ownership of your role definition, and drive the transition processes, you're protecting yourself from organizational volatility and positioning yourself as someone who thrives in dynamic environments.
Your response to change often matters more than the change itself. You will not be able to eliminate the uncertainty but you can build the skills and strategies that help you excel regardless of the organizational chart.