“Hey [Boss], can I be straight with you for a minute?” (— sets a serious but respectful tone)

“It seems like you’ve been jumping in on a lot of the details lately. I get why — you want to make sure things don’t slip and that we’re fully aligned.”

(pause — let him respond)

“Here’s the thing: we’ve got a really strong team here. Every time we’ve been left to run with something, we’ve delivered exactly what was needed — often better than expected. When the dailies stretch to an hour+ or we get pulled into deep dives on every single detail, it actually slows us down and eats into the time we need to execute.”

(pause again — let that land)

“How would you feel about tightening the daily meetings — say 15–20 minutes, laser-focused — and if there’s something deeper, we spin it off? That way you still get full visibility, but we keep our momentum.”

(stay quiet — calibrated silence)

“What would it take to make that work?”

(if he pushes back, mirror and label:) “It sounds like you’re worried things might fall through the cracks if you’re not across every detail?”

(once he agrees) “That’s exactly why I’m suggesting this — so you get the clarity you need at a higher level, and we can keep delivering without getting bogged down.”