Managing up means proactively shaping your relationship with your manager in a way that serves both of you. It is not manipulation. It is communication, clarity, and mutual alignment.
Understand what your manager cares about most
What are your manager’s priorities, pressures, and goals? Understanding their world makes you better at anticipating what information they need, what decisions they are making, and how your work connects to what matters to them.
Give regular, unprompted updates
Managers who are not kept informed often fill the information gap with assumptions. Proactive, brief status updates on your work reduce your manager’s cognitive load and demonstrate ownership. For more on this, see our guide on find a mentor at work that helps your career.
Bring problems with potential solutions
Coming to your manager with a problem and your best thinking on how to solve it is more effective than simply surfacing the problem. It shows initiative and respects their time.
Ask what good looks like
Before starting a significant project or initiative, align explicitly with your manager on what success looks like. This alignment prevents the frustrating disconnect of working hard on something that turns out not to be what your manager wanted.
Read next
- How to Get Recognition for Your Work
- How to Handle Constructive Feedback at Work
- How to Ask for More Responsibility at Work
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does a recruiter spend looking at a resume?
Recruiters typically spend 6-10 seconds on an initial scan. They look for job title relevance, company names, and whether the most recent role is at the right level for the position.
What do recruiters look for first on a resume?
Most recruiters look first at your most recent job title and company, then check dates for gaps or progression, then assess whether the experience level matches what they need.
Should I include a summary at the top of my resume?
Yes, for experienced candidates. A 2-3 sentence summary that speaks directly to your target role helps recruiters understand your value instantly.
How many bullet points should each job have?
3-5 bullets for recent roles, 1-2 for older ones. Each bullet should describe an accomplishment or outcome, not just a task or responsibility.
Career growth rarely happens because someone notices you are doing good work. It happens because someone with decision-making power knows you are doing good work and believes you are ready for the next level. That distinction matters because it shifts your responsibility from simply performing well to actively managing your visibility. Waiting to be discovered is a passive strategy in a world where promotions and opportunities go to people who have made their ambitions clear. For more on this, see our guide on choose and manage your professional references.
One of the most underrated career development moves is building relationships with people two or three levels above you in your organization. Not to climb over your manager, but to understand what skills and decisions matter at the next level before you need them. Professionals who think like their future role before they have it tend to be promoted into it faster than those who are still optimizing for their current responsibilities.
Feedback is another underused tool. Most professionals receive formal feedback once or twice a year during performance reviews. The professionals who grow fastest seek informal feedback constantly. A simple “what would have made that presentation land better?” after a meeting, or “what would help me be more effective in my role?” in a one-on-one, generates the specific, actionable input that helps you improve month by month rather than year by year.
External visibility matters as much as internal reputation. Writing a LinkedIn post about a lesson you learned on a project, speaking at an industry event, or contributing to a professional association puts your expertise in front of people who are not in your direct line of management. That outside signal often validates and amplifies your internal reputation in ways that purely internal effort cannot. For more on this, see our guide on lead your first project at work.
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