Managing Up: Keep Your Boss Happy and Informed

Hidden dynamics in your workplace might contribute more to your promotion than your actual skills. Your ability to manage those above you could secretly hold the key to advancing your career. One quick shift in how you update your manager this week can quietly change how they see your potential for the rest of the year.

71% of managers say they’d rather get too much information than not enough—yet most employees still leave them guessing. In your first 90 days, this gap quietly shapes which projects you’re trusted with, how much autonomy you get, and whether your manager sleeps well when your name is on something important.

Today, think less about “performing” for your manager and more about running a joint experiment: what if your updates and questions were designed to make their decisions easier? That means tuning into their pressures, not just your to‑do list; noticing which details they jump on and which they wave away; and spotting the moments when a 3‑minute heads‑up could prevent a 3‑week fire drill.