Managing Up: How to Build Trust and Make Your Work Visible

Practical advice for working well with your manager, especially when you work remotely.

One of the most important pieces of advice I give people joining a remote team is to learn how to manage up.

The phrase can sound like office politics, or as though you are being asked to take responsibility for your boss. What I mean is much more practical: understand what your manager needs you to accomplish, keep them informed and ask for the decisions or support you need to move forward.

You might be doing excellent work. But if your manager does not know what you have delivered, what is getting in the way or where you need help, they have an incomplete picture. That can affect how they support you and understand your contribution.

Managing up helps you close that gap. It is particularly useful when you work remotely, because you cannot count on informal office conversations to keep everyone informed.

What managing up actually means

Managing up means taking an active role in how you and your manager work together. You clarify expectations, agree on priorities, communicate progress and raise concerns while there is still time to address them.

It does not mean agreeing with everything, taking on every request or trying to make yourself constantly available. Sometimes the most useful thing you can say is: “I can take this on, but it will affect the deadline for the other task. Which should come first?”

You are helping your manager understand the choices involved. You are also protecting your ability to deliver what you have agreed to do.

Your manager remains responsible for providing direction, feedback and a reasonable workload. Managing up gives you a way to ask for those things instead of hoping they will happen without a conversation.

Why it matters when you work remotely

In an office, a colleague might notice that you are waiting for an answer or hear about a problem during a conversation. Those informal signals are less available when you work remotely. Your manager may see the final deliverable without knowing what it took to complete it, or discover a delay only when a deadline is missed.

The answer is not to send more messages or prove you are online all day. It is to agree on a useful way to communicate what matters: progress, changes, risks and decisions needed.

Clarity is worth paying attention to. In its reporting on U.S. employees in 2024, Gallup found that only 46% strongly agreed they knew what was expected of them at work. That does not mean everyone else had no understanding of their role, but it shows that clear expectations cannot be taken for granted.

Source: Gallup, U.S. Employee Engagement Sinks to 10-Year Low, January 2025 (https://www.gallup.com/workplace/654911/employee-engagement-sinks-year-low.aspx)

Here are a few habits that can help you establish that clarity and maintain it.

Find out what success looks like

A job description tells you about the role. It may not tell you which outcome matters most right now, what a good result looks like or where you should make decisions independently.

When you start a role or a new assignment, ask your manager:

• What are the most important outcomes you need from me over the next few weeks?

• How will we know the work is successful?

• Which decisions can I make myself, and when should I involve you?

For example, “improve testing” could mean reducing production defects, automating repetitive checks or helping the team release more frequently. Clarifying the goal changes where you put your effort.

You can confirm your understanding in a short message: “My priority is to automate the checkout tests before the next release. I’ll start with the highest-risk scenarios and share progress on Friday. Have I understood correctly?”

Make priority changes a conversation

Priorities can shift after you agree on them. A new client request arrives, a release date moves or someone asks you to help with another project.

If you quietly add everything to your list, your manager may assume the original commitments are still on track. Explain the trade-off while there is time to choose.

Try: “I’m working on the reporting update due Thursday. The new request will take about a day. Should I move the reporting deadline or complete the new request afterward?”

This gives your manager something concrete to decide. It also makes the effect of the new request visible before it becomes a missed deadline.

Agree on how to keep your manager informed

Some managers prefer a brief written update. Others use a project board or regular one-on-one meetings. Ask what is useful, how often they want it and which situations need an immediate conversation.

You do not need to duplicate information already available in your team’s tools. A short update can highlight what changed, why it matters and where a decision is needed.

A weekly update might look like this:

• Completed: Finished the checkout test coverage and identified two defects before release.

• Next: Test the fixes and complete the remaining payment scenarios.

• Support needed: I need confirmation of the refund rules by Tuesday to keep testing on schedule. Who should approve them?

Notice that this explains the result and the next step. A list of meetings attended or hours spent gives your manager less information about what moved forward.

Raise a blocker before it becomes a surprise

It is easy to stay quiet because you want to appear capable. You might spend hours trying to solve something that a colleague could clarify in a few minutes.

Use your judgment about when further investigation is useful and when you need help. If a problem threatens a deadline, affects other people or requires a decision outside your authority, flag it early through the agreed channel.

Explain what you are seeing, what you have tried and what you need:

“The integration tests are failing after the latest change. I’ve checked the configuration and reproduced the issue. This could delay tomorrow’s release. Could someone familiar with the authentication service review it with me?”

Bring a recommendation when you can. But you do not need a complete solution before raising a risk. Waiting until you have every answer can leave the team with fewer options.

Use your one-on-one for more than status updates

A regular one-on-one gives you space to discuss questions that do not fit neatly into a project update. Agree on a cadence with your manager and bring a short agenda.

You might ask: “Is there anything you need from me that you are not getting?” or “Where would you like me to take more ownership?” You can also discuss feedback, workload and the experience you want to develop.

If you work across time zones, agree on expected response times and what to do when a decision cannot wait. Being dependable should not require guessing when your manager is available or staying online outside your agreed hours.

Keep a record of your contribution

Save a simple record of work completed, problems resolved, feedback received and results you can support. Over time, it gives you useful evidence for performance and career conversations.

Be specific and acknowledge shared work. “Worked with the support team to resolve a recurring customer issue” is more informative than “helped the business,” and more credible than taking sole credit for a team result.

Managing up can help your contribution be understood. It cannot guarantee a promotion or compensate for a manager who consistently withholds support. If reasonable requests for clarity or help go unanswered, seek guidance through the appropriate person or process in your organization.

Start with one conversation

You do not need a complicated system. Start by asking your manager: “What is the most important outcome you need from me this week, and how would you like me to keep you updated?”

Then follow through. Confirm the priority, communicate anything that changes and ask for help when you need it.

That is the advice I want people to take into a new role: do good work, and make it easier for the people around you to understand, support and build on that work.