Help Your Manager Help You: A No-Nonsense Guide to 'Managing Up'

TL;DR:

Your manager is incentivized to promote you. Your success makes them look good.
Be a top performer who is visibly operating at the next level.
Make your manager’s job easier by solving their problems, adapting to their style, and never making them feel threatened.
Treat the relationship as a strategic partnership to help them build the case for your promotion.

Your career doesn't happen in a vacuum. It operates within a complex system, and the most critical component in that system is your manager. Get that relationship right, and you'll unlock great opportunities. Get it wrong, and you’ll feel like you’re running on a treadmill—working hard but going nowhere.

I used to be puzzled why some very effective coworkers got stuck while others advanced. The truth became clear when I started seeing my manager like any other complex system: with objectives, inputs, and outputs to understand. Your job isn't to change them, but to build a successful partnership.

And here’s the secret: your boss really, truly wants to promote you.

The System's Incentives: Why Your Success is Their Success

Promoting people from their team isn't altruism; it's rational self-interest for a manager. A promotion isn't a gift; it’s a transaction.

Just as you want the recognition and salary bump that comes with a promotion, so does your manager. But unlike you, their performance isn't measured by their individual technical contributions. It’s measured by the collective achievements of their team. And what's one of the clearest, most visible indicators of a high-achieving team? People getting promoted.

When you get promoted, it signals to their peers and their own boss that they are effective leaders who can grow and retain talent. It makes them look good. Furthermore, if you’re a top performer who is under-leveled, they know they’re at constant risk of losing you to a competitor, which would create a massive headache for them.

Once you understand that your manager is motivated to help you, the next question becomes: how do you make it easy for them?

Be a High Performer (Table Stakes)

Before you can even think about managing up, you have to be undeniably good at your job. This is the prerequisite. But what does "high performer" actually mean?

First, take an honest look around. How do you really stack up against others at your level?. Be careful to distinguish objective reality from impostor syndrome. Look for concrete data and seek candid feedback from trusted peers and tech leads.

Are you at the bottom of the pack? If so, this article isn't your next step. Your entire focus should be on upping your game and mastering the fundamentals of your current role.
Are you in the middle? Find out why by observing the top performers. A powerful, calculated strategy is to actively help them get promoted. This isn't just about being helpful; it's a calculated move. For example, if the top performer on your team is aiming for a Staff promotion that requires cross-team influence, volunteer to help them document their design or take on a sub-task from their project. This not only builds goodwill but also creates a vacuum at the top that you are perfectly positioned to fill.
Are you at the top of the pack? Excellent. This is where you need to be to have a real shot. But you’re not done. The crucial next question is: are you already performing at the next level?. People are rarely promoted based on potential; they are promoted because they are already doing the job.

Be Promotable (The Role of Visibility)

Doing next-level work isn’t enough if no one sees it. Your manager can't promote you unilaterally. They have to build a case and sell it to a promotion committee, which is typically made up of their peers and your skip-level manager.

This means other influential people need to see you as someone operating at that next level.

How do you achieve this?

Expand Your Influence: Look for opportunities to help people on other teams, especially your boss’s peers. Nothing showcases your skills and builds allies faster than helping someone solve a problem during a crisis.
Communicate Like a Leader: Observe the senior people around you. How do they communicate?. They likely speak in terms of business impact, not just technical details. Start practicing this. Frame your accomplishments by connecting them to customer value or business goals. Help your manager by giving them the soundbites they need.
Polish Your Soft Skills: Technical excellence gets you to Senior. Influence, communication, and leadership get you to Staff and beyond. Seek out opportunities to speak in public, mentor junior engineers, and lead discussions.

Understand the Rules of the Game

This is where we get into the core of "managing up." It’s about building trust and making your manager’s life easier. I like to think of it as having an imaginary bank account with your boss.

Rule #1: Solve Problems, Don’t Create Them

Every time you solve a painful problem for your manager—something genuinely keeping them up at night—you deposit $1 into the account. Every time you create a new, unexpected problem for them, you withdraw $10. The math is unfair, but it’s human nature.

Examples of high-value "deposits":

Jumping on a production incident you didn't cause and seeing it through to resolution.
Proactively unblocking a struggling teammate so the team can meet a critical deadline (and making sure your manager notices it).
Stepping up to take ownership of an ambiguous, high-risk project that others are avoiding (but only if you know you can deliver).

Examples of costly "withdrawals" (often made with good intentions):

Rushing a change to production to be a "hero" and causing customer impact.
Challenging the status quo in a way that forces your boss into damage control mode with their peers or leadership.
Being a perfectionist to the point that your teammates find it impossible to work with you, creating team friction your manager has to solve.

Rule #2: Don't Make Your Manager Feel Threatened

This one is critical. It doesn’t matter how brilliant you are. If your actions make your manager feel threatened, they will find a way to get rid of you.

Always support in public; correct in private. Publicly correcting your manager, especially when they’re showing conviction, is career suicide. It undermines their authority and embarrasses them. Have a differing opinion? Share it respectfully in your 1-on-1.
Don't question their decisions after they’re made. Your job is to provide input during the decision-making process. Once a decision is made, your job is to help execute it to the best of your ability. Managers have their own agendas and pressures you may not be aware of.
Offer genuine appreciation. You don't need to be a sycophant, but find a quiet moment to let your boss know you appreciate their support or admire how they handled a tough situation. If you're a top performer and never show any appreciation, they may start to wonder if you respect them, which can lead to defensiveness.

Rule #3: Adapt to Their Operating System

Everyone has a preferred communication style. Does your manager prefer quick Slack updates or detailed emails? High-level summaries or deep technical dives?. You need to adapt to them, not the other way around. Why? It's simple math. They manage a team; you manage one manager. Making it easy for them to consume your information reduces their cognitive load, and they will appreciate it.

This also means showing up to your 1-on-1s prepared. That is your meeting. Drive the agenda. Use that time to discuss career growth, get feedback, and remove blockers—don't let it become a simple status

Communicate your Ambitions and ask for Feedback

While a great manager might not need this, it's always wise to be explicit. Use your 1-on-1s to let your manager know that you would like to be promoted and ask for two things:challenging work that gives you exposure, and direct feedback on your progress.

This conversation will serve multiple purposes. First, it will put your promotion on their radar if it wasn’t already. Second, it will prompt them to either commit to help you or give you useful feedback on what you need to improve to get what you want. Third, it will give you an idea of the timeline that you should expect. Last, at worst, it will reveal that your boss is not the kind of partner you need to grow. Even this is a valuable input that will tell you it is time for a change.

Your Boss is your most Important Partner

Managing up isn't about manipulation. It's about recognizing that your relationship with your manager is a strategic partnership. By understanding their goals, adapting to their style, and proactively making them successful, you create a powerful advocate who has a vested interest in your growth. You make it not just easy, but obvious, to put your name forward when the time comes.