Top startup leaders share their best tips for managing up, including communication tactics, building trust, and goal setting with your manager.

1. Always align on these two questions.
   1) What is success for me personally? 2) What is success for my manager’s team?

2. Show your work with what matters most.
   “To effectively manage up, you’ve got to understand what your boss wants and needs. This is an exercise in radical empathy and motivation,”

3. Communicate early and often to avoid surprises.
   They think they’re bugging others with constant, timely communication, but this isn’t true at all. When you communicate proactively, you’re giving your leaders up the chain of command the gift of choice: To act on that information, to store that information as notes, or just not do anything with it,”

4. Don’t bury your requests.
   “Writing regular email updates has by far been one of the most effective ways of managing up. These could be project updates, team wins, or personal progress. The emails don’t need to be overly formal — in fact, many recipients typically appreciate a more familiar tone as long as it doesn’t get in the way of the content,” he says.

5. Create a doc to hit the most important points.
   “In my 1:1s with my manager, I make sure our shared agenda and notes are populated ahead of time with the topics I want to discuss, as well as providing any context necessary — like linking to relevant documents. Some of the most productive and effective 1:1s are when our agenda and notes are well-organized ahead of the meeting,”

• FYIs that don’t need a discussion
• Updates from the report
• Updates from the manager
• Follow-ups on action items from the previous weeks
• Discussion topics

27. Create a State of the Union report.
    To simplify managing up and to hold yourself accountable, he suggests sending a weekly “State of Me” email to your boss. “Regularly share what you’re doing, what you plan to do, and what you’ve done with your manager. This weekly email should include your current priorities, things on your mind, and blockers you need help with.