How to build a stronger relationship with your manager

The best move early in your career is asking for feedback before your manager offers it. Having spent over 30 years in HR, I’ve noticed junior employees grow way faster when they make feedback a regular habit instead of waiting for rare formal reviews. I usually suggest a quick 10-minute check-in every other week where you ask one clear question and leave with one specific action to work on.

People who do this improve measurably within a month. One analyst I coached tightened her reporting accuracy from 95% to 99% after just 3 short feedback cycles. Managers relax when they see genuine curiosity instead of defensiveness. It signals to us you’re actually invested in getting better.

One of the most effective ways for someone early in their career to build a stronger relationship with their manager is through proactive transparency, that is, openly communicating your progress, challenges, and learning goals before being asked.

Early-career professionals sometimes assume they need to have everything figured out before sharing updates. But in my experience, managers don’t expect perfection; they value ownership and curiosity. When you say, “Here’s what I’m trying, here’s where I’m stuck, and here’s what I’m learning,” you signal accountability and self-awareness. That builds trust faster than any formal review ever could.

One young engineer I once worked with began sending short weekly summaries: what went well, what didn’t, and what she wanted feedback on. Within months, her one-on-ones became richer and more strategic. Her manager could advocate for her growth because they had real visibility into her development.

The key is to treat your manager not as a judge, but as a partner in your learning curve. Strong relationships grow when you bring both your wins and your uncertainties to the table with honesty and intent.

One thing an employee can do right away is to ask for a five-minute alignment at the start or end of the day.

Keep it short and intentional.

When you sit down, say something like, “I want to make sure I’m focusing on the right things this week. Could you help me confirm what matters most right now?”

Then listen carefully, take brief notes, and end the conversation by repeating what you understood, like, “So my focus this week is finishing the report and preparing the client slides, and I’ll update you on both by Thursday.”

What you did does three important things. For one, it shows initiative without overstepping. It also gives your manager confidence that you want to get things right, and it keeps communication open in a way that builds trust fast.

When you follow through and circle back with results later in the week, you prove to your manager that you listen and deliver, which is what every manager will remember most.

If an employee wants to develop a better working relationship with their manager, they should proactively reverse-engineer their time and information flow. Most junior personnel only take care of their own workload strategy, with complete disregard for becoming truly indispensable to the person managing them.

As the content and marketing director, my day is splintered from strategy to reviews of creative to money management, so I appreciate efficiency. An early career employee who learns when my meetings recur, knows what data I personally need right before those meetings, and organizes their reporting to preemptively feed that data to me saves me a great deal of mental energy. This means organizing your weekly updating of projects not only by tasks but also by the upcoming meetings you know I have scheduled. This turns you from someone who cares about the status of projects to someone who materially reduces their manager’s cognitive load. This is a huge value add in any fast-paced CPG agency environment like our company.

In so many ways, understanding how your manager works is your best advantage that most people do not take advantage of early in their career. Patterns in pacing and communication help you figure out how to structure your work so that you fit in with the flow that they use. A person that heeds these signals begins to anticipate what is conducive to the process and reduces the friction. Installations taught me that teams are able to move with much more ease when each person understands the sequence rather than waiting for every direction. That same concept builds your relationship with a manager because your work gets to them in a way that keeps their day progressing without them having to put in any extra work.

Right now, sharing progress before anyone asks helps build trust faster than any big milestone. A little bit about what’s moving forward and what could slow things down are signifiers that you take your work seriously. Managers do not like surprises and desire clarity. Steady communication provides them with that and demonstrates you own your responsibilities in such a way that uplifts the entire team.

For early-career employees, one way to create more rapport with their manager is by showing initiative through consistent communication. Rather than waiting for feedback or direction from the manager or waiting for a meeting to ask questions, proactively sending updates on progress, showing that they have thought about their work, and being curious about how they can contribute to the team’s efforts are all ways to show initiative.

In the hospitality industry, where teamwork and timing are incredibly important, this kind of transparency is seen as being accountable to the rest of the team. For example, a less experienced team member who checks in for the sake of service and team efficiency or for all of the members of the team demonstrates a willingness to be accountable and a desire to have a growth mindset.

Managers appreciate it if an employee takes ownership of their work development, rather than waiting for an evaluation, because it comes across as a willingness to be accountable and helps the manager view the employee as a contributor. Over time, this will build a foundation for consistent communication that leads to an agreement on expectations around the employee’s role as an employee day in and day out, a mentor for the employee, and career growth in the long run.

“Proactive curiosity” can help early-career employees improve their relationship with their manager by asking questions that extend BEYOND tasks and understanding the team’s or agency’s high-level goals. Demonstrating the wisdom behind decisions illustrates maturity and dedication.

As a leader of a marketing agency, I love to see the connection between their work and the client’s long-term growth or agency positioning. This is taking ownership, even BEFORE becoming familiar with the technicalities, and this builds trust far quicker than any skill.

For example, we had a junior account manager who would often ask how her social campaigns were affecting the property management clients in relation to lead quality. By predicting a need and offering a solution, she saved the team hours of redoing work. I was really impressed by that.

Be consistently dependable. While reliability might sound simple, it is one of the most powerful traits that builds trust over time. When you consistently demonstrate reliability and excellence in your work, you build credibility.

These traits help you position yourself as a valuable asset to your manager. Your manager will know that you take your work seriously and can be counted on to deliver. When your manager knows they can count on you, it creates a foundation of respect that often extends beyond performance metrics.

However, I must mention that consistency doesn’t mean perfection. It means showing up with the same level of commitment and accountability, even on days when everything feels overwhelming or unclear.

For example, consistently completing tasks on time and providing your manager with regular status updates demonstrates that you are attentive and trustworthy. These small acts accumulate over time, positioning you as someone who delivers without needing constant oversight.

A great way for early career employees to foster a stronger relationship with their manager is to continually demonstrate initiative, along with good communication. From a manager’s perspective, having team members who are proactive and take responsibility is remarkable. This may be bringing a solution, identifying a problem before it is evident, or asking thoughtful questions that show they understand more than the task at hand and can identify the larger context of their role.

It’s also important to ensure that expectations are aligned early: share your goals with your manager, clarify what they would like to see prioritized, and then check in regularly. This demonstrates a desire to improve but also helps the manager determine how to best support your goals. While these seemingly small initiatives may have little short-term impact, these small proactive steps will eventually result in a higher level of trust, taking the employee-manager relationship beyond transactional supervision of work into a true collaborative partnership.

A successful method for new employees involves requesting explanations from their supervisor instead of receiving only orders. When an employee demonstrates their desire to understand project significance and team objectives, the discussion moves from basic task completion to team-based work. The most successful team relationships at Happy V develop through employee curiosity and goal-oriented initiative, followed by dependable execution of tasks. Accountability leads to respect between team members. The development of trust results from showing genuine interest in things. These two elements create a significant impact.

Building a strong relationship with your manager starts with being receptive to feedback. Don’t push back, even on the small things. Instead, make the changes your manager suggests and maintain consistent communication.

A simple habit I recommend is to ask at the end of each week/month whether you met expectations or if there’s something you can improve. Managers are like mentors and will happily guide you if they feel you’re genuinely engaged and open to learning.