When Your Manager is MIA

Build Your Personal Board of Advisors

We’ve discussed this before
(read the more detailed version here),
but it’s even more important
when your manager is busy being unavailable!
Let's create a dream team that actually cares about your success:

• The Mentor: Someone 2-3 levels above you who's been where you want to go

• The Peer Ally: Your work bestie who gets the daily chaos and can reality-check your ideas

• The External Expert: Someone in your field but outside your company (LinkedIn is your friend here!)

• The Sponsor: The person with actual influence who will advocate for you in rooms you're not in yet

Action Step That's Actually Fun: Turn this into a game! Make a "Personal Board" contact list in your phone. Aim to text/call/coffee chat with one board member weekly. Track it like you're collecting Pokémon cards, but for your career.

The “Manage Yourself” Toolkit

Your manager might not be giving you feedback, but you can absolutely give it to yourself (in a healthy way, not that 3am anxiety spiral way):

Weekly Self-Check-Ins (5 minutes, Friday afternoon with your favorite beverage):

• What did I absolutely crush this week?

• What made me want to throw my laptop out the window?

• What skill do I want to level up next week?

• How am I tracking toward my bigger goals?

The Documentation Game: (How many times have I said this 🤔) Keep a "Wins & Learnings" note in your phone. When you solve a problem, learn something new, or get positive feedback from anyone, capture it. This becomes your personal highlight reel for performance reviews and confidence boosts.

Reverse-Engineer Your Own Development

Your manager isn't creating growth opportunities?
Time to become your own career architect:

The "Skills Stalking" Method:

1. Find 3 people whose jobs you want

2. LinkedIn-stalk their career paths (professionally, obviously)

3. Identify the skills/experiences they have that you don't

4. Create your own mini-projects to build those skills

Example: Want to move into strategy? Start a weekly "market trends" email for your team. Want to lead? Volunteer to run the next team offsite. Want to be seen as an expert? Write internal thought pieces or start speaking up more in meetings.

The “Visibility Without
Being Annoying” Strategy

Since your manager isn't advocating for you, you need to advocate for yourself without feeling like that person who won't stop talking about their CrossFit routine:

The Update Strategy: Send a brief weekly update to your manager (and copy relevant stakeholders) with:

• 3 key accomplishments

• 1 challenge you're working through

• 1 way you're supporting the team/company goals

Keep it short, factual, and focused on impact. This creates a paper trail of your awesomeness and keeps you top of mind. Essentially, you’re sending them the 1:1 discussion you would have had if they were actually leading.

The Strategic Volunteer: Say yes to visible projects that align with your goals. Can't get face time with leadership through your manager? Get it by crushing that cross-functional project they're all watching.

Want more on this topic? Read this newsletter.

Master the Art of “Managing Up”
(Even When There’s Nothing to Manage)

Sometimes the best way to get support is to make it incredibly easy for your manager to support you:

The Magic Email Template: "Hi [Manager], I'm working on [specific project/goal] and would love your input on [very specific question]. I've done some initial thinking [attach your analysis] and think the best path forward is [your recommendation]. Could you let me know if you agree or if there's anything I'm missing? Happy to discuss for 10 minutes this week if easier."

This approach makes you look proactive, reduces their mental load, and makes it easy for them to say yes.