Most professionals are never taught how to manage the relationship with their manager. Nobody tells you what they actually need from you. Nobody tells you that most early-career friction is not about the work. It is about a relationship nobody prepared you to navigate.

In this episode of No One Tells You This — a Real Work Ready podcast — leadership advisor and author Jeff Sigel shares what 20+ years inside corporate environments taught him about managing up at work: what managers actually notice, what new employees consistently get wrong, and what every early career professional needs to start doing before they realize they needed it.

In this episode:

• What managing up at work actually means and why most new employees are already doing it wrong

• What managers actually need from employees that nobody communicates before day one

• How to build a strong manager-employee relationship starting from your first week

• What to do when your manager is disengaged, unclear, or not that good at leading

• The communication habits that build trust and credibility upward in any organization

📊 Explore the free Workplace Decoder to understand what actually drives performance at work:

https://realworkready.com/decoder

Chapters:

00:00 – Introduction

[XX:XX] – What Managing Up at Work Actually Means

[XX:XX] – The Mistake Most New Employees Make

[XX:XX] – What Your Manager Actually Needs From You

[XX:XX] – How to Build the Relationship From Day One

[XX:XX] – Communicating Upward Without Creating Noise

[XX:XX] – When Your Manager Is Difficult or Disengaged

[XX:XX] – Key Takeaway

About the show:

No One Tells You This is a Real Work Ready podcast for early career professionals navigating years 0 to 5. Every episode exposes the unwritten rules of the workplace: what managers are actually evaluating, what new professionals consistently get wrong, and the operating behaviors that determine long-term career success. Designed for Gen Z and early career professionals, as well as HR leaders, managers, and L&D teams building workplace-ready talent.

🔔 Subscribe for more workplace readiness, early career advice, and leadership insights:

https://www.youtube.com/@Realworkreadyhq

👍 Like this video if it helped. Drop your biggest takeaway in the comments.

Connect with Jeff Sigel:

Website: jeffsigel.com

Book — The Middle Matters: amazon.com/dp/B0D75V8Z7Y

Course: jeffsigel.com/middle-matters-course

Connect with Laura Massetti:

Website: realworkready.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lauramassetti

Instagram: @realworkreadyhq

#ManagingUp #ManagingUpAtWork #CareerAdvice #WorkplaceReadiness #EarlyCareerSuccess #ManagingYourManager #CareerGrowth #WorkplaceSkills #RealWorkReady #NoOneTellsYouThis #ProfessionalDevelopment #GenZCareer #NewEmployee #WorkplaceCommunication #LeadershipAdvice #CareerTips #WorkplaceSuccess

Laura Massetti
Founder of Real Work Ready™

www.realworkready.com

Real Work Ready

The professional readiness program built for years 0 to 5 of a career. Six learnable behaviors that determine how your work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered. Nobody teaches them. Now someone does.

Learn more: www.realworkready.com

Most career advice tells you to work harder, learn more, collect more skills. Nobody tells you that at some point, all of that plateaus. The real inflection points in a career do not come from doing more of what you already do. They come from being in rooms you would not otherwise be in, with people you would not otherwise meet.

Giuseppe Stigliano is a Global CEO, Thinkers50 honoree, HBR Advisory Council member, and co-author of three books with Philip Kotler. He has delivered keynotes in more than 30 countries, built a global career from Italy, and most recently founded The Next Leap, a learning community built on a single conviction: exposure is what moves careers forward, not skills alone. In this conversation, he brings that thesis down to earth for every professional who is working hard and wondering why it is not translating into momentum.

In this episode:

• Why skills, frameworks, and hard work plateau, and what actually creates the inflection points that change a career trajectory
• What early professionals across three universities in two countries are consistently getting wrong right now
• How a young Italian PhD got into Philip Kotler's room and what he did once he was there
• What someone in year one or two of their career can do right now to start creating exposure when they do not have the network, the title, or the budget

Real Work Ready

The exposure thesis assumes a foundation. Real Work Ready builds that foundation for early professionals before they spend a decade without it.

Get started: www.realworkready.com

Connect with Giuseppe:

Website: giuseppestigliano.com

The Next Leap: thenextleap.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/giuseppestigliano

Connect with Laura:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lauramassetti

Instagram: @realworkreadyhq

Website: realworkready.com

No One Tells You This is a Real Work Ready podcast. Every episode is a conversation with leaders, executives, and professionals who finally decided to say what nobody said to them: the unwritten rules, the invisible dynamics, and the things that actually determine who succeeds.

Laura Massetti
Founder of Real Work Ready™

www.realworkready.com

Real Work Ready

The professional readiness program built for years 0 to 5 of a career. Six learnable behaviors that determine how your work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered. Nobody teaches them. Now someone does.

Learn more: www.realworkready.com

Most people are navigating their careers without the manual. Nobody tells you what hiring managers are actually thinking. Nobody tells you that waiting to be noticed is one of the most costly mistakes you can make. Nobody tells you that the strongest professionals you will ever meet are the ones who figured out how to ask for help.

Dr. Lindsey Plewa has spent over 15 years on the inside of the career process, as a career coach, speaker, and higher education professional at Baruch College in New York City. She has seen what early professionals get wrong before they even know they are getting it wrong. In this conversation, she says out loud what most people never hear until it is too late.

In this episode:

• The unspoken rules of hiring and career growth that nobody puts in a job description or an onboarding guide
• Why you are the one in charge of your career and what it actually costs you when you wait for someone else to advocate for you
• How self-awareness becomes a real competitive advantage and what tools like CliftonStrengths change in practice
• Why the strongest professionals you know are the ones who ask for help, and what building the right support system actually looks like

Real Work Ready

If this conversation made you realize there are things nobody told you, that is exactly what Real Work Ready is built for. The program gives early professionals the operating system for a career that lasts.

Get started: www.realworkready.com

Connect with Lindsey:

Website: lindseyplewa.com

Instagram: @coachlindseyplewa

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lindseyplewa

Connect with Laura:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lauramassetti

Instagram: @realworkreadyhq

Email: info@realworkready.com

Website: realworkready.com

No One Tells You This is a Real Work Ready podcast. Every episode is a conversation with leaders, executives, and professionals who finally decided to say what nobody said to them: the unwritten rules, the invisible dynamics, and the things that actually determine who succeeds.

Laura Massetti
Founder of Real Work Ready™

www.realworkready.com