I’m training for my first half-marathon. That means that, unlike the past few years, when I usually ran three times a week at whatever pace and duration I felt like, I need to use an actual training plan.

I use Garmin Coach, a feature within the Garmin app that came with my watch. It’s an automated training program that adjusts based on my actual performance. It follows the method of a specific coach, but the plan itself is entirely digital, which means I have no one to talk to if I have questions or concerns.

One of the questions I often have is “How am I doing?” The race is getting closer with each day, but it’s still far enough ahead (Dead Sea Marathon on February 6th, in case you wonder) for my training to be nowhere near my goal. So I often find myself wondering if I’m on track and what I can expect in the coming weeks.

At least for one of these concerns, the Garmin app has a great solution: it includes a confidence meter as part of its training program feature. I’m happy to say that so far, I’m in the upper green zone, so if they are confident in my ability to meet my goal, I trust them.

I love this confidence meter. I look at it after every workout to see if anything changes. I’m always happy to see the bright green dot.

Confidence and the ability to measure and make it visible to users are topics that we often encounter when it comes to AI. It’s about adding transparency to help users trust the system’s ability to do what they want it to do. 

However, whenever I glance at the gauge in my Garmin app, I think of something else related to our work: your managers.

Your managers also need to trust you – much like we all do with any AI product – and it’s your job to make them confident in you.

They run a little confidence meter in their heads, and here are a few things you can do to keep it bright green. 

Understand what your manager really wants

Your manager’s confidence in you starts with how well you understand them. Not what they said in the last meeting, but what they really need. What outcome they’re aiming for, what they’re worried about, and most importantly, why they asked what they did.

They won’t always say it clearly. They might give instructions without context, or focus on short-term deliverables when they’re actually anxious about something much bigger. It’s not for lack of trying – trust me, it’s because it’s really hard to do it all the time. That’s why you need to make it your mission to ensure you fully understand it.

It’s important because otherwise, the only way for them to guide you is to discuss the details – to tell you exactly what to do. And that’s not where either of you wants to be.

So make it your mission to help them help you. Ask questions, connect the dots, listen for patterns, and tell the story as if it were your own. 

Make sure they know you understand

Understanding what your manager wants is what helps you do your job. But making sure they know you understand it – that’s what helps them let go.

Your manager’s confidence grows when they feel you’ve truly grasped their goals, constraints, and priorities. When they feel you truly get them. That’s what allows them to stop hovering, to delegate fully, to give you space to lead. If they’re not sure you get it, they’ll naturally stay involved, asking for details and progress before you’ve had the chance to show results.

So don’t assume it’s obvious. Reflect what you heard and what they meant. Say out loud things that they might have only thought about, even subconsciously. Make sure they are aligned on what they hear from you before you move on to anything else, because from now on, that’s going to be your agreed-upon guideline. 

Share how you plan to approach it

Truly owning something means more than understanding what needs to be done – it means taking responsibility for how it will get done. Once you’re aligned on the problem to solve and the intent behind it, don’t just start executing. Take a moment to share how you plan to tackle it.

This isn’t about walking through features or tasks. It’s about explaining your approach – how you intend to reach the goal, what principles or strategy will guide you, and where you might start. You’re showing that you can translate goals into action, uncertainty into direction.

If you want to be empowered and trusted with goals instead of detailed instructions, you have to demonstrate that you can close that gap on your own. 

Communicate before they need to ask

Nothing erodes confidence faster than silence. When your manager doesn’t know what’s happening, they start imagining the worst. And once they need to ask, you’ve already lost a bit of their trust.

Like a good user experience, your communication should answer questions before they’re even asked. Don’t wait for them to check in – tell them what’s done, what’s in progress, and what’s next. Explain when things change and why. It’s not about over-reporting; it’s about keeping their mental model aligned with reality.

When you communicate early and predictably, you help your manager stay calm and focused – and you make it easy for them to believe that everything is under control. 

The real confidence meter

The Garmin app may use data to measure confidence, but in real life, it’s built through behavior. Every interaction with your manager either raises or lowers that invisible bar. Understanding what they need, making sure they know you get it, showing how you’ll approach it, and communicating before they need to ask – that’s your version of consistent training. Over time, these small signals add up to trust. And when your manager’s confidence in you stays in the green, you’ll find you have more space, more autonomy, and more impact – the professional equivalent of running your own race.