I found this difficult when I was a young professional. Later I realized I was surrounded by mostly bad managers. They didn't want a real status update so that

I found this difficult when I was a young professional. Later I realized I was surrounded by mostly bad managers. They didn't want a real status update so that they could help manage the changing risk landscape. They just wanted to be told everything was OK. After about a decade I got wise to this pattern. Their first reply would be passive-aggressive: "What are you going to do about this?" (Why just me? Are we not a team?) The old me would be unnecessarily courageous: "Get it done, of course!" If I had anything less enthusiastic to say they might follow with, "What do you want me to do about it?" This is a very different question from, "What can I do to help?" I was emotionally exhausted. Of course when I alone couldn't mitigate the risks and things went south it was my responsibility and my apology was expected. Once I realized these managers were a one-way street I started simply telling them, "You're the manager. You manage it." Good managers get more from me, but good managers usually are actively ahead of things previously raised and the need to occasionally pull things over the line occurs with lower frequency. Who doesn't want higher throughput with lower stress?