A lot of words around the payoff -- "Alienation depends on how the workers are treated by those in charge. “If managers are respectful, supportive and listen to workers, and if workers have the opportunities for participation, to use their own ideas and have time to do a good job, they are less likely to feel that their work is useless,” the researchers write."
In my experience, any manager with even a shred of self awareness and emotional sensitivity figures out that the people who work for you care exactly as much for their work as they believe you care about them.
I don't think caring is enough. In fact, it's quite a mindfuck too have a manager that cares about your emotional state, but at the same time undermines everything you do at work and fails to advance your interests or sing your praises. Outside of abuse, that is one of the worst employee situation you can be in, unless you don't care about career growth and are very happy with where you are. Hell, I would take an emotionally abusive, verbally abusive boss that promotes me, and catapults my career over a caring boss that doesn't, because I'm the type of person who doesn't care about what my boss throws at me, it rolls off of me (I am aware that some people need more external validation and emotional support than I do, so I do not recommend the latter as a management strategy).
It isn't your boss' decision to have you promoted. It is your boss' colleagues: the decision isn't made in a vacuum. Best your boss can do is give you opportunities to obviously display that value to their peer group. All people have a limited amount of mindshare to spend on tasks. To move up, you must claim some of their headspace (in a positive manner, of course).
When people take time to consider one another and field of play they also tend to understand everyone, that playfield and potentially themselves better. Not understanding people in our lives is a waste of time, energy, resources, and all of that comes with greater cost and risk exposure not associated with meaningful returns.
In my experience, any manager with even a shred of self awareness and emotional sensitivity figures out that the people who work for you care exactly as much for their work as they believe you care about them.