Every week I have a "one on one" with my manager where, I imagine, we are fostering "personal and career growth". However, I think I slightly intimidate him, not in a bad way, but were still in a peer to peer relation that prevents him from giving me the criticism I would like. A typical meeting begins with him asking me how my weekend was spent. We'll have a few minutes of banter and then he asks me "How are things?" This is my cue to tell him about how the people in my project are doing (I "mentor and motivate" the team as well as do the scheduling) so I tell him what the progress is and what the current problems are and I how I'm dealing with them. I mention that all the code I have is a pain in the ass to which he always nods in a noncommittal fashion. Then he tells me about the meetings he has gone to and any information he thinks I would be interested in. It's all very mechanical and there's rarely a reference to how I'm performing. Today I asked him to tell me how I could improve. He basically said I was doing everything right and should "be patient", whatever that means. Oh well, he's better then most of the bosses I've had.