An important realisation that I learned the hard way is that don’t ever expect anything from your manager, by default. This realisation has been paramount to me because it implies a lot of other things professionally. Most managers aren’t that good, law of averages, and they are walking a tightrope. Expecting too much of them is waiting to watch yourself fail.

I used to hold my 1-1s with my manager as sacred. But they were as worthless as empty shells. Devoid of any substance and meaningful interaction. Turns out my fellow colleagues also had similar stories to tell. This eventually led me to believe that aspiring to work under a great manager to catapult your professional career is a ludicrous goal as it is akin to hoping for a generational politician to uplift the human conditions in a country(too much, I know).

Here is a great blog post explaining the concept of “Managers of One”