I caught my manager between meetings. "Do you have a minute to chat?" I asked. He waved me into his office.
I had been sitting on the idea all week. "I wanted to run something by you," I said. He listened, then gave honest feedback.
I wanted real feedback, not just polite nods. "Honestly, how am I doing on this project?" I asked. He gave me two things to improve.
He smiled at the numbers on my report. "Keep up the great work," he said. It gave me a real boost for the week.
We needed to talk it through properly. "Let's set up a quick call this week," I suggested. He sent a calendar invite minutes later.