Curious about what your boss is thinking? Funny thing is … he or she often wonders the same thing about you.

Supervisors want to know what makes you tick. What are your passions and pressure points? What tasks challenge you and which are – put bluntly – boring?

Online career resource The Muse features input from several young entrepreneurs and discovered 11 Surprising Things Your Boss Wishes You’d Talk About.

Here are a few of my favorites:

  • Your Ideas for Automation

No one likes repetitive tasks, but most people don’t even think of ways to automate certain processes to make themselves happier and more productive. I’ve encouraged my team to actively brainstorm ways to make their jobs easier with technology so they can work smarter, not harder. This is a win-win for everyone when they recognize opportunities to streamline workflows.

– Firas Kittaneh, Amerisleep

  • Your Feedback and Goals

Employees usually don’t talk to me about the help they need to reach their goals and follow through on commitments. They probably don’t because they believe they’re not living up to our expectations. As a company, we have a strong “get it done” mentality, which can intimidate some. 

– Mark Samuel, Fitmark

  • Your Knowledge Gaps

Employees tend to hide any knowledge gaps they have in fear they will appear incompetent to their employers. This is unfortunate because offering the opportunity to help employees learn and fill in these knowledge gaps is every employer’s responsibility. Not knowing what these gaps are prevents employers from helping employees grow, which causes undue stress and poor performance.

– Phil Chen, Systems Watch

  • What Isn’t Working

It’s really hard to get someone to tell you what doesn’t work. But surely not everything is perfect! Get people to tell you a few things that are wrong and make some effort to fix them so they know they can come to you with bigger things. 

– Jessica Richman, UBiome

  • When You’re Taking Time Off

I run my company mostly remotely. I’m based in Denver, but I travel quite a bit, and a lot of my team members live in other cities. I find that in this situation, sometimes employees are timid to say when they’re traveling or working from another city. I don’t know why this is; perhaps it’s something that’s been programmed in them from previous jobs. 

– Rob Fulton, Exponential Black

Supervisors: What would you like to hear more about from your team? Ask them!

Symone Skrzycki is the senior communications manager for the Indiana Chamber. She is also a senior writer for the Chamber’s award-winning BizVoice magazine and has been with the organization for 19 years.