New Manager

[Applessnapples]

I started a new role last August and I’m struggling with the lack of communication with my new manager.
He is based in a different geographic area to me so I have only seen him F2F a handful of times which is fine however other than that I just don’t really hear from him.
Ill phone him a couple of times a week with issues which he always helps with and he does tend to phone me back if he misses my calls however he never phones me first to check in or has a Google Hangout/video call with me, it is approx a couple five minute phone calls over the space of a week. Last week I had no issues so didn’t speak to him at all.
Im in a relatively entry level role but still have quite a large amount of responsibility and feel I’ve really been left to figure things out on my own. I guess what I really want to know is if my expectations are too high for how often he should contact me and check in? I don’t know want him to think I’m expecting him to hold my hand but it feels like he’s really not bothered.

It sounds to me like he's more than happy with what you're doing OP, or rest assured, he'd be on the phone constantly, checking that you're doing what you're supposed to. After all, he's your boss, and the buck stops with him, so if you mess up, he's the one who gets the flack for it. Sounds to me like you're doing great, have faith in yourself, until someone gives you reason to think you shouldn't have.

he should put in 1 or 2 regular weekly 121s with you. Have a list of what you want to talk about. keep notes. share your screen and bring up the list as a reference point each week.
I have lots of direct reports. sometimes I keep the list, sometimes they prefer to, some of us have a shared list on a shared file space. I adapt depending on the nature of the role they do, and how busy it is: operational day-to-day vs highly analytical vs strategic.

Is there another member of the team that is experienced and you could buddy up with? Maybe ask him and get him to assign you someone.