It has to be real of course - not “we have 30 minutes to fill what do you want to talk about”.
Here's where I think it cause problems: right now, if I feel like working from home on a given day, and I have no meetings, I just do it. If I was supposed to meet with my manager every single day, then now it's like I'm cancelling that meeting, so now I'm self-conscious that he thinks I'm slacking, and I would probably just not bother and drag myself in every day. Boom, reduced morale.
The best managers I've had would just show up at your desk either at the start or end of the day and ask about how it's going. The worst ones show up at my desk and ask what I'm working on.
Unless the manager was also a friend, but that usually isn't the case (nor should it be).
And you won't. No one is ever going to be real and honest with their manager or with anyone in a position of power over them.
Even if your reports don't like all the attention, as a manager you become a better manager as you understand your reports better and they understand you better.
I don't find that difficult at all. That's what work is, you become a person who can find into the machine. I think you are overestimating your abilities.
As a manager you might know a report does not like you and is being two faced, but you won’t do anything about it unless it is affecting performance.
As a manager I would rather not know about your personal life unless it is impacting on work. One of the downsides about devoting so much time to people is they feel like they can share their most intimate personal feelings with you. The stories I have been told over the years still continue to amaze me.
Now, i'm not saying that more one-on-one time isn't helpful with many employees. Nor am I saying that your experience isn't true.
But given that its in direct opposition to my own experience, i'm guessing its either a low-probability thing, that we're in different jobs/fields, different cultures, that some of your staff are either shutting up and bearing it just to get a paycheck, or the ones that disagree with you have quit/resigned/gotten another job/transferred.