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Ask HN: What agenda do you have for 1:1 meetings with your supervisor?

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Re: Ask HN: What agenda do you have for 1:1 meetings with your supervisor?

#91

Post by jevanish »

benhurmarcel wrote: post #26
tobr wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you would miss a lot of important things with this approach. You’re basically asking other people to take the entire initiative to raise problems, which will only work for things they are 100% comfortable bringing up with you, and which they feel is in their interest for you to know about.

Exactly; my current manager works this way (no 1:1) and is surprised how in 3 years nobody has ever come willingly to talk about this stuff. Nobody wants to be the one coming to his boss with problems; nobody wants to be the only team member to go talk about things that probably bother him given that he never asked about them. Then obviously he has no idea about the day-to-day work that most of us do, the difficultie…

From Creativity Inc, by Pixar cofounder Ed Catmull:

“My door had always been open! I’d assumed that that would guarantee me a place in the loop, at least when it came to major sources of tension like this.

Not a single production manager had dropped by to express frustration or make a suggestion in the five years we worked on Toy Story.

…Being on the lookout for problems was not the same as seeing problems.”

Source: https://getlighthouse.com/blog/ed-catmull-quotes-leadership-...

Re: Ask HN: What agenda do you have for 1:1 meetings with your supervisor?

#92

Post by jevanish »

AdrianB1 wrote: post #80

Usually as much as we have the time to discuss: - status of current projects and resources that I manage (I am a manager myself) - priorities and direction changes - help needed, in any kind: escalations, resources, etc From time to time, about every 3 months: - feedback and intermediate performance review - work plan updates - strategy updates

Can't you give most of those status update-y things another way? Seems like most of that would be covered in a standup, or email.

Your 1 on 1 could be so much more: your career growth, situations you want help with, feedback and ideas for them, things you want coaching on, any issues they should know about (like say a sick/dying family member), etc

Re: Ask HN: What agenda do you have for 1:1 meetings with your supervisor?

#93

Post by jevanish »

halfnormalform wrote: post #79
buro9 wrote: post #45

I wrote something internally a couple of years ago, and it is precisely a thought piece on why 1:1s exist, for whom, and how to get the best from them. As it's too long for a HN comment I hope you don't mind my "publishing" it on Google Docs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R4j84c7gHRn1Q3xmwg5h18La... Feel free to give this to your manager to help them consider how to use the 1:1 and make it better for the both o…

I am in the middle of planning my first 1:1 with my first direct report and this is incredibly helpful. My bosses never did this. Thank you!

You may find this helpful too then for you to get started on them and see where you may want to learn more deeply: https://getlighthouse.com/blog/one-on-one-meetings-template-...

Re: Ask HN: What agenda do you have for 1:1 meetings with your supervisor?

#94

Post by zoomablemind »

What in your opinion is the intent for such meetings? It's not the review kind, is it?

I understand the initiative is from the boss's side. Is it just a formal way to align with policies, or a way to keep everyone on their toes, or a genuine two-way communication channel?

If it's a formal thing, then just play along, whatever style this boss is expecting.

There're even ridiculous cases, when a boss decided to project 'openness' by putting a jar of candies in his office... with the expectations that people would have this as a reason to come in. Not a bad idea in general (taught in trainings) ... except the candies were mostly subpar, halloween kind, the boss won't eat these either. Still, the game was clear, and his employees were showing up for 'a candy', those that did made the boss happy.

If it's 'I'm the boss' kind, then it's kinda formal too. So either come up with a question that would highlight his expertise or you own humblness.

The easiest part is when it's two-way. Almost no pretense needed. His time is as much or more valuable to him as yours. So the meetings will have some practical reason to them. Either assign, solve, retro, or 'address' something. Make sure you're aware of the reasons to meet, if needed probe in advance.

Also use this to your advantage - _ask_ sometimes to meet. There're should be plenty of ways to find a practical topic to discuss. As an example, with a new boss a possible topic could be 'aligning priorities'. If possible, find ways to establish such a two-way channel.

Re: Ask HN: What agenda do you have for 1:1 meetings with your supervisor?

#95

Post by jevanish »

Jemaclus wrote: post #63

My boss and I create a Slack thread each week for 1:1 topics. One thing to remember is that 1:1 time is YOUR time, not your boss's time. They can schedule a meeting with you any time for their topics, but 1:1s are always your chance to have face time alone with them. It's up to you what to talk about, but as a manager, I don't need status updates. If I'm a good manager, then I already know what you're up to, so let's…

This is awesome. I bet your team really loves working with you.

Re: Ask HN: What agenda do you have for 1:1 meetings with your supervisor?

#97

Post by jevanish »

HoustonRefugee wrote: post #50

I prefer 1:1 when there is something relevant to discuss (merit increases, onboarding, significant problems). Personally I believe this is the best way the manager/employee relationship should function. Email and daily interaction should be more than enough to maintain communication on projects, work, etc. The clear sign of a good manager is the less 1:1's the better. That means the manager is respected enough by his…

1 on 1s as status updates are horribly inefficient, which is why managers should not use their 1 on 1s for them.

However, when a manager uses 1 on 1s for what they're actually for (career growth, feedback, blockers, coaching, praise, etc) they have the best teams and best performance, because they make sure the employee stays motivated and the team as a whole operates better.

I've uncovered so many problems that would have otherwise blown up later, as well as found tons of ways to better motivate team members from them, I can't imagine not having them, nor ever working for someone who doesn't do them.

Re: Ask HN: What agenda do you have for 1:1 meetings with your supervisor?

#98

Post by jevanish »

Your 1 on 1s are going to evolve over time with them.

At the start you want to simply build some rapport and get a feel for their work style. Ask them about how they prefer certain things like project updates and how to handle problems that arise.

Then, as you get comfortable, your 1 on 1s can and should cover a wide variety of topics: - Your Career Growth / areas of interest you have - Suggestions for improving you/your team's work - Problems you want their help with / what they think of the solution you came up with - Personal issues that could affect your work (babies, funerals, long term sickness of loved ones, divorces, etc) - Praise things your manager did you like so they do more of it (They're human too...let em know) - If they're open to it, feedback you have for them - FYIs that you may know about that they may not have visibility to and will want to monitor (see Andy Grove's "Black box of management" https://medium.com/@iantien/top-takeaways-from-andy-grove-s-...) - Things you want to lobby for (changes, class you want to take, a project, a certain assignment, etc)

More detail on how to approach your 1 on 1s that I've sent to employees here: https://getlighthouse.com/blog/effective-1-on-1-meetings/

Re: Ask HN: What agenda do you have for 1:1 meetings with your supervisor?

#99

Post by busterarm »

grepfru_it wrote: post #85
busterarm wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only reason I'm in the organization is to push for organizational improvements. That's why they hired me over somebody else. That's the source of momentum in my career path and the best thing for me as well as the org. If that isn't the case, then I'm a cog in a feature factory and that's not the job that I want to be in. I know that some companies/teams/managers approach work that way, but that's a very strong c…

>push for organizational improvements doesn't pay the light bill > a cog in a feature factory pays the light bills. YMMV

Disagree. The answer is somewhere in the middle.

Every time some failing startup does a large layoff round, there's always questions of "why does X need Y many engineers?". Too many cogs in a broken organization is just burning dollars and electricity.

Re: Ask HN: What agenda do you have for 1:1 meetings with your supervisor?

#100

Post by HoustonRefugee »

frausto wrote: post #54
HoustonRefugee wrote: post #50

I prefer 1:1 when there is something relevant to discuss (merit increases, onboarding, significant problems). Personally I believe this is the best way the manager/employee relationship should function. Email and daily interaction should be more than enough to maintain communication on projects, work, etc. The clear sign of a good manager is the less 1:1's the better. That means the manager is respected enough by his…

How do you feel about monthly 1:1's? This was my approach though the topic was less about keeping up to date with what the team/person has been doing, and more about how they are feeling, if there any roadblocks I could help them with, if they are interested in the work they are doing, etc etc... I think of my job as a manager as supporting and empowering my team to be productive and making sure they are happy with t…

I was not expecting that downvote. That must be a manager ;)

Anyway, I think monthly would be fine as long as it focused on career growth, goals, etc. I am a tad bit of biased since I have had bosses who use 1:1's to stay up to date with projects and work while ignoring the entire team and was on the golf course the rest of the week.

Of course I am not talking about deliberately keeping your boss in the dark, that is a problem for another thread. I am not for 1:1s being used for "phoning it in" from a lazy manager.

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