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Ask HN: What do you talk about in 1-on-1s with your managers?

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Ask HN: What do you talk about in 1-on-1s with your managers?

#1

Post by gofreddygo »

In BigCo for 6 months. Running out of things to talk about meaningfully in weekly one-on-one meetings with my manager.

I see it as a good opportunity where I get full attention. I don't want to just keep blowing my trumpet, or just complaining.

A week isn't enough time to get things done and 30 mins is not enough for deep dives.

Curious about how others have leveraged their time with the ones responsible for your promotions.

Edit: Just to add, I am fortunate to have a good manager, not complaining one bit. I'm trying to make some effort to make it worth our time.

Re: Ask HN: What do you talk about in 1-on-1s with your managers?

#2

Post by v0llhirsch »

Everything, really. for over four years I can count the number of times we canceled on a single hand. It could be work (but no status reports), kids, what is on my mind, current news. It’s not only about meaningful content but about getting to know the other person. Sometimes I am jut happy to listen when my boss talks about his side of the house. Ultimately if I know what affects my boss, I can help him if there’s anything in my sphere of work. 30 minutes is just a starter, if you need to reinforce a topic use the time for an elevator pitch why you need more time from your boss.

Re: Ask HN: What do you talk about in 1-on-1s with your managers?

#3

Post by dkokelley »

1. Here's what I'm working on. (Is this a good use of my time?)

2. Here are my blockers. (Can you help clear the way so I can do my work?)

3. Here's what's going on in my life (relationship building, context for manager to understand your work and capacity)

Re: Ask HN: What do you talk about in 1-on-1s with your managers?

#4

Post by yieldcrv »

"OKRs are not productive for our level of the organization and take up too much time, we shouldn't copy a practice just because Google used it"

its usually just a reminder about how many things are causing context switching and how that limits productivity

Re: Ask HN: What do you talk about in 1-on-1s with your managers?

#5

Post by kccqzy »

* Talk about what you were working on for the past week.

* Talk about what you observed your colleagues had been working on, just to get some team context and make sure you aren't too narrowly focused on your own work.

* Talk about what you want to work on, in terms of your own interest and motivations, and how well you think that aligns with the business direction or any OKR/KPI that leaders care about.

* Talk about what your manager has been working on and whether there's any work your manager could usefully delegate to you.

* Talk about what your leaders (directors / VPs) are working on and whether that would have any impact on your team's work.

Re: Ask HN: What do you talk about in 1-on-1s with your managers?

#6

Post by screamingninja »

Think of how you can maximize the impact on your organization, career, and personal well-being-

- Ensure that your manager understands what motivates you. This has a profound impact on the opportunities that you will receive.

- What impact have you made on the company's operations over time?

- Where do you intend to head with your career? What is your 1, 2, 5 year plan? Does not have to be set in stone but having some idea can lead to an insightful discussion.

- What opportunities lie ahead? What can you do over next 6-12 months to steer your career and maximize impact on the organization?

Do you see your manager as a mentor? Might be a great venue to seek mentorship as well.

Re: Ask HN: What do you talk about in 1-on-1s with your managers?

#7

Post by mshake2 »

These have always been an enormous waste of time from my perspective. They only serve to make a manager feel like they know what everyone is doing, all the time. Anything process-wise should be handled through scrum. Anything personal can be handled with ad-hoc 1-on-1 meetings as needed, but should be pretty rare. 1-on-1s for process really do harm to transparency and accountability. If I had a nickel for every time I've been given tasks or been "re-oriented" in a 1-on-1, outside of scheduled work...

Re: Ask HN: What do you talk about in 1-on-1s with your managers?

#8

Post by strstr »

1:1’s are your time to make you more effective via your manager.

Don’t only surface what you did (I view that as the boring back up conversation). Surface what you need. Surface challenges you’ve faced. Surface decisions that are on your horizon. Surface what you want.

Your manager can’t read your mind, but you have 30m to help them act as if they can.

Re: Ask HN: What do you talk about in 1-on-1s with your managers?

#9

Post by sokoloff »

The cadence for 1:1s is more for your preference/needs than your manager's. If you want a 50 minute meeting every other week, suggest that.

(As a manager,) I do think that weekly is too frequent for my taste for a standing 1:1 once the initial relationship is established and mutual ways of working are understood. I tend to have weekly 1:1s when first working with someone new, but prefer every other. (Again, it's not about my preferences over theirs, but I'm telling you mine here.)

Re: Ask HN: What do you talk about in 1-on-1s with your managers?

#10

Post by walterbell »

Manager Tools has a podcast series on 1:1, from the manager’s viewpoint, including episodes for specific roles, https://www.manager-tools.com/podcasts/important-topic-feeds...

If the company is big enough, you can maintain an evolving map of your team’s dependencies and contributions to other teams, then compare notes with your manager about this model vs reality. That’s one way to orient tasks within a larger business context, and it provides an ongoing topic which accrues over time into a joint asset.

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