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One on One

bhorowitz.com

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Re: One on One

#31

Post by kamaal »

I am having one-on-one's currently and this is how I do it.

1. Talk to your manager about your career aspirations. That include promotion, raise and other learning opportunities.

2. Discuss what will get you there- Write on the white board clearly defined tasks you need to do to get there.

3. Put down a plan to execute and track them. And record it- I generally take a picture of the whiteboard.

4. Ask him for feed back on how you did from last one-on-one to this one.

5. Give him feed back about project, technology, company and things in general.

6. Have him sign off and agree that you are doing well which he agrees and acknowledges it.

7. Repeat 1-6 in every one-on-one scheduled to happen every 2 two weeks.

A good appraisal, evaluation at the end of year is something that doesn't have any surprises between you and your manager.

[EDIT: Even if your company doesn't have 1:1 - Ensure you take personal initiative to have discussion of this kind with your manager it helps a lot in the longer run]

Re: One on One

#32

Post by kamaal »

slurgfest wrote: post #14
therealarmen wrote: post #3

I've been involved in one-on-one's in the past (as an employee) that were simply another way for my manager to shove directions down my throat. Needless to say, I loathed them and tried to make up any excuse I could to cancel or reschedule. Now, as a manager, I've tried to learn from my experiences and make the one-on-one more about the employee. Some of the best one-on-ones I've done have nothing to do with work --…

I don't understand, isn't an employee supposed to take direction from a manager? (So they can fulfill expectations rather than being surprised when the company is not happy with whatever they've done?) You won't see me shying away from saying things that are skeptical about managerial privilege, I just don't understand what you meant here.

>isn't an employee supposed to take direction from a manager?

No,

The manager manages the direction[reviews, tracks, corrects course], but doesn't necessarily set it. Its not like the manager is a father and the employee is a day care kid. Who needs to do his homework, eat vegetables and drink milk at the fathers command.

Essentially the manager acts like a intelligent information router which can improvise decision making based on information he/she is routing.

The job of a manager is to make himself redundant to build great teams that can manage themselves. So that he can himself grow up to the next level and manage the managers and so on..

Re: One on One

#34

Post by pmarca »

dude_abides wrote: post #2

If you make a one-on-one into a periodic meeting like ben is suggesting, it will invariably end up as yet another pointless formality. Ideally, in a well-run company, an employee should be able to easily walk to the CEO and talk about any problem/grievance/suggestion/new idea. But it is much more efficient to keep such meetings adhoc/need-based and not periodic, since, more often than not, the employee will either ha…

"If you make a one-on-one into a periodic meeting like ben is suggesting, it will invariably end up as yet another pointless formality." --> No, that's not true when the manager is competent.

"Ideally, in a well-run company, an employee should be able to easily walk to the CEO and talk about any problem/grievance/suggestion/new idea." --> Ideally, maybe, but what every new manager learns very quickly is that most employees simply will not proactively volunteer most of the things that you are going to need to know about what they (the employees) are thinking and feeling. Therefore, the one on one.

One of the really entertaining things that happens in startups is that a half dozen people are quite capable of sitting in the same room together for a year and never actually saying most of the things that need to be said for the company to work. I've seen many situations like that where the manager finally starts 1:1's and is stunned at the number of important things that were being left unsaid.

Re: One on One

#35

Post by pmarca »

goggles99 wrote: post #25

Regardless - You are still an (place derogatory terms here) for threatening your employees like they are little children.

And you are still being naive for thinking that companies can be run purely by happy-talk.

Re: One on One

#36

Post by pmarca »

makhanko wrote: post #5

Other than the idea of framing the one-on-one meeting to be 90% controlled by the employee the post is thin on suggestions. "How do you get help when you love your job, but your personal life is melting down?" - Really?

Yes, really. I've seen that many, many times.

Re: One on One

#37

Post by muhuk »

dude_abides wrote: post #2

If you make a one-on-one into a periodic meeting like ben is suggesting, it will invariably end up as yet another pointless formality. Ideally, in a well-run company, an employee should be able to easily walk to the CEO and talk about any problem/grievance/suggestion/new idea. But it is much more efficient to keep such meetings adhoc/need-based and not periodic, since, more often than not, the employee will either ha…

I would go for scheduled but cancellable by the employee meetings.

If it's completely ad-hoc, how will the manager deal with the person who grabs him to complain about random stuff all the time? How will anyone know how often is too often?

Re: One on One

#38

Post by 001sky »

goggles99 wrote: post #25

Regardless - You are still an (place derogatory terms here) for threatening your employees like they are little children.

I too read Ben's earlier post and did some head-scratching. Honestly, I think that earlier post was a bit off. But 1-on-1 meetings happen in many contexts. We all need to beware of overgeneralizing our own experiences.

This post perhaps hinted at something, there. Not all 1-on-1s are MSFT force/rank performance reviews. There are, alternative uses of meetings. Think about an MFA student who want some feedback on her portfolio?[1] She wants office hours. She's junior. Different dynamic. Sr Prof has to be there. 1:1. Thats part of the job. Obvious. Everyone know it. Is it possible for an eccentric genius to be lost in the studio/lab all semester? yes, it happens. Has a Dean ever had to call in a department chair to politely remind everyone involved (who is tenured, respected etc) that if they don't get an office hour and portfolio review for this poor girl by the end of Term they'd look like fools? It would be a bit of a scandal? That of the very few things one might actually get fired for, The abject neglect of a protege might be one? "Does this need to be said any clearer?" he might ask. "No. Got it" might be the reply. [2]

Is that how it went down at opsware? I've no idea. But, there are certain contexts in which folks remind themselves in a way overfomally that they have jobs to do. No one should feel threatened per se, unless something is truly wrong or someone is completely out of their depth. [3]

[1] For an example of MFA style portfolio critique: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4440345

[2] (...Commence drinking booz, etc - optional- remember this is academia ;D)

[3] In which case, it wouldn't be the 1 on 1 that is the subject of a chat.

Edit: link/typos.

Re: One on One

#39

Post by askimto »

pmarca wrote: post #35
goggles99 wrote: post #25

Regardless - You are still an (place derogatory terms here) for threatening your employees like they are little children.

And you are still being naive for thinking that companies can be run purely by happy-talk.

The case for one-on-ones in the follow-up is better. I would have found your colleague's first post on the subject satirical if I didn't know any better. The overall topic was about what it takes to make a company a good place to work and includes a conversation that makes Ben sound like an asshole (does he think he sounds like a badass?) and ends this way:

“In summary, you and Tim are preventing me from achieving my one and only goal. You have become a barrier blocking me from achieving my most important goal.  As a result, if Tim doesn’t meet with each one of his employees in the next 24 hours, I will have no choice but to fire him and to fire you. Are we clear?”

Now really, just imagine the conversation with Tim and his boss later that day... Then the quality of all the one-on-ones with Tim and his reports...

Maybe you should get someone to review some of these posts because Ben just embarrassed himself with that previous one.

Re: One on One

#40

Post by [deleted] »

columbo wrote: post #27

I hate to see 1-on-1's get abused because they really are a valuable tool. A 1-on-1 is a designated time for an employee to direct an entire conversation with their manager. They can choose to talk about interests, grievances, concerns, ideas, hobbies, problems, successes or NOTHING AT ALL. This is for a manager to sit back and absorb, to give answers when asked. That's it. A good manager will take 1-on-1s as a way t…

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