Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang: "I discourage 1-on-1s" • Hacker News Board

Re: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang: "I discourage 1-on-1s"

#51

Post by tmottabr » Tue, Jun 04, 2024, 3:25 AM UTC

papichulo2023 wrote: post #38

rrr_oh_man wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a perspective I have honestly never heard before. Would you care to elaborate? I‘d really love to understand your POV better. Maybe I have a blind spot somewhere. Background: I’ve always done them weekly (as biweekly seems to be worse than monthly — which in turn is arguably much worse than weekly). And they seemed to work quite well.. Basically 10-30min of chit-chat and catchup for relationship building.

Unlike the other comment, I am a bit more of the extrovert kind but most 1-on-1 are just a waste of time, we usually ended up repeating same things than previous meetings or chitchatting which we also do on coffee breaks or lunch time.

bear in mind that if you work fully remote you do not have coffee breaks or lunch time chit chat...

in those cases it is valuable to have a schedule 1:1 even if it is mostly chit chat..

Re: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang: "I discourage 1-on-1s"

#52

Post by tmottabr » Tue, Jun 04, 2024, 3:38 AM UTC

stack_framer wrote: post #31

seatac76 wrote: post #6

It probably makes sense for a CEO who is direction setting and probably has other defined methods of feedback collections. For normals ICs 1:1s are crucial for career development. You absolutely need a space to talk candidly with your manager.

> You absolutely need a space to talk candidly with your manager. It's not so easy when you feel like you can't trust the people to whom you report. I'm in this situation after attempting to be candid about what I felt were missteps on the part of my manager and a director of engineering. After a scolding from one of them, and a veiled threat about my employment ending, I now feel like I just shouldn't rock the boat.…

honestly.. if i were in your situation i would bet looking for another job..

Right now i have a really good relation with my manager to the point were i can him out to him if i need to and were i trust him to help me advance my career if he can and that he will not screw me over..

In the past i have being in a position were i was at odds with my manager and definitely could not trust him, as soon as i realized that i started looking for my way out.. The period between that manager being hired and i leaving that job was the most stressful period in my life.. never been so happy to be fired in my life..

Now, that was another life, i was young and single.. now i have a few mouths to feed so if i got in that same situation today i would not get myself fired like i did back then, but i for sure would look for another job..

Re: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang: "I discourage 1-on-1s"

#53

Post by tmottabr » Tue, Jun 04, 2024, 4:03 AM UTC

barbariangrunge wrote: post #28

Sounds nice until you put yourself in the employees shoes. All your mistakes become public case studies, you’re cut off from proper mentoring, and you can no longer say anything in private to your boss without the whole team hearing it

bear in mind he is a CEO.. His subordinates are most likely SVPs, so his relation with his subordinates is not the same as employees down at the bottom of the hierarchy with their managers..

so i hardly thing he is discussing personal mistakes in those meetings, he is more likely discussing policies that affect entire departments or even the whole company..

Other then that i believe that any person in any position and at any level, should praise in public and criticize in private, always..

But note that he never said he does not have private meetings with his subordinates when needed, he only said he does not think he should have a scheduled time every week to have this kind of discussions..

and honestly i agree with him.. 90% of what i discuss with my manager in our 1:1s could be discussed in front of the whole team.. the other 10% is not something i need to discuss ever other week it is usually stuff about my personal career that i need to discuss just a few times per year.. so for those when the need arise i just reach out to my manager and discuss with him..

also a managers is not always the best person to be coaching someone.. where i work we have managers and we have mentors and those are separated roles that may be taken by different people..

Re: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang: "I discourage 1-on-1s"

#54

Post by tmottabr » Tue, Jun 04, 2024, 4:13 AM UTC

lupire wrote: post #8

DHPersonal wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The link seems to address that concern. It reads to me as if the view is that if the concern can't be shared with the group then it needn't be shared at all. Discussing it in the group benefits everyone because everyone can hear the concern and the response to it.

Which is an extremely naive view. Some concerns are sensitive.

yes.. but they often concern more then one people...

discussing it public does not necessary means in front of all 60 people but in front of the people relevant to the discussion..

It very well could be a discussing with just one or two subordinates and their teams..

Also he never said he does not have individual meetings to discuss individual concerns.. but those should happen seldomly as needed and not by a mandated weekly schedule..