Regular informal conversations with the whole group
1. daily zoom calls (with camera on)
2. optional but encouraged
3. not a stand-up
4. draw people out who are being quiet
5. deep questions and ice-breakers
What should you talk about?
Goals
Reality
Opportunities
Way forward
Goals
1. Short-term (2-4 weeks)
2. Medium term (1-6 months)
3. Long term (6-18 months)
...In your current role
...In the role you want to be in
...In your career
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-bound
"I want to be better at my job"
"I want to be better at my job"
"I want to be better at communicating"
"I want to be better at my job"
"I want to be better at communicating"
"I want to have fewer arguments"
"I want to be better at my job"
"I want to be better at communicating"
"I want to have fewer arguments"
"I want to understand intent"
"I want to be better at my job"
"I want to be better at communicating"
"I want to have fewer arguments"
"I want to understand intent"
"I want to understand intent so the team works better together..."
"I want to be better at my job"
"I want to be better at communicating"
"I want to have fewer arguments"
"I want to understand intent"
"I want to understand intent
so we work better together...
...And, we can review how
that's gone in a month"
Reality
Give yourself feedback:
1. What is working well?
2. What do I need to improve?
In other words:
1. Why should the company pay me more?
2. Why should the company pay me less?
Feedback on goals should happen here, but I've found it more useful to focus on them while talking about goals...
Opportunities
"What is coming up that I want to be involved in?"
This is about expectations...
What is needed in the next 3 months?
What is expected in the next year?
1. This is essential for new team members, and folks working in relative isolation
2. It's a good self-feedback mechanism
1. This shows the team member that you think about where they can grow, not just what they're doing for you now
2. They can align their goals
This is one of the hardest parts, because you're doing the work to show them where they're going...
You'll need to speak to the people that hired them, the people that defined their role, the people they report to, experts in their domain, the people that will approve their raises...
Way forward
"What do you need to do to achieve your short-term goals, especially before our next chat?"
"What do you want me to achieve, for you, before our next chat?"
Feedback is hard
Effective personal growth requires one person to be mature...
Giving and getting feedback requires everyone on the team to be mature, at the same time
😓
Encourage team members to ask for feedback after everything they produce, share, or prepare for
"What do you think of that meeting I lead?"
"How can I hand work over, better, to you?"
"What do you like about working with me?"
"What things do I do that make it tricky
to work with me?"
Encourage team members to give feedback as often as they ask for it
Find tools that help to remind them to ask for and give feedback
Record feedback so that performance evaluations and raise/promotion discussions matter
Tools don't solve this problem,
maturity and leadership does
How much Agile is enough?
Goals:
1. Release early and often
2. Don't over-engineer
3. Define acceptance and measure well
Team members can only demonstrate regular progress if they do regular work, and learn to communicate well...
Enforcing this behaviour, albeit politely, makes one of two things happen: 1. their performance improves dramatically, and they get a sense of what they can achieve...
2. or they realise it's not for them and leave
It doesn't mean you need to be combative, but it will be hard work.