Making your one-on-ones great

The Case for 1-on-1s

Myth of the Open Door

Work Happy: What Great Bosses Know

1. Your door is open - but people aren't comfortable with the approach
2. Your door is open - but you haven't been clear about chain of command and communication
3. Your door is open - but you send lots of mixed signals
4. Your door is open - but visits aren't worth the effort

How do you communicate?

Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

My first piece of advice to all new managers is "Schedule one-on-ones, keep them on the same day and time, and never cancel them."

Managers who don't have a plan to regularly talk to everyone on their team are deluded.

One-one-ones are where you learn about your team and what they are doing

Improvement ideas

How often?

It depends

• How much interaction do you have with these people on a daily basis?
• How much do you trust them?
• How much interaction do they want?
• Are they having issues?
• Are they craving feedback?
• Do they just want you to leave them alone?

Some ideas

Don't go more often than weekly

• Appropriate for people you aren't interacting with everyday
• Appropriate for people on performance plans
• Appropriate for people who just want a little more input
• Use sparingly for people who want less interaction and when you are having constant, daily interactions with (scrum/etc)

One per sprint?

• Probably appropriate for most people
• Plan the meeting so you can help identify issues they may have with their current tasks, i.e. in the middle or close to the end
• May still be too often for some and not often enough for others

Monthly?

• Don't EVER meet less often than this
• Appropriate for really senior people who don't need lots of career advice
• Appropriate for teams where you are heavily involved on a daily basis
• Appropriate for people who just don't need a lot of feedback

To reiterate though

Don't EVER skip one-on-ones

If you can't meet at your designated time, reschedule, don't just say you'll do it "next time"

Don't assume that just because you don't have stuff to talk about, your employee doesn't need to meet

The actual meeting

• Try to keep it casual
• Use it as an opportunity to learn about your employee
  • Do you know about their family?
  • What's important to them?
  • What do they spend their free time on?
  • What motivates them?

How is their work going?

• Check in with how their actual tasks are going
• They may not have felt comfortable sharing issues or roadblocks in group settings
• They may be behind
  • Why are they behind? Personal issue?
• Do they enjoy what they are working on?

Solicit feedback

• What is currently making you unhappy (if anything)?
• Do you have any issues with the current team or process?
• Do you have any issues with other people on the team or people elsewhere?
• What would make your job better?

Feedback for You

• Can be tricky to get as lots of people don't feel comfortable critiquing their boss
• Magic question: "Is there anything you need more of, or less of, from me?"
• NEVER NEVER NEVER get defensive when you receive critical feedback
• ALWAYS be open and try hard to address complaints
• If people feel rebuked or ignored, they'll stop giving feedback
• If you've built a relationship, you'll get better feedback

Feedback for Them

• This is your chance! Don't waste it.
• Never say "If you don't hear from me, assume you're doing a good job."
• If they are doing well, tell them!
• If they are not doing well, tell them!
• If they are just doing OK, tell them!
• Most people respond surprisingly well to critical feedback

Thoughts on critical feedback

• Don't save it up. If something is bad, address immediately
• Focus on only one thing in a given meeting
• Build that relationship! If people respect you, they take your feedback to heart
• Your best people are often the ones who most want critical feedback

Your role: The Coach

• Don't be a fixer, be a coach
• Fixing will make you less liked and will burn you out faster
• "Bring me your problems and I will help you discover your own solutions. Show me your work and I will improve it by coaching, but I won't do it for you. It's my duty as a boss."

Career Building

• One per time unit (quarter, month, year) talk about career planning
• What do your employees want to be when they grow up?
• How are they working toward that goal?
• How are you helping them?
• Don't force it, let them drive things
• 9 boxing is a great tool

Bonus idea: Staff Meetings

• Your team craves information
• Put regular time on the books to make sure your team is information
• Tell them about changes to the roadmap, the org, anything you can tell them you probably should
• Give each person an opportunity to raise issues or ask questions
• The number one failing of most managers is undercommunicating