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by abdinoor 4409 days ago
A number of the points in the top answer are really symptoms of not being aware of what is going on with your people. One of the fatal flaws (for the manager if not the company) I have observed in poor managers is a lack of spending time with the team members.

At least in tech, many managers are promoted from individual contributor roles and they only carve out a little time to be a manager. Usually that means they don't know what is going on, and when issues do come to their attention those issues have been festering for quite a while.
1 comments
jevanish 4409 days ago
I've always been stunned how few tech companies and startups do 1 on 1s. It's the single, easiest way to surface a lot of this. As long as you don't completely ignore what's brought up in them, you'll get in front of a lot of trouble.

@abdinoor - what tactics do you use to get in front of these issues?

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abdinoor 4408 days ago
@jevanish you're right about the one-on-ones being the easiest way. But just doing the meeting is not enough. You would be surprised how many managers walk into a 1:1 with no agenda and are just asking "What's up?"

It is also not enough to just talk about the day-to-day. The 1:1 is not a smaller standup meeting. Just because there is "nothing on your plate" does not mean you skip the 1:1.

I generally prepare by reviewing notes from previous meetings and any goals that we have set together. Also bring a number of questions about company direction, transparency, colleagues, etc. Over the course of many 1:1s I can build a pretty comprehensive understanding of what makes this person tick and how they feel about their work and colleagues.

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cam- 4408 days ago
fwiw in one on ones I go over all the tasks/responsibilities of the next position above them, and we see if they did any of those kind of tasks in the last sprint. If they did we record them. We also look if there are any opportunities to do tasks in the next level above as well so they can be assigned that work in the next sprint. That waY i can make a strong argument when the person is ready for a promotion too.
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