My Team Lead (Hi!) holds 1:1 meetings quarterly. There are a few set
questions he asks everyone to ensure that certain bases are touched, but
it's otherwise free form and open-ended.
Regarding topics, frequency, and number of direct reports:
These all depend on the individuals and their levels of... maturity for
lack of a better comprehensive term. I volunteer in emergency
management, and I've taken the HR training on management. I've had all
of the standard courses that about limiting direct reports to 5-ish, but
I don't think that it's a one-size-fits-all suggestion.
Most of my colleagues are high-performing, highly self-managed folks.
Most of them have been lead and/or sole sysadmins in smaller shops. I
certainly don't need the level of supervision of a construction laborer
(my latest academic background, not picking), nor should my TL have to
spend as much of his time managing us as would a foreman.
I strongly believe that only meeting formally on an annual basis, when
performance appraisals are due, is far too infrequently. It also forces
an agenda that is too rigid, and has distinct ties between talking about
problems and punishment for (real or perceived) failures.
This is the first team I've been on where quarterly 1:1 was the norm,
instead of random + yearly appraisals, and I think it is good. We're
going to be re-org'ed Real Soon Now, so I'll have counterpoints to the
current standard of 1:1 in another quarter.
Allan West
On 2016/07/08 09:34, Matthew Butch wrote:
From the employee side- I HATED weekly scheduled one on ones. That’s way
too frequent and interrupted my workflow. I would say at max once a
month, though I could see longer time frames depending on the person-
every other month, every three or every six (the max it should be).
Honestly, I think it depends on the employee, and maybe depends on where
they are at in their career. I’d probably review the frequency every six
months.
Scheduled is probably a good so that employees know they have time with
their manager, and can prepare.
Be absolutely clear about what it is for. I had one manager who clearly
started them because he wanted to start controlling and micromanaging
us, and I hated that.
The agenda that I prefer is a free form discussion of what ever the
employee wants to talk about, maybe with a few prompting questions-
How’s the work/life balance, how’s the stress level, anything bugging
you, where do you want to go in your career. I don’t want it to be
status updates (where are you at on this project, etc) because those
are for team meetings or I can approach my manager separately as needed
instead of waiting.
I can certainly fill in more details about my experience if you need it.
I hope that helps!
On Jul 7, 2016, at 17:22, Esther Schindler <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Once again I'd like your input. I like to think the subject is
interesting enough that you'll enjoy responding.
This obviously isn't networking-related, but it certainly is germane
to techies. Or, really, to anyone who works in a corporate environment.
I’m writing a white paper that aims to give advice to creative workers
(and to software developers in particular) about how to do one-on-ones
well, in a way that benefits everyone (manager, employee, company…
heck, the whole world). Fortunately, this isn’t a short piece, so I
have some room to spread out. And I'd like your input (privately or
publicly).
The key question: What should people know about manager-and-worker
one-on-one meetings?
What do you wish your manager or employees had understood? What did
you appreciate when they did?
Among the topics I’m going to cover: why one-on-ones are important;
what dire things happen when you don't do them, or don't honor that
process; how the one-on-one is different based on your roles
(manager/peon, client/consultant, mentor/mentee); logistics and
timing; what you should expect to talk about... and NOT to talk about;
real life examples (and lessons to take away from them); judging success.
I’d love to hear from you about your advice and experience with
one-on-ones – both the good ones and (even more valuably) when things
did not work ideally. Tell me your stories. Anecdotes are awesome. If
they happen to fit in any of the categories above, that’s groovy; if
not, that’s cool too.
You don’t need to be an “authority” on HR or doing one-on-ones. I want
real-world experiences!
It's completely okay to be anonymous; the point here is to share
advice. Though if you would like to be quoted, that's do-able.
(Context does help; if you've managed developers for 12 years readers
will get a different perception than for someone on her first job.)
--Esther
twitter.com/estherschindler <http://twitter.com/estherschindler>
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