I just scheduled my monthly one-on-ones with the student staff... so
this is timely.
Your question-- what should people know about
manager-and-worker-one-on-one meetings is very broad.
My answers aren't complete, just what I am thinking of as I write them.
And I think that is really valuable for me as a manager to review why we
do one-on-ones and how they are conducted.. so thank you for asking.
Hopefully others can contribute and learn from this conversation.
I think the most important answer, if you can only have one answer, is
what are the expectations (from both sides)?
Getting more into it, first, on the expectations and implications/scope:
- What is the purpose of the meeting?
- What should each/all of the participants get out of the meeting?
- Is this going to be used in any way for performance evaluation, or any
other HR type action?
I use regular one-on-ones with the staff for a couple of related purposes:
- As a general check-in on how things are going. Not project specifics,
not a status report, all the other stuff. Note: these aren't specific
questions, just topics. How is work going? How's their workload? Working
with the rest of the team? working with others outside the team?
training? vacation? good stuff? problems? Communication with me (their
manager) or others? Anything particularly interesting that they have
been working on or learned as they worked? Any ideas for things we
should change, improve, look at for the future? Career stuff? new
projects they are interested in?
-Anything I (their manager) can improve or help with?
- For some staff, follow-up on any particular performance or other
specific issues from past meetings
I think it is very valuable to have regular meetings scheduled. Even
though I talk to most of the staff every day, having a set time that is
"our" time to talk about these things. It helps to have a scheduled
time, so I am not ambushing them, and they are not ambushing me. They
can prepare mentally, think about what they want to bring up, etc.
--david
On 07/07/16 16:22, Esther Schindler 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
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--
David Parter
Director of Academic Computing Services
University of Wisconsin Computer Sciences Department
[email protected]
608-262-0608
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