One on ones

To me, 1–1s are a space where I can help others overcome challenges to achieving a milestone, be it an engineering task or a strategic goal, by providing guidance, a healthy level of challenges, or dipping into my own experience to push them forward. By feeling the pulse of the team or organization, I also help my organization deliver better on the goals and vision set by the company.

You can do this in slightly different ways depending on the type of organization or leadership style. Maybe you are (set into a role of) an enabling leader, or pacesetting leader, or you just felt that this was the right spot for you to help others and the organization, hence feeling more fulfilled and happier.

1–1s are one of the four key tools where you can make the most difference to your goals, as Will Larson points out in his book “An Elegant Puzzle — Systems of Engineering management”. The other three being delegation, metrics and process.

Hence, doing 1–1s properly is a step forward to your achievement. Maybe you are just starting on your journey as an Engineering Manager or you share some responsibilities of this role. Maybe you had long lasting ineffective meetings in the past. Shake that feeling. Don’t even think about discarding them.

As you move to more senior positions, there would be more items than you can handle and you would need to learn good prioritization in order to deliver the most, hence time management becomes important. So one aspect that can create more room in your agenda and with that, move you closer to your goal(s), is spotting those items that can make a big impact with small effort. If you do these in the 1–1s you’ll be able to thrust the team or organization forward magnitudes. Dr. James Stanier points out this kind of leverage as his key projection of 1–1s in his book “Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager”.

I will follow up with the different one on one ceremonies, so stay tuned.

Resources

0. Coaching

General One on ones (for all seniority levels of managers):

1. Cadence (1–1s)
2. Agenda (1–1s)
3. First 1–1s
4. Prior to 1–1s (in the oven ..)
5. During One-on-ones
6. After 1–1s (in the oven ..)
7. Location (1–1s) (in the oven ..)

One-on-Ones for (Engineering) Manager of Managers:

8. Cadence (MoMs’ 1–1s) (in the oven ..)
9. With whom? (MoMs’ 1–1s) (in the oven ..)
10. Agenda (MoMs’ 1–1s) (in the oven ..)
11. During a 1–1 (MoMs’ 1–1s) (in the oven ..)
12. During Interviewing (MoMs’ 1–1s) (in the oven ..)
13. 1–1s with Senior Peers from other functions (MoMs’ 1–1s) (in the oven ..)