As we know, managing a team can be tough. You’re juggling your own work while juggling other people’s work, and their careers. There are a few traits that you need in order to be a great manager — empathy, great listening and comprehension skills, and the vulnerability to be transparent with your team.

But what if you’re already those things, and you want to be even better? You’re in the right place. Here are some of our favorite resources to go from being a good manager to a great manager (newsflash: you don’t have to be a manager to use these).

The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You by Julie Zhuo

Julie Zhuo uses her experience as a manager at Facebook to provide insights in her book. Her book offers practical advice about leading a team — from decision-making, setting goals, and building a team, Zhuo delivers her expertise about management with her personal stories.

No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work by Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy

Emotions are an innately human thing, and in No Hard Feelings, Fosslien and Duffy provide actionable strategies to manage our emotions effectively in the workplace. This book offers insights into how to cultivate a more empathetic work culture and environment by giving us advice on how to navigate tough work situations and how to express our emotions at work.

Work Appropriate: Managing Up with Alaina Fuld

Managing is less about someone telling you what to do, but about collaborating together to reach each others’ goals, wherever they are in their career journey. “Managing up” is about recognizing that managing is a two-way street.

People Managing People with Becca Banyard

At the end of the day, we’re all people here. On the People Managing People podcast, Banyard talks with various leaders about the future of work, leadership development, workplace culture and more.

That’s it for now. If you’re interested in reading up about the future of work, check out this blog post I wrote for Murmur, which has four book recs. 💫

Also — I’m working on something exciting with my team, and it’s called Supermanage 💥 It’s an AI slack integration that magically distills your public channels into a brief that you can use to prep for your 1:1s, so you don’t have to play catch up in between them. If this seems like a fun tool that can help you with your 1:1s, I highly recommend you try it! We’ve been working really hard on it~

cheers —

Janjira (づ ◕‿◕ )づ

Resources for Self Proclaimed “Great” Managers was originally published in Supermanage AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

If you missed the first edition, don’t sweat! You can read my interview with Ivan Orellana here. ✨

Zach Grosser is an Amsterdam-based founder and director of Zacht Studios, a presentation design consultancy focused on company storytelling and fundraising. He’s worked as a Communications Design Lead at Square, and as a Design Education Manager for Figma.

ZG: I got into a management role accidentally. I was freelancing for about 9 months and made a really classic freelance mistake: I took on too many clients at once.

Coincidentally, I was attending Dutch class in the evening, twice a week, and when we had an opportunity to get to know our classmates, I met Dona, my friend, and first hire.

Freelance turned into an agency, Zacht Studios, and I’ve continued to hire from there. We’re relatively small, with 8 people, so I am the people manager for the whole team still.

ZG: My favorite part about managing a team is that I really love getting to support my teammates. I care about them, want them to do their best work, and it’s important to me that get as many opportunities as possible to learn and grow.

ZG: For 1:1 meetings, I always want to focus on the person first: How are you doing? Too busy? Weekend plans? When was your last holiday and do you have your next one scheduled for sometime soon?

I want to make sure everyone is taking time off. I [want to] do as much as possible to help my team avoid burnout during work. However, I think we all know that taking breaks from work is what is really necessary.

ZG: If you’re a manager starting out, think about how you would try to empathize with your customers or client base. How would/do you like to be managed? Additionally, in every corporation and startup I’ve worked in, there is always one particular problem that gets highlighted by the People/HR org: Recognition.

Recognition is consistently the hardest thing, which is usually not done well, at every place I’ve worked. Ask each teammate individually how they like to be recognized. It varies so much, some like public acknowledgment, some want private appreciation, others want expanded responsibilities, and everything in-between.

ZG: If I could give my past self advice, I would say that even if you want to buck the trend and figure out things on your own, you should do 1:1s with everyone frequently! Some common conventions are there for a good reason.

If you enjoyed this interview, share it with your friends, your managers, or your favorite individual contributors. Let me know which parts impacted you the most and your thoughts about managing and 1:1s in the comments below! ❤

Also — I’m working on something exciting with my team, and it’s called Supermanage 💥 It’s an AI slack integration that magically distills your public channels into a brief that you can use to prep for your 1:1s, so you don’t have to play catch up in between them. If this seems like a fun tool that can help you with your 1:1s, I highly recommend you try it! We’ve been working really hard on it~

cheers —

Janjira (づ ◕‿◕ )づ

Managing Up: a One-on-One with Zach Grosser was originally published in Supermanage AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In this interview series, I’ll be interviewing managers across different industries to learn more about their management styles and share their own tips on how to be a manager if you’re planning on becoming one in the future!

Ivan S. Orellana is an Ecuador-born, Queens-raised, and Pittsburgh-based People and Culture Manager at North Street Creative, a creative services agency that engineers the thoughtful transformation and success of great organizations.

From project management to HR, Ivan is passionate about helping folks find their way while creating strong connections with everyone he meets. ✨

IO: I’ve been at North Street for four years. I started here as a supporting role on the project management side. I’ve always been into, loved, and have been very passionate about people ops, hiring, and onboarding. I used to do that a lot at my previous job, and I would always kind of fit in those kinds of roles.

I always ended up being that person even before I officially was like, “I wanna do this.” I always felt the best when I would be that person that can help someone even if it’s just just give them just a little a little boost in their day.

There were a lot of open conversations with our CEO about everyone’s strengths, and everyone saw that I could really shine by moving my role to people ops and culture. It’s been great having direct communication with the CEO and having a culture of being open and honest while being able to think about some sort of path for everyone based on what they’re passionate about.

IO: My favorite thing is when someone new joins the team, you get those new perspectives from them because they’re just seeing everything with fresh eyes. Working with other people and seeing what their strengths are and trying to foster that as much as possible while giving them the space to provide feedback to help them grow [in their role].

It all comes down to being able to work with people and getting all of the different perspectives that you can get. When you put [all of those perspectives] together, you become a very strong team.

JS: Constantly learning from people and having that human connection is something we all crave, so I can resonate with that.

IO: Even if you’re in a position where you’re leading a group of people, you’ll eventually realize that you don’t know everything, and you’re able to learn from those who are just starting their professional careers.

JS: It’s definitely a humbling experience. Regardless of where you are in the hierarchy, that experience really brings us down to earth.

IO: [Managing is] really about channeling your empathy and being vulnerable. Even saying “I don’t know,” can help the other person (direct reports, team members) feel comfortable enough to be vulnerable, make mistakes, and ask questions and feel like they’re not being judged.

IO: It’s always important to have some sort of agenda to make sure folks know ahead of time how it’s going to be structured. At [North Street Creative], our 1:1s are pretty informal, but there are always two questions that will prompt a lot of good discussions:

• What’s working?
• What’s not working?

Aside from those two questions, I make sure to include some action steps to move forward with the discussion that was had so it doesn’t feel like, “Hey, I hear you” and then nothing happens. I’m most likely going to tell you three things if you bring something to my attention:

1. “Great, it’s my responsibility to fix this for you, and I’m going to get on it and keep you posted whenever it’s done.”
2. “I’ll give you the tools so you can approach [an issue] yourself and learn how to do it, and I’ll keep tabs to ensure you feel empowered to take on the issue.”
3. “Hey, I hear you, but right now where we are, we’re going to have to live with this for a little bit, but let’s keep checking in about this. If something changes, we can move on and create the steps to get there.”

Even before these, always make sure that there’s a 1:1 human element to 1:1s, it doesn’t have to always be just business. You want to get to know the person by asking questions about their life.

I’m a naturally curious person, and I’m always asking folks questions. It helps to get in the know of what makes them tick and what their passions are by asking simple questions, like, “What do you do for fun?” or “Are there any projects you’re working on outside of work?”

Other than the team member doing better work, they’re just able to be generally more comfortable around you.

JS: I understand this sentiment, and I agree with you. When it comes to 1:1s, it’s so easy to make it all about business, and I think there’s a clear line between a status update and another human wanting to get to know another human. Unfortunately, I feel like a lot of people fall into the latter.

IO: I think that it’s important that we [follow up with each other]. We document things that are important and put them somewhere, especially if it needs some sort of follow-up.

We use Asana for task management, especially when there’s a lot of steps involved [in the follow-up]. We put things into Asana, and create and outline [goals]. This helps with the next 1:1 because we can check in on, like, “Hey, so how’s this going? How do we need to adjust? Is this still something we want to work on together?”

It comes down to making sure that there’s consistency.

JS: I love that. I think that regularly going into Asana and putting down all of those key action steps is really important. They can keep everyone involved accountable in a transparent way.

IO: Something that I want to bring up was what you mentioned about the whole human element versus the status updates in 1:1s. At the end of the day, we’re all just people doing our best working with other people here.

No matter what we’re doing, or where we’re at in life, we’re just people trying to get the most out of our days. I think it’s okay to lean more towards the human side of things and get to know your team even if it takes up most of the time in that 1:1.

Try to figure out, for example, what type of recognition they like. Everyone likes to feel recognized in a different way. At the end of the day, the more communication and the more open and honest channels you have, all of the other things kind of fall into place.

Hopefully, you’re in a team where if something happens to you, they have your back and you have their back. Making sure it always feels like a two-way street. You have to show vulnerability and show them that you’re there for them. That’s how you [become a role] model for that person who wants to be a manager.

In a way, [managing] is kind of like parenting. If you tell your kids what to do and you don’t do it yourself, it’s not going to work out. You have to believe it, and they’ll pick up on those things.

IO: It’s more important for [managers] to show that vulnerability, because oftentimes, younger folks that don’t have that much experience or those that have different backgrounds like POC, they usually grow up in environments that are always told to respect authority. Those that are going into the workforce don’t feel comfortable saying these things.

More and more though, there are changes that are happening, but it doesn’t have to come only from them. They shouldn’t have to be advocating for themselves, but we should be advocating for them too, we’re a team.

Sometimes saying, “Hey, I’m here for you anytime you want to talk” is sometimes not enough. You need to create recurring meetings, create venues that they’ll look forward to, and give them the space to hash things out. Everyone is different and not everyone will feel comfortable coming up to you.

If you enjoyed this interview, share it with your friends, your managers, or your favorite individual contributors. Let me know which parts impacted you the most and your thoughts about managing and 1:1s in the comments below! ❤

cheers — 
Janjira (づ ◕‿◕ )づ

Managing Up with Ivan Orellana: an Interview Series was originally published in Supermanage AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

1:1 meetings with your team members are the most crucial (and underrated) tool for building relationships, setting goals, and providing feedback as a manager. However, all too often these meetings tend to feel like a waste of time for both parties involved — from having too many things on our plates to not being present in meetings, we all deserve better!!!

In this article, I’ll go over how to have consistently effective and engaging 1:1s with some key strategies you should keep in mind. ✨

Set the tone ✍️

Before each 1:1 (at least a day in advance), collaborate on a shared agenda with your direct report. This gives both parties an opportunity to share any questions or topics they want to discuss, and you’re able to see if there’s any overlap. Preparing the agenda in advance ensures that you’ll stay focused, and that you’ll be using your 1:1 efficiently.

One of my favorite collaborative agenda tools is Small Improvements. ⚡

Give actionable feedback 💭

Outside of giving feedback asynchronously, a 1:1 is the perfect time to give and receive feedback. Effective feedback needs should be specific, actionable, and delivered in a nonviolent, constructive way. Focus on giving feedback about the work, not the person, and provide examples of what you’d like to see more (or less) of.

Be open to receiving feedback, too ⚙️

As often as you’re giving feedback, you should be receptive to receiving feedback about how you show up for your peers. Be open to receiving feedback from them and give yourself the space to improve, too. ⭐

Check in, follow up, and reach out 🫂

Make it a habit to reach out with your direct report after your 1:1 to ensure they’re making progress on their goals and help address the challenges they face on the way. Show them that you’re invested in their success (and mean it) to build trust and accountability.

Make it a habit ✅

To consistently have effective and engaging 1:1s, you need to build the habit. Schedule them regularly, commit to them, and prioritize them by incorporating them into your workflow. Your team member’s input, growth, and development are valuable, and their time should be treated as such.

Effective and engaging 1:1s are kind of like rocket science — everyone knows what needs to happen in order to have a great one, but they just can’t seem to get them right.

The best 1:1s are the ones that are rooted in intentionalism, mindfulness, and innate humanness. As long as you stay openly curious about your peers, you’ve nailed it. 💪

If you resonated with this article and have any tips or stories about your best 1:1 ever, leave a comment below! I’d love to hear more about how we can improve the relationship between managers and individual contributors. ❤

Effective and Engaging 1:1s — A Five Step Guide was originally published in Supermanage AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.