Questions for our first 1:1 | Hacker News Reader

Questions for our first 1:1

larahogan.me

88 pointswallflower12 comments

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Funny in my 1:1's I always remind my team members my job is pretty easy, I only have four things to do:

1) Provide Air Cover

2) Provide Resources

3) Provide Direction

4) Get the F out of the way.

My first 1:1 is usually a reminder of this, basically "How can I help you be successful, what can I do to protect you, get you the resources you need and get the F out of your way?"

I'm always coaching my team "What is your passion?" because I believe if you work in your passion you don't work a day of your life. To me my goal should be to help my team find that passion, sometimes that is beyond the confines of my group. I play the long game, I've helped many people move beyond the group I was working in. Years later some have came back with gratitude and a lot of learning about themselves and what works, and more importantly what doesn't work for them in a partnership.

Life is short, it's not about the destination, it's about the journey and all the amazing people you meet along the way.

Stop managing people, start being a partner to the people you work with no matter where they sit in your organization.

What if the passion is beyond the confines of the job? Some of us work for the money, and despite that we do a great job.

It sounds like you're a great manager, but honestly, as an experienced developer, I'd rather my manager not try to align my passions with my work. That's my job.

So much this.

Yes, some people can work on their passion and their job is not a vehicle for personal sustainability --but for a good many people work is work. They are good, they are great at their jobs, but ultimately it's a job they do well --however they may have passions --things they can suffer over, elsewhere. And I really don't see an issue there.

I think it's a great misconception management sell where it's sold that passionate people are the only true workers worthwhile. It really shows how out of touch some people are with the outside world.

I love this. The baked goods question, in particular, is especially valuable if at first glance it seems humorous.

Some of the other questions require a level of self-reflection that many lack. Sometimes people say what they think their new manager will like to hear. If they are relatively young/inexperienced, they just might not know the answer or have ever thought about it.

There are few people (in western society at the very least) who can't tell you what their favorite baked good is.

Actually caring enough to remember (even if you had to write it down) someone's favorite baked good is a powerful signal, and the person gets their favorite baked good. Everyone wins.

Asking "what makes you grumpy?" would pair well with "what beings you joy?"

For every company I've worked at so far in my career, there hasn't been a manager like this article describes at all. Never had a one on one. I requested one with my manager, and he said we can sync up, but I get the feeling he is full of shit. He seems to do the weekly status report document.

As Andy Grove said, as a manager you only need to worry about two things: Motivation and Growth. Some of these questions are really good, they give you information that can help you in tricky situations down the road. However, by themselves are not going to create a foundation.

Two startups that I know of who are trying to solve this problem:(shameless plug, I work for Duuoo)

http://duuoo.io

http://clanbeat.com

Questions and answers in 1:1's is a bad sign. Open talking employee and listening + coaching manager are the positive signs.

I ask you, you say something, I write it down is not good karma.

Pretty sure these are specifically for your first 1:1 - getting to know specific things about the person that will be helpful in future coaching situations. I think your first few 1:1s with someone where you don't have a prior relationship are going to be awkwardly formal no matter what approach you take.

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