Comment by marcinzm | Hacker News Reader

Comment by marcinzm | Hacker News Reader

Looks like he was Director and then CTO at these companies. In other words his reports were very senior and had a wide array of organizational information sources. Similar to the Nvidia CEO who doesn't do 1-on-1s with his very senior VP level reports.

Which says very little for the 99% of managers who aren't at that level.

He also seems to focus a lot on 1-on-1s being for career advice or feedback to the report versus being a way to build rapport/trust, share information, get a pulse on the organization and get feedback yourself. Again, these things matter less when you're a manager of managers but matters more when you're managing ICs who view things from a non-manager lens.

It's also the only way of getting direct takes from ICs. Can it turn into a vent session, yes. But it also can surface small issues early on and allow you to prevent things from becoming problems.

This is super important for when you manage multiple people who have to collaborate together very regularly, less so when your reports are managing teams with clear missions and defined interfaces with more internal projects.

YES!

"Meetings are a waste of time" + doesn't raise problems independently = "I'm leaving because this place sucks and nothing gets better" with no appreciation of their role in making things better.

Mine are fortnightly or monthly. I decrease the frequency with reports I think will independently and promptly raise concerns in a productive fashion.

Catching problems early is not the only reason to meet -- we also use the time to talk about company priorities, career growth, what's been learned, answering questions about why the company is doing X instead of Y, etc.

In my org, I customize meetings based on the specific report, their function, and their needs. With some reports, I meet with weekly, others biweekly, some monthly, some as needed. We adjust as needed based on turbulence, new projects, approaching deadlines, etc. It’s a very effective model.

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