4 Topics for Managers and Direct Reports
While every manager might have their own management style, there are certain “pillars” that make a great 1:1 meeting.
In her book, ‘The making of a manager’, Facebook VP Julie Zhuo highlights 4 important discussion topics for managers and direct reports.
- Discuss top priorities
- Calibrate what “great” looks like
- Share feedback
- Reflect on how things are going
You might not cover aspects of all four in every meeting but if your meetings regularly contain discussion points oriented around these pillars then you can rest assured that you are having impactful conversations.
Great managers are comfortable in supporting their reports with everything from their long-term professional goals through to having compassionate conversations about aspects of their personal life that might be impacting their performance.
To dive further into this, in his aptly named blog post ‘One on One’, Ben Horowitz, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist and former successful entrepreneur says:
“The key to a good 1:1 meeting is the understanding that it is the employee’s meeting rather than the manager’s meeting. This is the free-form meeting for all the pressing issues, brilliant ideas and chronic frustrations that do not fit neatly into status reports, email and other less personal and intimate mechanisms.”
Two important things to note from this are that it’s best practice to avoid using 1:1 meetings as a chance to catch up on the progress of ongoing projects. They are a time to discuss all of the topics that you would not otherwise have an allocated time for during regular day-to-day business.
And secondly, the important distinction that the meeting is owned by your report and not you, the manager. While naturally, you might have things to raise during the meeting, the report should set the agenda and managers should be mostly listening and coaching.