If you are like most tech company employees, you have a manager and meet with them regularly. But too many 1-on-1s are wasted on low-impact conversations: Status checkins. Friendly small talk. Maybe even a little commiseration about the stressors upon you both.
But these conversations, should they dominate your time, are a waste.
As a company leader, these are the questions I would expect all of my managers to be able to answer, and this post is as much for them as it is for you.
What are your goals for me?
Your manager must always be able to tell you what their goals for you are. Ideally, you and your manager set these goals together on a recurring basis, for example every quarter.
Your achievement of these goals forms the basis of your performance at the company and on your team. Achievement of clear goals—and not whether you’re best friends with the CEO, tell the best dad jokes on the team, or are the best public speaker—should be what matter most.
Your seniority or tenure should make no difference in the existence of goals. “Oh, you’re so senior, just do what you think is best” as a goal would only be sensible if that person is also allowed to decide they’re ready for promotion.
How am I doing against my goals?
Your manager needs to be able to be able to give you a pulse check on how you’re doing in relation to goals and impact.
Contrary to what you might expect, it’s okay for a manager to not be prepared with an answer on the spot. It’s likely they don’t have the full state of your work and progress in mind.
However, a good manager should be able to conduct a conversation that gets to a quick assessment.
How close or far off am I from promotion?
Admirably but perversely, the most mission-driven and engaged employees often spend very little time thinking about promotion. “I’m doing good work, my manager knows it, I am sure it will happen.” What should be an easy quick conversation is left to trust and hope.
To make matters worse, inexperienced managers can themselves avoid bringing up the topic of promotion, especially with reports who are (in their eyes) performing well but not yet there. “Pat’s doing good work, but not at the senior level yet. I better not bring up promotions or else it’s going to create an issue I’ll have to deal with.”
The consequence is, the trusting employee can be completely misaligned with their manager about where they’re at, and not know it.
What are your goals?
In my experience, one of the most