Get The Most From Your One-To-One

Whether you're the manager or the direct report.

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Hi this is John with this week’s Developing Skills - Skills for Developers looking to develop their careers. **

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Tip of The Week: Make The Most Of Your One-To-One

One-to-one meetings are a great opportunity for you as a manager to build a strong relationship with your direct report or for you as the direct report to build a strong relationship with your manager.

Here’s some tips on how to make the most of them whichever role you’re currently playing.

Effective One-To-Ones With Your Boss

• Build a personal relationship - we all like people who are interested in us, so be interested in them. Having a good relationship will make it easier for you to work well together.

• Ask about your manager’s challenges and what matters to them. Understanding what matters to them will help you help them, which helps you get their buy-in for your ideas, whether that’s a promotion, a technology you wish to use or something else.

• Volunteer for opportunities that allow you to grow your career in areas that you wish to develop. If you can’t see any, describe what you’re looking for and ask for their help.

• Come to each meeting with an agenda - make sure you cover the topics that matter to you.

• Record the actions you agree and follow up the meeting with a summary.

• Come prepared to receive feedback and expect it. A key role of a good manager is to help you grow.

Effective One-To-Ones With Your Direct Reports

• Don’t use the one-to-one as a status meeting, you have tools for that. Focus on the person and their agenda.

• Make sure they know they’re allowed and even expected to provide an agenda and run the meeting for their benefit.

• Don’t cancel or reschedule - remember it’s their meeting.

• If you have specific feedback to give them, or points to discuss, add them to the agenda in advance.

• Take and follow through on actions that you both agree to.

• If there’s time after they’ve covered their agenda, ask open ended questions.

• This is a great time to do any coaching, particularly if the observations and feedback you have to offer provide ‘coachable moments’.

Two Ways I Can Help You Level Up As A Software Engineer:

1. I write another newsletter, Coding Challenges that helps you become a better software engineer through coding challenges that build real applications.

2. I have some courses available:

   1. Become a Better Software Developer by Building Your Own Redis Server (Python Edition) which guides you through solving the Redis Coding Challenge in Python.

   2. Build Your Own Shell (Go Edition) which guides you through solving the Shell Coding Challenge in Go.