This post is part of my weekly engineering manager competency review series. At the end of each week, I publish a review of the notes I thought over the past week. My goal is to create a log where I can capture these insights for future me to review.
The competencies below are from Square's Software Engineering Career Ladder.
Coaching & Development
The goal is to coach, provide timely, actionable feedback, and invest time in career development of team members; e.g., via 1:1s and aligning employee growth with opportunity.
Challenge
- How to improve 1:1s as an engineering manager?
Recently, I've been thinking a lot about how to improve my 1:1s as an engineering manager. I'm not sure where I should start so I reached out to a mentor to understand what are my unknown unknowns. First, I shared how my current 1:1 template. We then talked about how 1:1s should be for my direct report and not for me. We also talked about how we can tweak my current 1:1 format so I can be more intentional with making sure the 1:1 is not for status updates. I learned a lot in the mentorship call but here are some of my main takeaways:
- Be intentional about making the sure the 1:1s is not for status updates.
- Get curious. Ask questions about their personal goals in every 1:1.
Tiny Wins
- Understand who the 1:1 should be for
- Come up with action items for improving 1:1s
Next Step
- Implement 1:1 format changes
- Get feedback about the 1:1 format changes