ManagementOctober 21, 20266 min read
The one-on-one is your most important meeting. Treat it that way.
Most managers inherit a weekly one-on-one and quietly turn it into a status update. That is a waste of the only meeting that belongs to the team member rather than the project.
Let them own the agenda
Ask people to bring the topics. A shared running document works well: they add items during the week, you add yours underneath, and the next meeting starts from their list. When the agenda is empty, that is a signal worth a gentle question, not a reason to cancel.
Status belongs somewhere else
If you need progress updates, get them from the board or a short written note. Spending thirty minutes reading tickets aloud teaches people that this meeting is about the work, not about them.
Questions that open things up
- What is taking more energy than it should right now?
- Is there anything you are waiting on from me?
- What would you like to be doing more of in six months?
- What is one thing I could do differently that would help you?
Protect the slot
Moving a one-on-one once is fine. Moving it every week tells someone exactly where they rank. If you must reschedule, do it yourself, offer a new time immediately and keep the full length.
A good one-on-one feels slightly unstructured, because the structure lives in the person, not the template.
MeetingsOctober 14, 20265 min read
Five rules for meetings people do not dread
Meetings are not the problem. Meetings without a purpose, an owner or an end are the problem. These five rules fix most of them.
- Write the outcome in the invite. Not "Discuss roadmap" but "Agree which two projects start in Q1." If you cannot write the outcome, you probably need a document, not a meeting.
- Invite the decision makers and the doers. Everyone else can read the notes. Smaller rooms decide faster.
- Send the reading beforehand, then actually read it. Some teams spend the first ten minutes reading the document together in silence. It feels odd the first time and saves hours afterwards.
- End with owners and dates. Every action item gets one name. "The team will look into it" means nobody will.
- Finish early when you can. A meeting that ends five minutes early buys a surprising amount of goodwill.
Try one rule at a time for a month. The point is not a perfect process; it is that people walk out knowing what happened and what happens next.
FeedbackOctober 6, 20267 min read
Giving feedback that people can actually use
Vague praise and vague criticism have the same problem: the listener cannot do anything with them. Useful feedback is specific, timely and about something the person can change.
Situation, behaviour, impact
A simple structure keeps feedback concrete. Describe the situation ("in Tuesday's client call"), the behaviour you observed ("you summarised the open questions at the end"), and the impact ("the client sent answers the same afternoon"). It works for both positive and corrective feedback.
Sooner beats perfect
Feedback loses value every day you hold it. A short comment the same week is worth more than a polished paragraph in a review six months later, when nobody remembers the details.
Ask before you tell
"How do you think that went?" often gets you halfway there. People are usually aware of what did not work, and it is easier to build on their observation than to deliver yours cold.
Make it two-way
Ask for feedback on yourself regularly and respond to it visibly. Teams copy what their leads do, not what they say.
Remote workSeptember 29, 20266 min read
Working across time zones without burning out
Distributed teams get a lot right by default: focus time, written records, flexibility. What they often get wrong is the overlap, where everyone tries to be available all the time.
Agree on core hours
Pick two or three hours where everyone is reachable and hold live discussions there. Outside that window, nobody should feel obliged to answer immediately.
Write things down by default
Decisions made in a call should land in writing within the day, with the reasoning, so the colleague who was asleep can catch up without scheduling another call.
Hand off, do not hand over
At the end of your day, leave a short note: what you finished, what is in progress, and what you are blocked on. The next time zone can pick it up instead of waiting.
Meet in person when you can
Even one gathering a year changes how people read each other's messages for the rest of it. Budget for it the same way you budget for tools.
PlanningSeptember 22, 20265 min read
Weekly planning in fifteen minutes
Long planning sessions produce long plans that are out of date by Wednesday. A short, regular rhythm keeps the team pointed in the same direction with far less ceremony.
- Look back (3 minutes). What did we finish? What slipped, and why?
- Pick the few things that matter (7 minutes). Each person names at most three priorities for the week. More than three is a wish list.
- Surface dependencies (5 minutes). Who needs something from whom, and by when?
Keep the board visible all week and revisit it briefly mid-week. When priorities change, change the board out loud so everyone knows.
Plans are useful mostly because of the conversation they force. Keep the conversation; keep the plan light.
HiringSeptember 15, 20266 min read
A first-week onboarding checklist for new team members
The first week sets the tone for the first year. A little preparation means a new colleague spends it learning, not waiting for accounts and access.
Before day one
- Equipment ready and accounts created.
- A named buddy who is not their manager.
- A short welcome note with the first week's schedule.
During the first week
- Meet each teammate for a short informal chat.
- Ship one small, real piece of work by Friday.
- Read the team's key documents: goals, current projects, how decisions are made.
- End the week with a one-on-one: what was confusing, what was missing?
Then fix whatever they found confusing before the next person joins. Onboarding gets better only if each new hire leaves it slightly better than they found it.