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The underlying problem for you and mbrock is that managers are rarely rewarded for doing these things. Mbrock is essentially asking for a one on one that isn't

The underlying problem for you and mbrock is that managers are rarely rewarded for doing these things. Mbrock is essentially asking for a one on one that isn't filled with Status Updates and platitudes. One that fosters genuine conversation and values their input. You're talking about real growth and whether it's a specific title or new skills, that's also a huge motivator. Unfortunately, in most companies, managers are not rewarded for doing either of those things, nor punished for failing to do them. The only company I know that even measures it is Google, who uses something called the "Upward Feedback Survey" to gauge it and found correlation between scores on the survey and quality of managers (team output, turnover, etc). More on the survey and some of the research behind it here: https://getlighthouse.com/blog/google-management/ https://getlighthouse.com/blog/google-management/

mbrock 11y ago
At my first job, the only one-on-one I ever had with my manager was a yearly scheduled "performance review" (in Swedish, the word used is the same as that used in grade school), during which we assessed my competence. When a higher level manager wanted to know why the product development wasn't as good as it could be, an external consultant came in to observe for a couple of weeks. He actually did talk one-on-one with each employee. He asked me what I thought really needed to be done, in a genuine way. He produced some kind of report. We asked for several months to see the report, but it never surfaced. Then I left to join a small startup...
- jevanish 11y ago
  Sounds about right. So many undervalue tapping into the ideas and feedback from their teams and it's a massive missed opportunity. Unfortunately, I bet even at the small startup, as you grew these kinds of problems re-emerged unless the company had one on ones and good management habits. Toyota actually even brought this to their blue collar workers with their "Total Product System" which allowed anyone to stop the assembly line if they caught a problem and engaged them in feedback to find solutions. (More here: http://hbr.org/2004/05/learning-to-lead-at-toyota/ar/1 http://hbr.org/2004/05/learning-to-lead-at-toyota/ar/1)

mbrock 11y ago

At my first job, the only one-on-one I ever had with my manager was a yearly scheduled "performance review" (in Swedish, the word used is the same as that used in grade school), during which we assessed my competence. When a higher level manager wanted to know why the product development wasn't as good as it could be, an external consultant came in to observe for a couple of weeks. He actually did talk one-on-one with each employee. He asked me what I thought really needed to be done, in a genuine way. He produced some kind of report. We asked for several months to see the report, but it never surfaced. Then I left to join a small startup...

jevanish 11y ago
Sounds about right. So many undervalue tapping into the ideas and feedback from their teams and it's a massive missed opportunity. Unfortunately, I bet even at the small startup, as you grew these kinds of problems re-emerged unless the company had one on ones and good management habits. Toyota actually even brought this to their blue collar workers with their "Total Product System" which allowed anyone to stop the assembly line if they caught a problem and engaged them in feedback to find solutions. (More here: http://hbr.org/2004/05/learning-to-lead-at-toyota/ar/1 http://hbr.org/2004/05/learning-to-lead-at-toyota/ar/1)