This is precisely what I was going to respond with. I "manage" a technical group of 27, and we have people that run the entire stretch between one guy I check i

This is precisely what I was going to respond with. I "manage" a technical group of 27, and we have people that run the entire stretch between one guy I check in with every 4 hours, and another guy I talk with once a month to make sure we're on the same page and then just let him crack on until he needs something. I wouldn't say I'm particularly good at being a manager (or, for that matter, enjoy it particularly), but the only universal truism I've discovered is that you have to let each person decide on their own what makes a good manager and try your best to be that manager for them. Specifically, wit respect to one on ones, I just decided to punt, errr... delegate their scheduling to my reports at whatever periodicity they think is best and just make a point of asking at the end if it's still working on the current schedule for them.