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> When you’re communicating with your team, lead with context and reassurance. Never message someone on your team, “let’s talk when you get a minute”. That’s vo
by newsbinator 5y ago
> When you’re communicating with your team, lead with context and reassurance. Never message someone on your team, “let’s talk when you get a minute”. That’s void of information and scary as heck!
This should be engraved on a plaque in every office building.
- quitit 5y agoAlso your time is too important to be wasted by people who don’t come to meetings prepared. A meeting without agendas or context are often wasted and longer than needed. I constantly remind anyone that I plan meetings with to let me know an agenda so I can bring solutions or useful information. Sometimes preparation is nothing more than having time to think about a topic in advance. The problem often stems from [easily distracted|poorly motivated|time poor] people using meetings as a way to force their attention to a topic. I have a few clients who are so bad with this now that I simply decline their meetings and force them to collect their thoughts into email in their own time.
- madamelic 5y agoI always respond with "Yep, have a minute right now" regardless of what's happening. I'm not going to do more work if I am going to get walked out so work stops _right now_ to resolve the vaguery, so in the end there is a net loss in productivity when the message could've been, "Need to chat about <x>, no rush", then we can minimize context loss for 2+ people. Basically the same length but clarified.
- ALittleLight 5y agoI just say "sure, what about?" If I'm curious.
- musicale 5y agoWhen they stonewall, you know it's time to look for another job.
- koboll 5y agoI'd like to be able to follow this advice always, but what about when, say, you're scheduling a call with your manager to let them know you're leaving the team? Do I lead with context by titling the meeting "Discuss my Departure"?
- redisman 5y agoDon’t lead with “ I have some bad news”. My manager thought I was dying or something so in the end I guess they were relieved. Just call them without setting anything up or if you’re in the office pull them into a immediate quick chat.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- dharmab 5y agoWhen I announced I was leaving to my team, I titled the meeting "Future of (project name)"
- Wowfunhappy 5y agoIMO, that sounds super spooky!
- sharken 5y agoAnother way of doing it is on the Daily Standup, when the topic moves on to Anything else?
- kevinmchugh 5y agoMost managers I've had appreciate being told individually. If there's any chance at all you'd take a counter offer, you should let management know privately. Theyre less likely to counter if you're news is known publicly. (Imo never take a counter but always listen to one. That's valuable market information)
- 5y ago
- grantjpowell 5y agoAs silly as it sounds, I use the technique of using of using _really_ informal language to avoid spookiness "Wanna see somthing cool?" "Lets shoot the shit after this" "Yo, you wanna hang for a minute at 4"
- redisman 5y agoWhy can’t you just say what the topic is ahead of time? It’s still not any better, just more bro-y
- dennyabraham 5y agoUnfortunately, for people that don't know you, this can be spooky to the other person while reassuring yourself. If you can be specific and provide context, you can prepare the person to engage you much faster and more effectively.
- dylan604 5y ago"You'll never guess what happened. Hit me up to find out more" if it works for headlines, why not messages to your co-workers?
- bostik 5y agoGreat. Clickbait meeting announcements, just the thing we need to reach the next level in this game of Corporate Dystopia.
- randomswede 5y agoFour secrets to managing reduced workload, as discovered by a Mom.
- guytv 5y ago"Three things you don't know about your future. yet. see me at 4 for more details"
- labcomputer 5y agoAmen. I automatically assume that an all-hands meeting (one that isn't part of a quarterly schedule, announced months in advance) without context is about layoffs and start looking at my resume.
- roland35 5y agoAt one of my jobs we had SO MANY of these all-hands meetings quickly scheduled 10 minutes ahead of the start time... It gets too stressful after a while!
- Kosirich 5y agoAmen. My manager scheduling an afternoon meeting with title "Very important information to share" without no info and sending it early in the morning, means I will barely work and will spend the day wondering what it is. 50% is due to my anxiety, 50% due to curiosity.
- munchbunny 5y agoThere’s a pretty simple fix for this too: “do you have a moment to talk about ____”? And if it’s benign, you can just say “I want to ask about ____”. These days when you have chat as an alternative to saying it out loud with other people around, you can afford to tell someone what negative thing is coming: “hey when you have a moment let’s talk about how you handled _____”. Then they know what’s coming. It might be unpleasant, but it’s not spooky. And if you have to drop the news without a prior hint, regularly scheduled meetings can do that without people having their guards up.
- Breza 5y agoI take it a step further. I try to write out the content of a meeting in an email so we're all on the same page and can skip the information sharing part. My meetings with my team tend to be very short.
- sharken 5y agoExcept when layoffs are imminent, then you see the messages mentioned in the article. Another 'spooky' indicator is if your manager texts you with a similar urgent message. But i wholeheartedly agree that spookiness should be confined to layoffs.