Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager

What to Talk About and How to Do It

With the initial one-to-ones handled by the contracting exercise, you have a clear structure for those initial meetings. But what about the next meeting and every meeting after that, forever more?

I tend to use some simple repeating patterns for content. First off, it’s essential that you prepare. I have a recurring to-do list item that repeats on the day of each direct report’s one-to-one reminding me to spend some time before the meeting putting the agenda in order. If I haven’t already noted down some items to talk about, then I’ll have a think and pre-fill the agenda with some items. These can be anything from:

• Observations from the past week, either about their work or the team’s. These can be good or ...