Where this is not true is in highly specialized fields (thermodynamics, gene editing, etc). Then advanced study is critical and mostly because the knowledge is not readily available or taught online. Instead it’s in the minds of other experts and knowledge transfer is more person to person. But in most other fields today, knowledge is so readily available on the internet or by connecting to someone else over the internet that a “face to face” school is far less useful than it used to be.

This paradigm shift happened somewhere between our parents generation and ours, and is likely highly correlated to the rise of computers and the internet. This phenomenon has had two affects:

• knowledge is far more accessible and comprehensive than it used to be
• the best practices our parents know and worked well for them is highly outdated.

If you’re thinking you may need a masters because you’ll look better, it’s likely you’ll get a higher paying job, or folks will trust you more, it may be worth examining if this advice still applies in your situation. If you’re going to advanced study to become a world expert in that field and advance it, you’re likely on a good path.

Hope this is helpful and good luck!

Tips on how to end calls / meetings:

The ‘heads up strategy’

• If the convo is trailing, mention “I have to run in 5 minutes but to answer your specific question…” or “Hey I’ve got to prepare for my next call — I’m happy to meet again if needed.”
• The heads up gives you permission to then follow up and let them know you have to run without being rude
• Then follow up with “I’m SO sorry I have to run but I’m happy to schedule an additional call — can you whatsapp me with a couple additional times that work for you.”
• Then they will only follow up if very important, but 90% wont likely which could save you meaningful time

The ‘let me get back to you strategy’

• if they’re explaining a situation and going on about it, mention “I actually don’t have the full context or answer yet to get a solution, but I can make sure I do get more info and circle back by 5pm today — would that work?”
• This should decrease the motivation to explain the situation more since you’re not the right person to get this info

Here’s the process:

1. Evaluate if someone should be put on a PiP. Give them time to ramp and if they don’t perform after average ramp time it may be time for a PiP. Make sure to have a standard for how to define underperformance that you stick to — at Bright, if they don’t reach at least 80% of their goals this means they’re underperforming.
2. Identify his/her main areas that they could work on to achieve better results and quantify where they are today versus where they need to be
3. Fill this template (and work to provide very specific examples). Send to People Ops and CEO to get feedback before sharing with your employee since an extreme level of specificity is necessary that’s not always intuitive. A couple additional thoughts for those interested — in our experience, a majority of employees almost have no idea they’re not performing to expectations unless given a document beyond clear that spells it out with clear metrics. Note that this may feel a bit too honest but it’s actually mean to not give honest feedback to someone that could really help them perform. Also remember to establish which will be the consequence if this requirements are not full-filled.
4. Schedule a PIP session with your team member cc People Ops — People Ops will run this meeting (important because they know all the best practices)
5. Execute PIP session providing the specific feedback and make clear the deadline to achieve this plan and the consequences if they do not. Note that People Ops must run this session 1) to ensure best practices are being used and 2) to limit liability if the employee sues.
6. Get signature as a commitment for your team member that he/she understand the provided feedback and deadline.
7. Make sure to do a mid-review PIP, to check in with him/her. This is a great time to repeat expectations and consequences.
8. When reviewing PIP, People Ops will lead the meeting and leading next steps with the back up of performance review data from the manager.

Last word

Remember at Bright we are looking for a top performers culture. If we encourage a culture in which we accept low performance we won´t let future good talent join Bright.

It’s a fundamental rule of management that to lead others you need to practice frequent and open communication. The general wisdom is that managers can best accomplish this by holding regular one-on-one meetings with directs reports, usually weekly or close to it. It’s certainly a simple idea that sounds good, but yet so many managers and directs alike complain that these meetings are unhelpful — or worse, don’t actually happen at all.

Why is having a half-hour meeting once a week so hard?

First, we know we’re supposed to have them, but aren’t always sure what makes them productive. We may err on the side of being too unstructured and loose, or have so much on our own plates that it’s a one-way delegation session. We may find that they unearth some simmering conflict or complaints, and prefer to avoid the sensitive topics, or blow off the meeting entirely.

So, in the spirit of bettering these less-than-satisfying conversations that do take up quite a bit of real estate on our calendars, here are some ways to be sure that you and your direct reports are getting the most out of them:

1. Have a schedule and stick to it.

Although it’s a nice idea to think you can catch up with your direct reports on the fly, that’s harder to do in reality. By making a commitment to a schedule, whether once a week or once a month, both parties will better prepare and take the meeting more seriously. This is often the prime time for work to be discussed and advanced, so this time on the front end saves you dearly on the back end.

It’s natural that other work may come up that causes you to reschedule, but beware. I can’t count the number of complaints I’ve heard from employees that their managers never stick to their one-on-ones — sending the message that the employee is the most expendable action item on the schedule. Try to stick with the meetings and have cancellations be the exception.

2. Share the air.

Structure your meetings so it’s partly about what you need to discuss, and also about what your direct report needs to raise. It shouldn’t be just a one-way delegation of tasks.

Good one-on-ones are a conversation, and for that to be successful you need to be receptive, as this article in Harvard Business Review points out. I suggest starting with what the direct report needs to discuss, and then moving to your own list (which you’ve prepared ahead of time). Your employee will take your lead — so if you come with thoughts ready to go, they will as well.

It’s also important to leave time to discuss open issues. This is a great chance to cover those less urgent items, like a promotion path or difficulty with a colleague, that get in the way of productivity and retention. Better to know early, as it may be a problem that’s easily resolved, and can give you insight into ways to keep your team more productive.

3. Be present.

So many of us struggle with how to get it, and keep it, amidst so much distraction. Giving someone our full, uninterrupted presence is a gift that makes a big impact. It’s so rare, and I believe is a large part of what people mean when they say someone has “presence.”

The one-on-one meeting is a perfect time to practice being present and free from distraction. It’s not easy, but it is possible with intention. Come to the meeting focused and committed — don’t schedule between back-to-back meetings so you come late and have to cut out on the dot. (One trick: schedule meetings for 25 minutes rather than a half hour.) Keep off your phone and email, and close your door to limit interruptions.

When you’re truly engaging with a co-worker or direct report, you’re not only showing them respect; you’re also able to really take in what they’re saying and use everyone’s valuable time wisely.

4. Manage accountabilities.

As with any good meeting, it should wrap with accountabilities and a path for follow up. We all know it’s easy to listen and absorb ideas when you’re in the moment, and then to forget them when your attention is inevitably diverted.

Make sure to schedule the last few minutes of the meeting for each of you to go through and say what you’re committing to and by when. For best results this should also be followed up with an email from your direct to you, restating what’s supposed to happen. Depending on the project, it also may be useful to set up a milestone to update each other.

5. Manage to a structure.

Of course all meetings are different, and you need to work with a style that’s doable for you. That said, if you can find a structure and manage to it, you’ll find that the conversations will naturally fit into those expectations. It’s your job as the manager to honor the time and facilitate the discussion.

Following all of the above, a good structure for a 30-minute, weekly one-on-one meeting is here.

As a side benefit, you’ll find that when you follow this type of format, it becomes easier to provide constructive feedback and to address issues before they become big problems as there’s a space set aside for it. It also supports proactivity and strategic thinking because everyone knows that they are expected to come to the table ready to share.

6. Principles to Remember

Do:

• Begin each meeting by sharing a win. It creates positive energy.
• Notify your employee in advance if you plan to touch on professional development — those conversations require reflection and thought.
• Be curious. Listen to your colleague’s concerns and provide feedback and ideas on how she might solve problems.
• Make sure pre-reads use full sentences

Don’t:

• Cancel. Demonstrate to your employee that s/he takes priority by arriving on time.
• Be rigid. While it’s wise to have an agenda, it’s also important to be flexible.
• Forget to say “thank you.” It’s important to show your colleague that you value him/her

The challenge is that it takes so much time to have to repeat yourself to every employee at Bright. This is why I actually think documentation is actually so critical. By writing a blog (like this!) or creating documentation for your processes, you’re able to just send a well thought out and clear document vs. take time to repeat yourself over and over again. Plus something truly beautiful happens when you do this, you take the time to explain something very clearly since you only have to write it once. Versus if you actually are not documenting but just verbally repeating yourself, you won’t likely take the time to explain clearly and you’ll leave many confused. And once you do document, you can get feedback and continue to iterate and make it better indefinitely.

Good luck!

• the ability to delegate tasks they don’t need to do or say no to them in the spirit of focusing
• the ability to communicate concisely and in written and verbal form (they are exemplary slack and google doc users)
• the ability to make sounds business decisions
• the ability to share feedback in written and verbal form and have it be understood
• the ability to prioritize (and say no to things that aren’t a priority)
• the ability to set clear and measurable goals and hold other accountable
• the ability to provide clarity and generally understand how each individual contributes to the success of the whole team.
• the ability to create pre-reads and start meetings on time

These are not the things you had to worry about as an IC (individual contributor).

When people tell you they want to move into management, ask them why. Ask them to tell you what they like about management and what they think they might be good at. If it becomes clear that the person doesn’t understand what their actual duties will be as a manager, steer them away from it or tell them to go have a think (or in some cases read a book). Great managers are people who are intrinsically interested in the responsibilities above and get energy from exploring team dynamics, hiring and developing people.

It’s useful to help new managers understand the impact of keeping all of the work vs. delegating and developing the team. For instance, there will never be a chance for them to expand their role if they don’t groom their team to take over their responsibilities they usually get it. When you put it in terms of the impact to their own career progression it gets their attention. It’s also hard to let go of doing the things that made you successful to begin with so helping them understand and accept that the transition to manager will be both uncomfortable and scary at times. — This is completely normal, it is change after all.

To add a bit more color, I’ve also outlined below things folks generally wish they knew as a manager:

First — how you’re evaluated fundamentally changes

• It’s about the output of the individuals on your team.
• You only have full control over two things that affect team output: hiring the right people and keeping them motivated.
• You’re now a coach in addition to a player. You will be evaluated on the basis of your ability to hire, develop, and amplify talent.
• Sometimes, motivating your team will mean leaning on your manager to motivate in ways you can’t. This says nothing about your capabilities. Your ability to identify when you need help and to team-up with your manager to keep people motivated does.

Second, it’s always your fault. Always.

• If your team fails, it’s your fault.
• When things go wrong, always start by looking at yourself first and asking what context you failed to set, what resources you failed to provide, or what guidance you failed to articulate clearly.
• You exist to serve your team. Study servant leadership.

Third, objective-setting, the context and guidance you provide, and your framing is 10x more important

• Your team (and others) will repeat the words you use. Choose your words carefully.
• Similarly, your team (and others) will emulate your behavior. The way you behave implicitly indicates the behavior you consider acceptable for others on the team. Choose your behavior even more carefully than your words.
• By nature of your positional authority, your opinions and words carry more weight. Be aware of that weight and exercise restraint appropriately. Study this decision-making framework.
• When in doubt, over-plan for important discussions.
• Understand task maturity and provide more hands-on guidance appropriately.

I hope this is helpful and good luck!!

Jonah

Why do teams win or lose concisely? It’s all about these three things:

• Focus — do they only have one or two ambitious goals or more which is probably too many?
• Team talent vs challenge — are the challenges given to the team allow them to be “in the zone” or are they too challenged or too bored?
• Motivation — are the individuals on the team doing things that give them energy >50% of the time?

Good luck!

Jonah

The reason we create processes to ensure this happens is that many people don’t process unless forced to, and even if they do, they often only process part of what they need to. And even if they do process a lot, they don’t have many experiences to help them make the quality decisions that are needed. And so processes exist to solve this. They structure in time to think about important questions and to get perspectives needed to make good decisions. A relevant example — we create processes to approve a new hire because it forces people to understand what types of hires are good investments and why, whether the company can afford this hire, and what the right structure is to bring them on. It may feel like extra work, but if it does, the person assuming so may believe they’re already doing all the mental processing to understand all these questions and if you really lay out all the considerations and questions that need to be asked to make a good decision, they may realize why the processes is actually necessary.

Working on a distributed team is hard. But with the right best practices it can become incredibly effective. Below I outline some of Bright’s top best practices:

• all meeting should be over zoom, even if you’re in the same location. Counterintuitive I know but easiest to always follow a practice than just do it sometimes
• all meetings should have folks connect on their own computers and everyone should use headphones. If not, you get weird feedback and have the alternate muting and unmuting. Plus all folks can then be seen so its more personal
• video should be turned on ideally all the time — that way you can see your coworkers and get to know them!
• make sure you have a good internet connection — obvious perhaps but sometimes hard in certain locations

Good luck!

Jonah