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Share my 1:1 Doc with my Manager?

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Mid-Level Data Engineer at Taro Community4 months ago

I have a weekly 1:1 with my manager. I want to share the 1:1 doc I've been keeping, but I'm embarrassed that I feel like my onboarding (I'm in my 6th week on the job) has been slow and I haven't hit the 1 month target we set in our first meeting.

Should I share my 1:1 document with my manager given that I haven't hit this target? My guess is I should bite the bullet and do it, because the logic is he already knows.

The argument not to share would be "no need to remind him of my failures".

I know that 1:1s should be awkward, so I guess I should share this info.

Thanks!

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Discussion

(4 comments)
  • 1
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    Tech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
    4 months ago

    Having some shared version of a 1:1 doc with your manager is good.

    If there are incriminating or ultra-vulnerable thoughts, keep it private 😅 But you can create a distinct doc that you do share.

    A shared doc has two benefits:

    • Provides a written record for each of you to understand what you discussed and keep track of action items.
    • You can pre-fill the agenda for your next 1:1 so that the manager (1) can do adequate prep work and (2) won't skip/cancel the meeting.

    Here's what to put in your 1:1 doc: What’s a good example of a 1:1 document to help your manager keep track of your accomplishments?

    And this video: Signs Of A Healthy Manager 1 on 1 Meeting

  • 1
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    Tech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
    4 months ago

    Unless there's some really private stuff or mean thoughts about your manager, you should definitely share it. Do you and your manager not maintain a shared 1:1 doc already?

    If you are behind your 1 month goals, your goal is to now stop being behind. You will best be able to do that if you share with your manager and get feedback on how to be more efficient (or work together to realize the initial goal was too aggressive and pare it back). Whatever the path is, more transparency is better.

    You can only hide a lack of productivity for so long. Eventually it'll catch up to you.

  • 0
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    Mid-Level Data Engineer [OP]
    Taro Community
    4 months ago

    Thanks Rahul and Alex.

    I just had my 1:1. We discussed my current tickets in detail and didn't delve into overall performance.

    Should I actively try to go beyond discussing my tickets? Based on Rahul's Onboarding Course, the answer would be a big yes. In my case, I feel like my velocity isn't high enough. Before or after my manager discusses my tickets, should I ask him to give me feedback on my velocity and general performance? Because my own assessment of myself is that I can be doing better, I imagine his is the same or similar. If it's not, that's great and I can relax a bit. If it's the same, then I'm assuming the idea is to discuss strategies for improvement with the goal being for him to give me concrete feedback for suggestion.

    Do I have this right?

    Long story short, I think my action item for our next 1:1 should be to get him to give me feedback and suggestions for improvement at the very beginning of our meeting. This is scary for me, because I think he'll validate that I can be doing better.

    As a second action item, I think I should send my manager a message on Slack right now telling him of my intention. That commits me to it in the future and gets the ball rolling with regard to having him give me this feedback and prep for it.

    Are those both good ideas?

    • 0
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      Tech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
      4 months ago

      Yes, please make the next 1 on 1 sharp (+ more awkward) and focused on getting feedback (1.5 months is definitely enough to give an initial high-level signal). You can seed the agenda in the meeting notes prior to the meeting and let them know about that (just follow the classic Taro playbook for 1 on 1s).

      I would explicitly ask something along the lines "Do you have any feedback for me? - Should I be moving faster?". That 2nd part essentially gives your manager permission to give you that hard feedback if it's true.

      In the meantime, you can proactively retrospect on why you're behind where you want to be:

      • Certain tasks have too much scope?
      • Requirements were poorly defined?
      • Too many tasks overall? (many distractions)
      • You just need to buckle down and get into focus mode more?
      • You aren't getting enough support?