Being a manager is not easy. However, having good tools can help. #HowTos is a compilation of practical guides and runbooks that are designed to help managers in dealing with common challenges. The content is down-to-earth, pragmatic and based on many years of leadership experience. Something that I wish I had when I began my managerial journey.
12 July 2024 by Damian Sosnowski
1:1 meetings are among the most popular managerial processes and people hold strong opinions on how to run those. No wonder that after I published my article on How To Run Effective 1:1 Meetings, many people reached out to discuss it. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for anything and 1:1s are no exception. So I've decided to summarise the most frequent and interesting questions in this short follow-up article.
8 June 2024 by Damian Sosnowski
Skip-level meetings are one of the most powerful tools for breaking leadership isolation. If done well, they allow you to gather priceless information about your teams' daily work and create relationships with people on the frontlines. But if done wrong, can backfire badly. Your actions can be easily perceived as a witch hunt and shatter the delicate trust between you, your managers and their reports. It's a delicate situation that needs to be played carefully. Let's explore how!
27 April 2024 by Damian Sosnowski
Face-to-face meetings are one of the most important management tools. Yet they are rarely done well. Nearly half of employees rate their 1:1 experience as sub-optimal, and many managers struggle with low team member engagement and low value from these meetings. Yet, when done well, 1:1s can make a team's work more efficient, build trust and improve employee well-being and engagement. Based on my years of experience as an engineering manager, I've written this opinionated guide to preparing and running 1:1s as a manager. If you feel your 1:1s are not where they should be, give it a try!