Latest / DevQuestions with Tim Corey / 275. How To Make the Most Out Of Your One-on-One Meetings

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275. How To Make the Most Out Of Your One-on-One Meetings · DevQuestions with Tim Corey

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Meeting with your boss or team lead in a one-on-one setting is a great opportunity if you're well prepared.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: But if you treat the meeting as just a time to cover the typical meeting content, you'll be missing out.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: So in this episode of Dev Questions, I want to talk about how to get the most out of your meetings with your bosses.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Dev Questions Podcast with Tim Corey.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Software development is more than just writing code.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about the rest of it.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Specifically, let's talk about how to get the most out of your meetings with your boss.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Let's look beyond the normal conversation you have with your boss or team lead in these types of meetings.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, let's focus on the ways to get the most out of these meetings.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: So put aside that you're going to do the normal stuff.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about what more you should do and what more to think about.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, I want you to reference your work towards your annual goals.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: So you're going to be saying, hey, this is what I'm doing towards that goal that we set together in our last annual review.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, you and your boss did set up some goals for you about what you're going to do.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you didn't, maybe set some up for yourself and tell your boss, listen, this is what I'm working towards.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: What does this do?
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, your boss might not realize what you're doing when you're not in their office.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is very common for everybody.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's like the world pauses when you're not around.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: So when you are working towards your goal and your boss doesn't see it, it's almost as if it's not happening.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: So what you want to do is make sure your boss sees that you are making progress.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And the way to do that is to talk to them about the progress you're making every month or so.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: So you make sure you continue to bring it up, bring it up in different ways.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's just a casual, hey, you know, I learned something new as I'm working towards becoming a better SQL developer.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Or, hey, you know, um I have cut down my bugs per month this month from 25 to 15.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm making progress towards that goal of zero bugs a month.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, whatever the goal may be, just talk about it briefly.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Say, this is what I'm doing.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: If you're learning a new thing, tell them something you learned and how you tested it out.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure that you show that you're making progress.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: That way, when it comes time for your annual review, your boss doesn't have to go, what was their goal, the thing they're working towards, and then have to figure out do they make any progress towards that?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, they'll know, oh, that was their goal.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, I remember them making progress towards it.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: It also helps them realize that you are working to improve yourself.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And by doing that, they will have a better, more positive outlook towards you.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so that's number one.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, kind of can go hand in hand with this depending on what your goals are, but talk about something you learned recently.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Point out something new that you've learned, maybe in the system you work on.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's, hey, I figured out how to be a little bit more efficient with our ticketing system.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I figured out this new technique for filtering which things apply and then ordering them by priority.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I make sure I work on the right priorities at the right time.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Or, hey, I just learned how to do this new thing in.NET 9 that really speeds up our code.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever the case may be, just talk about what you're learning and what you have learned recently.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: What that does is first of all, it's going to encourage you to be learning and growing, but it also, again, puts in your boss's mind this is a person who is looking to grow in the role.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: When it comes time for your boss to figure out which of the 10% of your employees are going to get a raise this year, because usually not everybody gets a raise, and it's usually based upon merit or based upon the boss saying, This is who I want to give a raise to.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: When that happens, your boss is going to remember you were making progress.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: It puts you near the front of their mind where they go, you know what?
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: I want to reward that because I want to see more of that.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: They're growing.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: I know they're growing and changing.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: What they were a year ago is not who they are now.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: They're better.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to reward that.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, it's not a guaranteed raise.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a guaranteed that your boss is going to love it, but it's going to increase those chances.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: And you want to make sure that you're increasing your chances wherever possible for better thought by your boss, better reviews on the annual review, better potential for a raise.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: These are all things you want to work towards.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: This also helps your boss think more positively about you so that when you mess up, and we all mess up, then it's more of a, I know you were trying, it happens, we'll get through it, rather than a, oh no, you're a screw up again.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: So it can make a big difference in how you're treated at work, how you integrate with the rest of the team, how you are perceived as an employee.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, bring a suggestion for how to reduce work.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Bosses want to get more work done because their bosses want them to get more work done.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: So if you can bring a suggestion for how to reduce work, that's huge.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here was one of the things that I always worked on my employees, wherever I had employees, um, and whenever I was an employee, I worked on doing.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that is don't come with problems without solutions.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: So if I were to say, you know what, the server room is on fire, okay, let's do something about that, right?
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, that's that's a uh a big example, but those kind of things where you come in and say, Yep, there's another problem for you to deal with, go ahead and deal with that, boss.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now what you're doing is just dumping more work on your boss's desk.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: But if instead you say, Hey, you know what?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: I noticed that we do these things in the ticketing system, and if we made these changes, it would allow us to be more efficient in how we do things.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: It'd probably save us, you know, three to five hours a week.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, bring a suggestion and even be prepared to implement that.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Don't bring more work to your boss, bring a way to reduce work.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Number four, ask for what you could do better.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is a terrifying one.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it's one that people try to avoid doing because they don't want to know they're not doing the best possible.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: But the reality is just because you don't ask doesn't mean people aren't thinking it.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: And what you want to do is you want to know what your boss wants you to do, and you want to do that because, first of all, you're being paid to do that.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: You're not being paid to just come in and do work, you're being paid to do what your boss wants you to do.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: So you want to figure out am I doing that?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: And how can I do that better?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: But also, the annual review process, which I'm not a huge fan of.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's better ways of doing that.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: I do it differently in my company, but most companies have an annual review process.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I can tell you from an employer's standpoint what typically happens.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: At that annual review, when you're getting ready for the annual review of an employee, you think back and think over what did they do good and what could they do better.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: And often, if you don't manage, if they don't manage well, and if they're not thinking this way long term or over the course of the entire year, what happens is they think about something that's been bugging them for months.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so all of a sudden it becomes a big deal.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it becomes a big knock on your performance.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, you could do better.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I wish you would have done this.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, I started doing that back in March, and this is December.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: If you have the conversation with your boss where they think through what you could do better, then what happens is you can eliminate that.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so it comes to annual review time, they go, well, they've fixed all the problems that, you know, and yeah, I can always find something, you know, they could do better, but now it's a positive you could do better.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, you know what?
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you're working great as an as a radio developer, but you could be a team lead.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like, those are the kind of things they're going to think about for you to do better, rather than you're doing this thing that is super annoying that's been bothering me for a whole year.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: So ask for what you could do better.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: The key there is don't just ask, fix it.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: So do something better because of it.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Number five is point out when someone else did well.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Brag about your coworkers.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: And you might think, well, why would I ever do this?
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because you want to work on a positive team.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: You want to work on a team that feels like they work together.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: And you want your boss to see you as part of that team.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so when you come in and say, hey, you know, I just want to point out that, you know what, I saw Sue do this.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: It was amazing.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: It really was helpful.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: I just want you to know that.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, first of all, you are uplifting another employee to the boss.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Your boss goes, wow, that person actually was noticing that.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's cool.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: I have another employee doing something great.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then that will probably get back to your coworker as well.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then your coworker finds out, man, when I'm not around, what Tim says behind my back is how well I'm doing.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of cool.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like, because that's not the normal, right?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Normal is when you know it's behind somebody else's back, you're complaining.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so you want to be the person that is uplifting others, and in one big way is to uplift others to your boss.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: So that also, and this is the selfish part of it, not that you should do it for selfish reasons, but it's going to put you in a position where you are doing a bit of leading.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: You are starting to say, hey, I've got leadership potential.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because what you're doing is not just looking out for yourself, but you're looking out for your team.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's the team, right?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: But it starts to become your team.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: And that can move you towards being a team leader, something that everyone else looks up to because they realize that you're looking out for their best interest.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's what you want in a leader.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: So these are all things that can be selfish if you want them to be.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: They can also be something that can be selfless.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: You're helping the company or you're helping your team.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: But really, what it comes down to is they're in the middle somewhere where, yeah, you're you're finding the win-win, where you're finding the way for you to win, but also for your boss to win, for your team to win, for the whole company to win based upon how you act.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: So by doing this, you're, yes, you're helping yourself, but you're also helping others.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's the best way to win in business.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Having a one-on-one conversation with your boss is an opportunity.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you take advantage of it, you can move your career forward faster and create a better working environment.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: That win-win.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks for listening.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: As always, I am Tim Corey.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining us for this episode of Dev Questions.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: When you're ready to learn to think and code like a professional developer, head over to IamtimCorey.com and enroll in a course.