One-on-Ones – Are you doing them right?

📘 Highlighting a Must-Read for Product Leaders: 

“Empowered” by Marty Cagan

If you’ve been in Product Management for a while, you’ve likely come across Empowered by Marty Cagan.

Today, I want to highlight Chapter 10: “The One-on-One” — a chapter dedicated to one of the most underrated yet powerful tools in leadership.

This chapter is designed specifically for those product leaders whose job it is to hire and manage product managers. He emphasizes that the primary purpose of 1 on 1’s is to help the product manager develop and improve. Yes, many leaders use this time for updates and status, but the real goal here is coaching. It is the job of the coach to help the person reach competence and then reach their potential.  An important aspect of this relationship is that the product manager feels like her manager has her back and truly wants them to succeed.  

A successful product leader should be measured by the number of product managers he gets promoted. If the product leader cannot trust his product team to do their jobs, the first question that should be asked is, ‘Did I coach the person properly on what they needed to know to do the job?’ Often, I have found that one of the toughest things for a high performing employee to do who is new to becoming a manager is delegation of tasks because they never feel that anyone under them is good enough to do the job as well as they do it.  Often, the best manager isn’t the highest performer, but the one that the subordinate trusts.  Who does the most talking in your 1 on 1’s? Is it the manager or the employee? The manager is there to help the PM succeed and yes, that takes extra time away from their schedule. But Marty stresses that coaching is the primary job of the manager.   If the product manager does not reach competence, then the product leader has failed. They must understand that both parties must be able to speak openly and trust each other.  It is very important that these meetings take priority over all other duties and should be WEEKLY.

Product leaders should never do the work of their team.  They should coach them on how to do it and let them fail or succeed.  

Additionally, the product leader should get feedback from their product managers every week so they can improve their job.  You can have 25 years of product experience and still learn new things.  

Many managers know these things but often fail for the following reasons.  

1.  The manager just doesn’t care.  This is the biggest reason.  They don’t like developing people or don’t value it as a primary responsibility.  

2. The manager reverts to micromanaging or does the work for them.  They tell them everything to do and the people never develop.  

3. The manager spends time talking and not coaching.  Managers learn by listening, not talking.  

4.  The manager is afraid to provide hard, constructive feedback.  This results in surprise at the performance review.  Nothing should be a surprise.  Performance reviews are NEVER the key tool for developing people. It is the one-on-one.  

5. Manager is insecure or incompetent.  You must be secure enough in your own value to shine a light on others doing well and don’t feel threatened by their success.  If you don’t feel confident enough to coach your team, then you must find someone who can do it for you.    

6. Managers don’t cut their losses.  If you have worked tirelessly for several months to actually train a person through the means listed above and the person doesn’t have the CORE foundation to succeed in the role, then as a last resort, you need to cut the person from the team.  But stress that this is a last resort, not the first resort for failure to achieve success when the manager has not done the work to train the employee properly.  As part of that role, you should help that person find a more suitable role that they can succeed at.  

What are your thoughts on one-on-one’s?  What do you find valuable?  If you have not read the book, I urge you to do so.

Mike Leaver