Principles of Engineering Management
"Facilitate wellbeing"<p>This seems like a reasonable goal, but it is not actionable advice. "Prefer one on one meetings" is actionable, and it tends to enable you, as a manager, to facilitate wellbeing.<p>Forgive me for quoting my book, but this example is worth thinking about:<p>-------<p>Great news! You just raised a round of investment! You are flush with cash! Now you can hit those ambitious goals that you excitedly promised to your investors. In six months, you can go back and tell them that you totally crushed the numbers — not only did you make your milestones, you blew past them. The investors will be so pleased! Now we just need to tell your head of marketing to ramp up the customer acquisition! Luckily she has a genius for this kind of thing. Oh, wait, here she is now, walking over to you, about to say …
… oh damn. She just quit? That was unexpected.<p>One-on-one meetings are useful for many things, one of which is that you aren’t likely to be ambushed by a surprise resignation. There are many personal issues that might cause someone to quit, and these will never, ever be mentioned in a group meeting. Burnout? A divorce? A spouse with a job in a different city? A child failing in school? A parent who is dying? Interest in other kinds of work? No one shouts that stuff in a group meeting, but they might tell you when you are one-on-one.