They should be at least 30 minutes, because that’s how long a decently meaningful conversation takes. And: they should not focus on status updates or project deliverables. That’s what all those other meetings are for.
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Today’s about a very specific kind of panic that we thought was maybe too specific to write about until we each kept coming up with example after example after example of it happening. I think of it as “third-party panic” — where you unexpectedly get swept into someone else’s freak out and wham-o, you’re suddenly co-piloting the panic rocket.
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We didn’t hop on the New Year, New You train last year and I certainly am not hopping on it now.
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Resumes and cover letters are really, really hard. They are two super-specific, totally unique genres of writing that we have to master in order to prove we are qualified at some completely different set of skills. It’s like having the first round of a trout-fishing contest be an essay test.
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The first: How do I figure out if my report’s lack of productivity is my fault or theirs?
The second: My team is working with a contractor who is spending about three times as long as we all predicted to do his work. The quality of the work is fine, and he’s not missing any deadlines, but he’s burning through hours like crazy. How do I ask him to work faster?
Let’s see if we can answer both of these at once.
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Those 10-minutes at the end of the interview where you try to learn as much as possible if this new opportunity is right for you.
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This is such an excellent question. We will, naturally, write over 700 words answering it, but in short: You can’t know.
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Exactly. Every time we work on a new issue, there are four messages drumming in my skull: You will get better at this. Leave that toxic shit hole. Find someplace good. Do what you mean to be doing. And all those have to work together.
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These are the strategies we use to put together productive, engaging online meetings. They certainly aren’t silver bullets. We have done every single one of these tips and still ended the meeting knowing it was a dud. That’s okay!
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These days, we both use a 30/60/90-day framework for onboarding new hires — a document that describes where we want a new hire to be by the end of each month, and what we think it will take to get them there.
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