Supermanagers TLDR – 1:1 Meetings

Nvidia's CEO's non-traditional approach vs. Andy Grove's advocacy for frequent 1:1s.

Author

Manuela Barcenas
July 25, 2024

1:1s… Are they worth the hype?

I recently came across this article stating that the CEO of Nvidia does not run 1:1 meetings.

This take is a bit controversial, especially in the tech world – where, for years, we’ve followed the lead of CEOs like Andy Grove (author of High Output Management), who stated that:

“Ninety minutes of your time can enhance the quality of your subordinate’s work for two weeks, or for some eighty-plus hours, and can also upgrade your understanding of what they’re doing.”

In Grove’s words, successful leaders must schedule 1:1s once a week with direct reports who might be inexperienced in a specific situation, and every few weeks with “experienced veterans.”

At Fellow, every manager is expected to schedule weekly or biweekly 1:1s with their direct reports, adhering to the company’s meeting policy.

What’s your take on this? Join the debate here.

Matt Verlaque is the COO at SaaS Academy and a former firefighter. 🚒 

His take on 1:1 meetings has evolved over the years. 

Initially, he preferred weekly 30-minute 1:1s but found them to be insufficiently deep and often too transactional.

He discovered that this format did not allow for the kind of meaningful, high-yield conversations that could impact team performance and culture.

As a result, Matt switched to bi-weekly 1:1s lasting one hour each. This new and extended duration allowed for more thorough discussions on important topics beyond surface-level transactions.

Matt’s 1:1 meeting template includes:

  • Wins

  • Goals review

  • Discussion list driven by the direct report

  • Feedback segment where both parties give and receive feedback

To learn more about Matt’s approach, listen to the conversation here.

Fellow hack of the week 

This week’s hack comes from: Aydin Mirzaee, CEO of Fellow

It's hard to keep track of all the details from every 1:1 meeting. Personal details like work milestones or decisions from past meetings can fall through the cracks. As leaders, it's our responsibility to ensure that doesn't happen.

That's why my hack this week is  “Ask Fellow Copilot.”

As a chat-based assistant, Ask Fellow Copilot helps you answer questions about your meetings or a meeting you couldn’t attend.

When preparing for 1:1 meetings, I ask questions like:

- “What should I follow up on?”

- “What should be prioritized based on the discussion?”

No more forgetting important people, dates, or information!

“Ask Fellow Copilot” is a functionality of Fellow’s AI Meeting Copilot, the most accurate and integrated AI meeting assistant. 

If you haven’t tried Fellow for your 1:1s, it’s free to get started here.

And that’s it for this new issue of the Supermanagers TLDR Newsletter. We hope that the content we curated inspires you to continue growing as a leader.

If you're interested in connecting with like-minded CEOs, COOs, and Executives, send an email to [email protected] to join our exclusive Supermanagers Slack group.

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Thanks for being part of our community,

Manuela and the Fellow team