I co-wrote the below guide while working at the [Effective Altruism Foundation](http://ea-foundation.org/). I've slightly edited it before publishing here. This is a collection of ideas that help you manage your employees more effectively. A lot of this stuff is trivial, yet difficult to implement in everyday situations. Make sure to review this list regularly, and internalize its content. ## TL;DR _This section should provide guidance that is as concrete as possible. It’s based on readings on best practices as well as personal experience._ **Weekly 1-on-1’s**: Schedule a recurring weekly 1-on-1 meeting; block out 60 minutes. Use a gdoc for agenda and minutes. Think about points you want to discuss every week. Always take at least 10 minutes to prepare the meeting and add items to the agenda – no excuses. Ask what tasks they are struggling with and whether they’re feeling positive and motivated in general, or if there’s anything that’s bugging them. Weekly 1-on-1’s are crucial, don’t neglect them. **Weekly reports:** Have the employee send a weekly report with the main goals for the week before your weekly 1-on-1. Ask them to add deadlines and estimate how many hours the tasks will take. Ask them to include last week’s report with a short comment on every goal. This will help them getting better at planning, prioritizing, and self-evaluation. Discuss the weekly reports in your 1-on-1. **Enable them**: Take the time to explain and discuss all relevant assumptions and reasoning behind the project’s strategy. Break it down such that people understand why the tasks they’re doing are important, and how they contribute to our mission. This will enable them to make autonomous decisions and think outside the box. **Set goals together:** Focus on identifying goals for every employee, on timelines of months down to weeks and days. Set deadlines together, and give appropriate feedback if they fail to reach their goals. **Give feedback**: Take the time to give a lot of feedback. Give praise. Don’t hesitate to give negative feedback, and don’t delay giving it. Point out immediately if you think they can improve on something. Use the quarterly feedback sessions to take a step back and think about what they can improve on longer timelines. ## Long version ### Higher-level thoughts * Always start with an attitude of “How can I help you be more successful?” * Managing employees is one of your highest-leverage activities. * The manager sets the bar for performance. Show great focus and intensity. * Have everyone focus on their comparative advantages. * Care about your employees on a personal level ### Goals and expectations * Let your employee know exactly what is expected of them. * Inform/remind your employee about our employment rules. * Let your employee know how their job connects to the general mission. * Follow our guidance on goal-setting. * Make goals ambitious. If you’re achieving all your goals, you’re not setting them ambitiously enough. * Provide ongoing feedback and coaching to increase the likelihood that the employee will achieve their goals. Use weekly meetings to ask questions such as: * What progress have you made on the goals we agreed on? * Are you on track to complete your goals by the designated completion dates? * What’s the most important thing for you to work on in the next few weeks? ### Communication * Make sure to communicate regularly with them (e.g. weekly meetings, or reminders to check in with them regularly) and take the time to answer their questions several times a day. Find out about each employee’s strengths, how they perform best (performance modes), and what they value. * Give people context about what is happening (and why). Always explain the underlying reasons and decision algorithms instead of simply stating the correct solution, otherwise they can’t improve. * Make sure that everyone is kept up to date with everything they need to know. * Make others feel safe being open and honest with you. Always be nice to them, even when giving negative feedback, or they’ll shut down. * Have everyone tell you bad news immediately. We can take bad news, but not late. * Broadcast compliments. Simple, public recognition is one of the most effective and most underutilized management tools. * Communicate directly and honestly when making difficult decisions. Don't give your employee room for interpretation. * **Have a one-on-one meeting with your employee every week**. **Ideas for 1on1’s:** * The employee creates a list of things they want to discuss and sends it to you beforehand. The meeting is for the employee to clarify questions. * Have people tell you their priorities. Then ask them how they actually use their work time and see if time allocation matches the priorities. * What important things have happened since the last meeting? What are potential future problems? * Create notes for every meeting. * Weekly reports ### Delegation * **You’re still responsible for the outcome. Set yourself reminders to check for progress, and push for it if necessary.** * Delegate tasks when potential consequences of making mistakes are low, and you have low confidence in your own opinion. Delegate completely, and let people make mistakes and learn. * Gradually and consistently widen the employee’s circle of responsibilities until it breaks. Then stay at this level. * Commander’s Intent: Don’t tell them exactly what to do. Assign a task to someone and give a Reason Why this needs to be done. * Direct commands or requests very clearly to one specific individual. A task must have one single owner and deadlines. ### Evaluation and feedback * **Evaluate performance in person regularly, holding a mirror to your employee. ** * Understand what good quality looks like. * Beware of losing sight of how bad things might have become because you’ve gotten used to it. * Have short feedback cycles especially in the beginning. Avoid being too distant. * Blend positive and negative elements. Identify skills that the employee is currently lacking, and how to acquire them. Lay out a roadmap for the way to move forward. * Don’t surprise your employee with new information at the feedback meeting. This deteriorates trust. Give feedback continuously. * Focus: Ask for one single thing the person should do more of, and one thing they could do differently to have more impact. * Give recognition and praise for jobs done well, and reinforce positive behavior. * Celebrate wins! * When someone is performing below their abilities, put them on formal notice, and let them know they need to do more. ### Retention * **Retaining good employees is one of the most important things we can do.** * Really get to know your employees, identify ultimate causes for certain behavior as opposed to proximate causes. * Everyone has a fundamental need to feel important. Take interest in others, be present and curious, listen and express your interest. * The big factor that causes retention to drop is lack of promotion. Give them autonomy, mastery, purpose. * Anticipate your employee’s needs, deliver what they need before they know to ask for it.