The Group Skip

[I'd posted this on Medium a few years ago. Copying it here because reasons] 

This post is mainly for managers of managers, and specific to upward feedback, but the principles should hopefully be interesting to everyone. I have been practicing this system for several years now, with an overwhelmingly positive response from both my direct reports, and the people they manage. As always though, your mileage may vary.

One of the best signs of a healthy team is its ability to collect feedback. This usually happens through retrospectives if the team is following agile principles, or through surveys and other approaches if not. Timely feedback helps the team learn, make appropriate course corrections, and continuously innovate.

What’s true for a team is true for its leaders and managers too. Timely feedback helps a manager know what’s working in their approach to management, and what can get better. Some managers proactively seek out feedback on themselves, others prefer their manager collect feedback from their reports and share it with them, and some go with a combination of both. As a manager of managers, I aim for having regular one on one (1/1) skip level meetings with the direct reports of my directs. This is not just to seek feedback on the managers, but for me to learn from individuals on what’s working in the team, what’s not, and how I can help. It’s also an opportunity for me to coach, and be coached.

Photo by Shane Rounce from Unsplash

 

That said, I also schedule what I think of as ‘group skip levels’, where I meet with all the direct reports of my directs, collectively as a group. These meetings are almost exclusively to get feedback on the manager, and I do my best to keep them focused. These are not to override the direct, 1/1 feedback, but complement it.

The basic idea is that often times one gets more feedback in a group setting than what one would get through a 1/1 meeting. There could be a few aspects that you, as a team member, may shy away from calling out in a 1/1, or in written upward feedback, as you may consider it too trivial, or something which impacts just yourself. However, if you hear someone else talk about it first, you’d feel confident about bringing it up too, knowing that it’s not just you who felt that way.

I ask questions in three broad categories in these meetings, and for the most part, stay silent and take notes. The first category is around strengths the manager exhibits, the second on opportunities, and the last on the team. Since the first two categories are fairly well known and obvious, I’ll expand on the last.

I ask three sub-questions in this category:

Do you feel like a team?
Answers to this have varied from “obviously we do, why do you ask?”, to “yes, but..”, and “a team with a boss”, to “of course not, we aren’t a team.” This question gives me insight into team building capabilities, which I believe is really important for a manager.

What are the achievements the team feels happiest about during this time horizon?
This helps give me a sense of how the team thinks about itself — are the achievements a collection of parts, or is there a cohesive, greater whole which the team feels good about? Does that align with the overall mission and purpose of the team?

What are the missed opportunities for the team this time horizon?
This provides insight into areas the team feels they are capable of handling as a group, but did not get around to addressing, which may be due to different priorities, or not enough alignment across the team and the manager. To me, a healthy team isn’t one which agrees all the time, but rather aligns and commits to decisions after debating them internally. I also probe to get a sense of how the manager encourages debate within their team, and how they create space for discussion.

I write down notes as people speak in these meetings, and after a few minor edits for language and typos, send it to each of my directs within a day of the meeting. We talk about it in our next 1/1, and use it to drive specific actions and course corrections as applicable. I sometimes arrange a follow up with the teams after a few weeks, and see if things have changed, especially in areas where the concerns were a bit more acute. While it’s good to seek out feedback, it becomes effective only if you have acted on it, or explained why you chose not to, thereby creating a virtuous cycle of continuous improvement.

All About Me (part two)

I am so honest, so thoroughly square;
Eternally noble, historically fair.
Who, when you win, will always give your back a pat.
Why can't everyone be like that?

Why does every one do what the others do?
Can't a person learn to use their head?
Why do they do everything their parents do?
Why don't they grow up, well, like me instead?

Why can't my friends take after me?
I am so pleasant, so easy to please.
Whenever you're with me, you're always at ease.

One day in a million I may shout a bit.
Now and then, I might show slight defects.
My truthfulness you might perhaps doubt a bit,
But by and large I am a marvelous man!

Why can't everyone take after me?
'Cause I am so friendly, good-natured and kind.
A better companion you never will find.

I am so decent, such a regular chap;
Ready to help you through any mishap;
Ready to buck you up whenever you're glum.
Why can't my friend be a chum?

Why is thinking something others never do?
And why is logic never even tried?
Complaining about everything is all they ever do.
Why don't they fix the mess that they made?

Why can't everyone behave more like me?

Why can't everyone be like me?

 

(thanks to Henry Higgins for the inspiration)

 

A Love Reaction

 What compels me to write? When do I put fingers to the keyboard and start typing with gusto, words flowing out like water bubbling through that broken pipe which you've been meaning to fix but never got around to and now it's too late and your kitchen is flooded and oh, hell. 

When I was young, it was mostly love. The feeling you feel when you are going to feel a feeling you've never felt before. I wrote pages after pages, not necessarily about love but because of it. Because of the high I used to feel after meeting her between scoops of ice cream, meeting her between rows of books, meeting her at bus-stops, walking through narrow streets sprinkled all over that tiny hometown of mine. 

If not love, it was reading. Which is a kind of love too, of course. Love with words, with dialog, with the process of creating worlds which take you away for a few hours. Worlds of horror, of mystery, of intrigue, of castles filled with incredibly funny Earls, secretaries, and butlers. My writing at the time echoed Stephen King, Robert Ludlum, Agatha Christie, Arthur C Clarke, and every Indian english reader's constant source of amusement, PG Wodehouse. It was terrible writing, now that I look back at it, but it flowed. 

It changed later though, after several years. Especially after my daughter was born, which was peak blogging era (LiveJournal, sigh). I wrote about emotions, about her growing up, about what we learned, my wife and I. Strangely enough, my son's birth a few years later was peak social media. It was Facebook, it was Instagram, it was Twitter, and Whatsapp. Which meant I have fewer videos and pics of my daughter compared to my son, but more words for Rachu than Karan. Not quite sure how I feel about that now.

So, what compels me to write? At this age, at this moment, I think it's the opposite of love. Not quite hate, but anger. Bitterness. Sadness. Frustration. With the world, with politics, with the irrationality that surfaces every day. With the unfairness of it all. And the realization that it's here to stay and there's little I can do about it. 

Other than write.

Of books, shows, and movies

I've been on a tear with books the past few weeks. Picked up some twenty-odd from the library; finished about half a dozen, DNF'd another four to five, and have the rest lined up on my to-read shelf. Jo Hamya's The Hypocrite and Ian Banks' The Crow Road were a couple of the stand-outs from this set. 

Doing something similar with shows as well, though they obviously take longer to complete. Carmy and the gang haven't moved much, but I have now fully caught up with them. Disclaimer was a disappointment, Blanchett notwithstanding. Restarted my Madmen odyssey too, as I have the AMC+ sub for a few more months.

The movie watching continues at the same rhythm, of course. Fridays, Saturdays, and other assorted holiday eves are spent going through my Letterboxd watchlist. Indian movies have been way better than most of the stuff Hollywood churned out last year, which is nice to see. Having said that, wound up 2024 watching Dune 2 for the third time, which was almost as enjoyable as the first. Movie of the year, for sure.