New managers tend to make three mistakes with 1-on-1s: they skip them, turn them into status updates, or never explain what the meeting is for. Experienced leaders avoid all three. This post explains why a weekly cadence, set up with a clear purpose and kept weekly, builds the trust that makes everything else possible, including your ability to advocate for your team and your manager’s ability to advocate for you.
Before You Manage Anyone, Get to Know Your Team First
You were not hired to manage tasks — you were hired to manage the people who do them. Before you change a single process, sit down with everyone on your new team and ask two different kinds of questions: how they’d describe their day-to-day, and what they actually want out of their future. This post explains why that order matters, what the conversation should sound like, and the one mistake that turns it from trust-building into a quiet performance review.
Nobody Trains New Managers. Here’s What to Do About It.
You just got the promotion. Your peers are genuinely happy for you. You feel ready. Then it hits you: no one actually taught you how to do this job. That’s not a failure on anyone’s part — it’s a skills mismatch built into how most companies grow. This post is the training most new managers never get: four principles, and the business logic behind each one, so the thinking holds up even when your own situation doesn’t match the example.
She Stopped Digging. Her Team Started Reporting
Most managers get visibility one of two ways: ask a lot of questions until it starts to look like checking up on people, or don’t ask and find out where things stand too late to redirect. One leader stumbled into a third option. She didn’t change how she managed at all — her team started reporting the right information unprompted, because for the first time, they understood what “the right information” actually was. This isn’t a discipline story. It’s a translation story.
You’re Not Ready
A fishing guide once told a newer angler, flat out, “you’re not ready.” It felt harsh — until I saw what it actually protected him from. The same call happens at work every day, and most managers get it wrong.
The Conversation Most Managers Never Have with Employees
When a manager walks into their boss’s office and says “Johnny is a poor performer” — they think they’re reporting a problem. What they’re actually doing is signaling one. Because the first question in that room, spoken or not, is always: “What have you done about it?” This post covers what leadership is quietly evaluating when you bring them a struggling employee, how to have the honest conversation most managers are afraid of, and why that conversation is the kindest thing you can do — for Johnny and for yourself.
Silence Isn’t Safety
Most employees assume that if something were wrong, their manager would say something. That assumption quietly derails more careers than poor performance does. The same manager who tells you you’re doing great will say in a closed-door meeting: “Johnny is solid, but he’s not showing the initiative we need for a client this size.” That’s the real feedback. And Johnny never heard it. This post explains why managers hold back, what gets said when you’re not in the room, and the specific questions that open the door so they’ll tell you the truth.
Your Job Isn’t to Fix Them
What nobody told you about managing underperformers — and what most managers never figure out on their own.
If you manage people, at some point, you’ve had a Johnny. Johnny isn’t delivering. Johnny doesn’t seem to get it. You’ve hinted to Johnny. You’ve talked to Johnny. You may have said something in a performance review that felt honest to you but, in retrospect, was softened enough that its real meaning slid right past him. And now you’re frustrated — because nothing is changing.