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As a manager, this is the framework I use

1. Staff updates their personal journal by Friday before our 1:1

2. Staff takes a one time skill assessment of all the tech dimensions we use on a likert skill so I know what they are strong and weak at (like might be weak in batch processing, containers, etc).

3. Staff periodically updates their career journey which has

-Start Date

-Elapsed Time

-What were your expectations in the elapsed time you were here?

-Review of skills matrix and what you want improved

-Current Role

-Desired Next Role

-Projects worked on in this year

-What skill sets did I learn in this years projects?

-Certifications

-Next year I want to accomplish

-In 5 years I want to accomplish

[ these are all the artifacts I use as a reference point ofr myself]

-- then during the 1:1 I ask

1. 'how are you?' --> And then I listen to see how their response is. Are they sighing a lot, are they stressed are they bored. I then follow up to make sure everything is okay emotionally or they have issues. I have noticed a lot of employees are not honest in what they say

2. I then assess how they are doing in terms of their

- project delivery

- tech skills

- soft skills

and get feedback accordingly.

Most engineers I have are doing well on projects and tech skills, but often need work on soft skills. I ask them to focus on soft skills by thinking of

- communication

- writing

- reading

For those who need help in communication I advise them to attend a Toastmasters class in person. Also I have been advocating for staff to read 'Supercommunicators' as a way to think about communication as a framework.

For soft skills, I believe the way of improving is being well rounded in the humanities, and not just going hard core tech.



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