How should I prepare for my one-on-one session?

1. If it's your first call, be ready to introduce yourself

We recommend that you share the following information

What is your current role?
How long have you been in that position?
What were you doing before?
Who do you report to?
How big is your team? Company?
How many direct reports do you have?
Are they IC? Managers?
Where do you see yourself in 3 years? 5 years?

2. Define your challenge

When you booked the session, you should have linked the session to an existing challenge or perhaps created a new one. You can go to your workspace to edit your challenge as it evolves before the call. If you're having trouble thinking of a challenge, consider asking your manager or your direct reports during your next one on one.

Maybe you think your challenge isn't concrete enough, and that's perfectly alright! Just put in as much context as you can and be transparent with your mentor that you're still defining the problem. Remember, a problem well defined is a problem half solved, so working with your mentor to scope the challenge is a valuable part of the process.
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3. Prepare an agenda and define a goal (1-3 days before the session)

30 minutes isn't a lot of time, so you have to be deliberate about how you use it. We recommend that you define a goal for what you want to get out of this meeting, and an agenda to help you get there. For example:

Goal: Define 3 action items to improve communication in my remote team

Agenda:
5 min: Intros
10 min: Mentor's experience with managing a remote team
10 min: Challenge deep dive
5 min: Define action items to follow up on in the next session

Summary

If you do these three things, you can expect to grow your relationship with your mentor and emerge from sessions with mind-blowing insights about your day-to-day challenges.

Updated on: 02/11/2021