Guidelines for great communication with direct reports

Good communication with your direct reports can take you a long way.

Intro

Good communication with your direct reports can take you a long way. Obviously, it takes time to develop a good sense of what is right or wrong, especially when you are a first-time manager.

When you become a first-time manager, you find yourself in a position that requires a whole different set of skills. Your individual contribution is not your main indicator of success, but the output of your team is what becomes your number one priority.

The intention of this post is to help and provide you with some guidelines when communicating with your direct reports.

Scheduling meetings should be explicit

Before, or right after, scheduling a meeting, it’s always good to let your direct report know what is the intention of the meeting. Optimally adding agenda in the description makes it more transparent and it leaves zero or very little room for any kind of misunderstanding.

The last thing you want to do is to keep your direct report in a position where they don’t know what is the intention be…