# Detailed process as a manager

⚠️ If you are a new manager (it’s your 1st time managing a team and/or you are new at Meili), your first team review will be done with the assistance of @Morgane Neff.

# 1. How to prepare a review (weeks 1 & 2)

The first 2 weeks should be dedicated to preparation. This is the most important part of your review. Don’t hesitate to ask your manager and/or @Morgane Neff for support.

The full review for a team member will be a combination of:

your own assessment of this team member’s work
their self-assessment
the 360° feedback you will receive from other team members

# Your personal preparation

💡 You can start by listing the projects your team member has worked on, what you think went well, and what you’d like them to improve. This will be a good base for illustrating their place within the Framework.

Your review should cover most of the following topics (non-exhaustive - don’t hesitate to add or discard) and need to be illustrated by concrete examples:

For a team member in the Individual Contributor path
- What has your team member done well in the last few months?
- What technical skills would you like them to improve?
- What behavioral skills would you like them to improve? e.g., communication, taking initiatives... → please illustrate with examples
- What is their level of ownership of their work (e.g., can they lead their tasks or a project without any major support? are they getting the information they need on their own? do they ask for help directly when there is a blockage?...)
- What is their level of knowledge in the field they are working in? is their level of technical expertise high enough to give them more complex projects or do they still need to improve?
- Are you giving them a lot of detailed instructions on their work, or on the contrary very few?
- Are they participating in making the company grow as a whole, communicating with other teams?
- What evolutions do you have in mind for them? Do you see them managing a team or becoming a technical expert?
- Are they ready to evolve immediately? Do they need more time, and if so do you think they need training (internal, external)?
- In what way do they fit the company values?
For a team member in the Manager path

Levels 1 & 2 of this path may involve the management of a functional area only (v. team management).
- What has your team member done well in the last few months?
- What technical skills would you like them to improve?
- What behavioral skills would you like them to improve? e.g. communication, taking initiatives, delegating tasks...→ please illustrate with examples
- How complex is their scope (schedule, budget, and performance responsibility)?
- What is your level of supervision over their work → are they able to prioritize tasks and projects? how are they meeting the goals you are giving them?
- Does the scope of their team or functional area require an in-depth knowledge of organizational goals? If so, what is their level of knowledge.
- Is the team they are managing, if any, meeting schedules and deadlines?
- How are they communicating information to their team? (e.g. company vision, upcoming projects that will affect the team’s work, company processes...)
- Are they able to give constructive feedback to their team members?
- Have they created a space for their team members to give information as well, and is that information passed along to the right people?
- Do their team members feel comfortable speaking about diverse topics with them?
- Are they able to identify skill gaps within their team, and to offer solutions accordingly? (recruitment, training, mobility)
- What is their level of knowledge in the field they are working in? is their level of technical expertise high enough to give them more complex projects or do they still need to improve?
- Are you giving them a lot of detailed instructions on their work, or on the contrary very few?
- Are they participating in making the company grow as a whole, communicating with other teams?
- What evolutions do you have in mind for them?
- Are they ready to evolve immediately? Do they need more time, and if so do you think they need training (internal, external)?
- In what way do they fit the company values?

☝ Remember that soft skills are just as important as hard skills. Take a moment to reflect on the behavior you expect, and avoid only focusing on the technical aspects only.

# Collecting someone’s self-assessment

Your team members will send you their self-assessment at the end of week 2.

It should help you:

have more objective data to set objectives
focus on more relevant areas during the review → where do they want to go? is this possible? if so, how do you help them?
better understand what goals they are setting for themselves
answer questions they may have during the review (about themselves, the team, the company…)

The feedback will be synthesized and combined in one Notion document, along with your own assessment and 360° feedback.

# 2. 360° feedback collection (weeks 1 & 2)

360° feedback consists of asking colleagues their opinion about their collaboration with other team members through a series of questions. They are a great way to make reviews more objective.

Before reading the 360° feedback, start with your personal preparation to avoid being biased.

# Template

📎 360° feedback form template (opens new window)

⚙ Today we don’t have a specific tool for this feedback. Please use what you find to be the most relevant (to this day, most think Notion is the best, it allows people to return to what they were writing).

# Process

Your team members will pick 2 people from who they would like to get feedback. You both have to agree on these people (do you feel these people will be able to give concrete, actionable feedback?)
Once you agree, send the form to the people who have been chosen. If you realize that they have too many forms to fill out already, ask your team member to pick someone else.
Send the forms as soon as possible! People may refuse if you send this last minute.
When you receive their feedback, make sure it is constructive. Don’t hesitate to reach out to them to discuss a specific formulation. Ask them to clarify and/or reformulate if necessary. If you find some of the feedback isn’t constructive, it’s better to discard it.

📎 There isn’t an expected length for the feedback. Some people will write a lot, others will write less. It depends on the relevance of their collaboration and if the person is comfortable writing. It should be clear, constructive, and have examples.

When you have collected the feedback you need, combine it with your own, as well as the team member’s self-assessment. The feedback should be mixed in with the rest, there is no need to point out who said what; what’s important is for the person who is being reviewed to get the feedback, not to know who said it.
During the review meeting, keep in mind it is your responsibility to make this feedback constructive and to formulate it positively.

# 3. Illustrating the Career Framework (weeks 3 & 4)

Answering these questions and will facilitate illustrating the framework. Once you’ve prepared your main areas of focus, take a moment to look at the Career Framework.

👉 What is your team member’s current level & step?

👉 Look at the description of the level, then the step → based on your preparation work, how can you extend this to their work and your expectations as a manager?

👉 Are they reaching the expectations defined in the framework? Illustrate with examples.

👉 What are the expectations to reach the next level and/or step? These will be your team member’s objectives for the months to come.

# 4. Setting objectives (weeks 3 & 4)

Setting objectives is absolutely necessary for team members to grow - they should match your expectations as a manager as well as what you feel they are capable of. They should be challenging but attainable.

Tips for setting objectives

➡️ They should be based on your preparation work and the technical/behavioral improvements you’d like your team member to focus on,

➡️ They should illustrate the next level/step(s) in the Career Framework,

➡️ Set short-term objectives (what objectives for the next 3/6/12 months?)

➡️ Set long-term objectives (what objectives for a longer period than 12 months?) → may concern longer projects. In some cases, may not apply,

➡️ Quantitative objectives (measurable, concrete),

➡️ Qualitative objectives (less easy to measure but important nonetheless - give concrete examples).

📌 A team member is ready to move in the framework once they’ve completely reached the expectations of the targeted level and step. E.g. Jane Doe is currently in level 1, step 3. She reaches all the expectations of her level & step, but her level of scope ownership still needs to grow to reach step 4 → targeted objectives will be set with her manager to move up to the next step in 6 months. For now she stays in step 3.

# 5. Notion guide: the review template (week 3 & 4)

❓Guide: how to complete a review for a team member

Go to the Team Frameworks dashboard (opens new window)

Click on the open button next to the person’s name.

Screenshot

Their individual page will open. The section Team reviews, calibrations and other meetings is used to centralize meeting notes regarding their growth and evolution. They can concern regularly scheduled meetings like team reviews and auto assessments, and can also contain notes about their onboarding, follow ups on trainings, and any adjustments brought to their evolution within Meili.

Screenshot 2

In the Team reviews, calibrations and other meetings, select the + New section.

Screenshot 3

A blank page will open, with 2 templates to select from. Name the page (don’t forget the date), and select the Team Review form.

Screenshot 4

The template will appear and you can start answering the questions 👍 it’s better not to give access to this page to your team member until you’ve discussed it orally.

# 6. Calibration between managers (week 4)

# Goal

Calibration should help managers

Make a more advised decision if they have a doubt about something
Align on expectations for their teams
Align on a similar managerial culture
Avoid bias and offer more equality throughout teams regarding evolutions

💬 You’re not asking for validation from other managers, only their way of viewing things. You may not agree on everything, in which case, if it seems like a major topic, decisions can be discussed with founders and HR.

# Context

The first phase of the review cycle is over 🥳
You’ve collected the 360° feedback and the self-assessments you needed, and you’ve done your own 360° feedback for your team members.
You have a solid draft of the reviews for your team.
Before sending your review for validation, you want to share with managers who have similar activities or seniority levels in their teams about criteria for evolution during reviews.

💬 Today the majority of the team members are between Levels 2 & 3 👉 it can make sense to compare the criteria for their evolutions.

# Process

# Identify people involved

identify managers whose opinions would be relevant in your situation. E.g., engineering teams, teams with new comers…
ask them if they are ok, and set meeting. maybe there will be 2, 3, 4 managers. @Morgane Neff can also be there.

# Prepare the calibration meeting

why do you want their opinions? on what?
prepare a brief overview of the evolutions in your team
- main reasons why a person is moving up in the framework
- main reasons why a person is not moving up in the framework
- doubts you may have regarding the evolution of a person
what is the outcome you are expecting from this meeting?
if possible send this document before the meeting so everyone has time to read it.

# After the meeting

If necessary, adapt your review.
Send an overview of the evolutions in your team to your manager and HR for validation → validation process here.

# 7. Review validation (week 4)

When ready, please send your N+1 and @Morgane Neff a message informing them about the evolutions you are considering for the individual reviews.

For each team member, please add:

current level & step of the person
a tl;dr of
- why you are considering a specific level/step
- if no evolution → why
link to the review Notion page
any comment you would find relevant

Before validation, a decision for a level or step change can be challenged, or clarification may be demanded.

Once you have received validation, please invite each team member to meet with them and discuss their reviews.

# 8. Meeting with team members (weeks 5 & 6)

⏰ Please schedule at least 1.5 hours with each team member. 2 hours is optimal 👌

👉 As a manager, you kick off the meeting.

👉 Don’t forget to thank them! It took a lot of time to prepare for this, and to take part in other team members’ reviews.

👉 Remind them you’ll be taking the lead but it’s meant to be a discussion. Say what you prefer: they should write their questions as you go along, or they can interrupt you if they have questions or remarks.

👉 You can remind the process to start:

A reminder of the main points of the self-assessment → what was important? how did it help the review? did it correspond to the rest of the feedback?
Where they are successful and meeting expectations
Where they should keep progressing
Their objectives for the 6 months to come
How do you plan on helping them reach these objectives?
What do they think? Do they wish to add anything? Do they have any specific needs?

# 9. Finalizing the reviews (week 6)

After the meeting and depending on modification/clarification needs, managers take the time to finalize the individual reviews on Notion,
They send the link to their team member for validation,
The person reads the review, asks any final questions if needed, and confirms they understand and agree,
The manager confirms the validation with a short comment at the top of the individual review Notion page
- Example
The manager sends an email to @Morgane Neff once they have finalized their reviews
The HR team applies the necessary salary changes, if any. They will be visible on the pay slip for the month after the review.