The best managers do nothing

This zen-like bit of wisdom was once imparted on me: as a manager, you should never leave a 1:1 with action items.

Let that sink in for a second.

This doesn't mean you should blindly delegate. Or abdicate of your responsibility. It means doing the work of not taking issues into your own hand, so your employee can do so.

For one, as we had previously established, you should strive to ask questions, not provide answers. It's hard, but it forces you to help the other person grow by seeing your [hopefully] more elevated perspective, explore the context, and get to their own conclusions.

This is an extension of the same idea. If you're trying not to provide answers, why not go a step further and strive to avoid action? This creates the space for your employee to take the learnings from the conversation and solve the problem themselves.

Sure, it makes it hard for you to come in and save the day, or to leace your fingerprint on the work. But you're not a a manager for the glory of it, right? You're in it to support your team, to help them grow, to ultimately make yourself obsolete.

So try to hold back not only the urge to answer, but even the urge to act. Watch growth happen.

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Please don't think I'm insane, there are plenty of reasonable action items you can take from your 1:1s, especially reviewing work products and taking bureaucratic actions. But pausing and checking is critical, and I like this pithy title.