This item originally appeared in Interior.
This strong essay is based on a conversation with Jade Bonacolta, a 31-year-old in Miami who began her career at LinkedIn and is now the head of North American marketing on Google. Its history of employment and promotion has been verified by Business Insider. The following is edited for length and clarity.
After graduating from Columbia University in 2015, i landed a job at LinkedIn in San Francisco.
During six and a half years I was in LinkedIn before joining Google in 2022, I was promoted five times, starting as a collaborator in the business leadership program and leaving as chief of enterprise technology.
Many of my promotions came from the way I treated my One-to-one meetings with my manager.
Preparing pre-reads for one-in-ato.
Most people go into one-to-one taking a more passive approach, waiting for their manager to present them and tell them what to do. But managers often have teams with five or more people, so having weekly meetings with each of them can be a lot to be deceived.
I noticed that my first manager would generally ask me the same things in every call – “How did this week go? What are you working next week and where do you need help?” I knew I wanted to be more proactive and make them more efficient meetings.
I started spent an hour ago writing what I called a “pre-read”. I would design a simple three sections email: what went well for me this week, what I'm focusing on next week, and a new idea or interesting innovation to suggest for our team.
I would send it to my manager before we met and bring my copy to the meeting to help lead our conversation.
My manager told me he found them very useful pre-reads; They made our conversations much more productive and helped him feel fully aware of my work. He found the format so useful that he asked the rest of my team members to follow the strategy for their one as well.
3 things that make an effective preliminary reading before a 1: 1 meeting
1. What went well
First, I created a “victory” folder, and whenever I had a victory throughout my week, I would add it to the folder.
For example, if, when working with the sales team, I received an email from one of the leaders saying, “I am so impressed with the questions you asked my team and the way you offered value”, that email would go directly to the Wins file. I would then withdraw from that folder when I made my email read in front of my manager.
I realized that I could do the best job in the world, but it didn't matter if the right people didn't know about it; If I would like to be promoted, I Should be visible.
I would also keep all my victories in a document and share them with my manager to make it easier to write my performance review and create a case for my promotion.
2. What am I working for
Managers are often expected to tell their employees what to work for. However, it can also be useful and useful if employees show proactivity.
After sharing what I did a week ago, then I would say, “Here's what I think I have to work next week.” Some of these were ongoing projects, while others were new initiatives that I was presenting.
When it was about projects, I had a very strong instinct in the direction I wanted to get my career, and I did promotion I loved clear to my manager. I asked them: “Is there any project for which I could work that let me start building those skills?”
I also tried to predict where I could need the help of my manager. I would ask myself: “What can go wrong next week?” and “Which person should I connect with the next week that I can need a presentation from my manager?”
That way, I could ask my questions all right away at the meeting than throughout the week.
I also tried to process proactive with solutions rather than simply present problems.
For example, I can tell my manager, “It looks like we have to get our budget until this date, so is there any way that I can present this earlier this week so that we can not come to us?”
3. A new idea
In my first reading, I would also share a new idea.
Throughout the week, I would pay attention to what my manager found disappointing or inefficiency that came out last week – things that had simple adjustments.
Then, in my one-to-one meetings, I would offer an idea or solution to solve those issues. I realized that the ideas should not be great. In fact, when presenting a new idea, the key is to make it small, as you do not want to get a unhealthy and burned job, or neglect the main parts of your work.
Once, my team and I were doing really great work, but no one in our wider organization knew much about it. While I wanted Falling more in the marketing worldI asked my manager, “What if we started a very fast, regular newspaper?”
My manager agreed.
I got the ownership of that newspaper. Monthdo months, I consolidated and sent the newspaper throughout the organization, sharing updates what our team was doing. It was simple, and other teams were not doing it, and I was reaching out to other team leaders.
When those leaders would approach my manager how the bulletin was great, my manager would answer: “It was really her idea. I didn't even ask her to do it;
The passing of an hour to prepare was worth giving my manager visibility
I have repeated this process in every new role I have received and every new manager I had on Google. My managers have loved it, and I have received a tremendous reaction every time I did it.
Even in my now high -level role, my governing team deeply appreciates my weekly status updates and new ideas for the team. They treat me as a thoughtful partner rather than just a direct report.
Utilizing as much one-to-one meetings gives your leaders more visibility in all the work you are doing.