As a leader, are you having regular one-on-one meetings with your staff and direct reports? These are regularly scheduled meetings with each and every one of your direct reports where you sit down and talk. One-on-one meetings are an opportunity for the leader to LEAD.
It is your opportunity to inspire, influence, motivate, coach, listen, solve problems, make decisions, and create an environment where employees feel energized and accountable. You can’t do this with email. If you lead and manage a team remotely, attempt to have face-to-face monthly or quarterly meeting as you conduct the majority of your conversations over the phone. Skype is a terrific resource for this interaction. As a leader, it is critical for you to be able to have open and honest conversations with your staff about their jobs, their performance, conflicts and development opportunities.
It is amazing how many leaders don’t schedule these one-on-one meetings. Even for those that do, they frequently cancel them due to other pressing issues. By doing so, what are you demonstrating to your employees? Think about this question and let it sink in. What comes to mind?
~ Your pressing issues are more important?
~ Your job is more important?
~ You have not taken time to prepare?
~ You don’t understand their value or how to structure them properly?
~ You don’t enjoy talking face to face with your employees because it is uncomfortable to address challenging issues, to listen without judgment and discuss developmental opportunities.
~ Courageous conversations are too difficult? Really?
If these or others come to mind, maybe you go back to being an individual contributor because leadership is about inspiring, influencing and developing your staff. Surely one-on-one meetings take time and sometimes, very pressing company or client issues come up that may require a reschedule. However, those situations should be few and far between.
Why do some leaders fail to schedule regular one-on-one meetings or don’t commit to those that are scheduled? Here are some practical tips in having effective one-on-one meetings with your team.
#1. Have scheduled one-on-one meetings and never miss them.
Consistently schedule one-on-one meetings for the same time each week. This develops the habit for you and your direct reports. Set an agenda and be flexible about what each of your direct reports wants and needs from you during this meeting. Remember this meeting is to help both of you. In today’s high-pressure environment the success of your team depends on the individuals in your team being successful. The purpose of a one-on-one meeting is to provide your direct report with the information to do his/her job and about providing you with the information you need to help him/her do his job.
#2. Create a safe environment.
One-on-one meetings should be primarily about accurate status for the leader/manager, and continuous improvement for the employee. In order to get the maximum benefit from the one-on-one meeting you must create a non-threatening meeting environment.
Provide constructive feedback/coaching on how to prevent issues from recurring as well as what they are doing well. Accountability and responsibility are keys. Don’t play the blame game as it will only close down your direct reports and you won’t get the information you need.
#3. Eliminate all interruptions.
This is your time with your direct report. Turn off your phone, android, Blackberry or put it on vibrate and place it in your pocket and ignore it. Move the computer screen away and forward your phone. As the leader you want to get maximum productivity out of your one-on-one meetings. It is your responsibility to make your direct report feel like for a specified period of time they have your undivided attention. This means absolutely no interruptions. I prefer meeting in a neutral location, like a conference room.
#4. How to schedule your one-on-one meetings.
When should you schedule your one-on-one meetings? A good suggestion is that these meetings should be one half hour, once a week. The best answer is whenever fits best in your schedule and the schedule of your direct reports. Personally, I have always preferred to have my one-on-one meetings on Monday or early in the week. The reason I liked Monday’s is because it gave me lots of time to work on and resolve any action items they came up that were my responsibility and it’s the start of the week.
#5. How best to prepare.
Your preparation for a one-on-one meeting should begin the second that the previous meeting for your direct report ends. You may want to keep a computer file or personal folder for each direct report and whenever you think of something you need to talk to them about in the next meeting, make a note in the folder.
Create an agenda for your one-on-one meetings and make sure your directs have input on the format and items to discuss. Remember both you and your employees should clearly articulate your expectations for these meetings. A suggested format may include the following categories:
Accomplishments and status – a list of current projects, or sales with one or two sentences describing progress and status on each. Identify what roadblocks are preventing the projects and sales from moving forward.
To do – a high-level to-do list of what you would like to accomplish in the next week.
Areas to develop – areas of development and what activities you have undertaken to develop in those areas.
Quarterly goal tracking – Whether you establish goals monthly, quarterly or yearly, you and your direct reports should be making steady progress toward fulfilling those goals.
#6. What should the format look like?
Time is precious so use it effectively. All you need is 30 minutes for these update meetings. Therefore you can divide the meetings into thirds. One-third for your direct report to discuss their stuff on the agenda; one-third for you to pass on information that you think may be of value to your direct report, discuss items of special interest to you and delegate new work; and one-third for assisting the employee with development opportunities. Remember these are guidelines only.
#7. What questions do you have and what questions do you want them to ask you?
It depends on the issues you talk about. Use open-ended questions that start with (What, Where, How) and then focus in the areas that are important to you and your direct report. Some additional effective questions include: What obstacles are getting in the way and what can I do as the leader to remove the obstacles; what can you/we do differently next time; what do you need from me; how are you going to approach this; what areas are ahead of schedule; are you on track to meet your deadlines or quota; what will you do differently and what do you think?
Questions you may want your employees to ask you include: What do I need to do to continue to demonstrate my commitment to you as your leader/manager; what should I stop doing that may be getting in the way; what more can I do to support you?
Remember asking questions are extremely important. So is listening to the answers. Don’t interrupt and use your active listening skills to really understand where your employees are coming from.
#8. Your meeting wrap up.
At the end of the meeting be sure that the actions from the meeting are recorded, and review the actions with the direct report so the actions are clearly understood. Ask the direct report if there is anything else they would like to discuss. Finally, show your sincere appreciation and thank them for their time and commitment to the process.
#9. Post-meeting action.
For any meeting to be highly successful what you do after the meeting is as important as the meeting itself. Using whatever method you do to track your work; the actions you are responsible for need to be worked on. One of the quickest ways to erode the effectiveness of your one-on-one meetings, and most likely your relationship with your direct reports is to agree to actions on behalf of your direct reports and not follow up on them.
As a leader, it is imperative to have regularly scheduled one-on-one meetings with your direct reports. It is important for their development, your development, and will help to increase everyone’s engagement, and commitment to vision, goals and overall strategies.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Now, what is your first step in committing to and hold powerful one on one meetings? We would love to hear from you with comments or questions. Send me a note via email at brad@aperiocoaching.net or on Twitter @bparcells.
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