Why are 1:1 meetings important?
One to one meetings are an essential part of management for all companies large or small, they provide a way for managers to connect with their reports. Its always a good idea to prioritize one to ones in our calendars and ensure that there is a regular space that can be allocated for the private conversations.
Together with each member of your team, reserve thirty to sixty minutes once a week or twice a week to talk about the timetable. This will help you stay on track. Do not allow yourself to feel hemmed in by the confines of a conference room; instead, propose taking a break from the office to go for a stroll or grab a cup of coffee.
While some managers like to schedule their one-on-one meetings on a specific day of the week, others prefer to spread out their meetings throughout the week so that they may maintain the highest possible mental presence. One advantage of scheduling meetings on the same day as one another is that it makes it easier to identify connections between the various activities being carried out by your team. Determine whatever method is most effective for you, then construct your timetable so that it returns the most information to your reports.
The one-on-one meeting is the most effective method for managers and the people who report to them to connect on important matters, build a solid connection, and guarantee that employees feel as though they are working toward their goals, both in the workplace and in other aspects of their lives.
However, if you do not have an appropriate framework, agenda, and mindset for the 1:1 encounter, it is possible that it will become just another meeting in your day. Here is our strategic strategy for making the one-on-one meeting the most important meeting you attend, whether you are a manager or an individual contributor.
In 1:1 meetings a manager sits down with an employee for the purpose of having a dialogue that can go in any direction and is planned in advance. The one-on-one meeting, as opposed to the status report or the tactical meeting, is an opportunity for coaching, mentoring, providing perspective, or even just venting. The one-on-one meeting goes beyond merely having an open door policy and instead sets aside time on a consistent cadence for leaders and their teams to engage with one another and communicate.
There isn't just one approach to set up a one-on-one meeting. The emotional requirements of people you manage, the nature of your relationship with the team member, and the degree of experience they have all play a role in determining the most effective method to plan your meetings so that they are productive.
The creation of an environment in which individuals may talk freely about the topics and worries that are on their minds is the most essential component of a productive one-on-one meeting. The employee is the primary focus of these discussions, and their presence is absolutely necessary.
Managers approach to 1:1
Each manager will have their own approach and ability to add their own personality and style to their one to ones. Start your one-on-one meeting with an open-ended question. This lets the most important and important-to-me topics rise to the top. Here are some questions you might try:
How are you feeling? (Open ended to see how the report is feeling, as well as to look for hidden signs in their tone and words; there may be hidden signals to their mental state as well, which may necessitate additional questions and care.)
What did you learn last week / since we last talked? (Another open-ended question that will look for good and bad things they have learned; this may also provide insight into good and bad things they have learned.)
What are you most looking forward to?
What do you worry about the most?
Reports approach to 1:1
Take each meeting with your line manager seriously; this is your dedicated space where you can address concerns and learn about new information. Make notes during the week to remind yourself of topics to discuss and to ensure that your meeting runs smoothly. This is also a place to provide feedback/brag notes, letting your line manager know about the good things you've done so they're visible and not forgotten. If, like me, you are not involved in the day-to-day grunt work with the team, this is an excellent opportunity to let the management know about the excellent work you have been doing.
Another important aspect of this is managing up, where feedback and improvements can be fed back to management to improve processes and highlight any issues that can be identified early.