How to run successful one-to-ones
A one-to-one is a regular private meeting between you and your team member.
They’re unlike other meetings as there’s no fixed agenda. It’s a time to listen to your team member’s ideas, needs, frustrations and feedback. Rather than waiting for an old fashioned annual performance use regular one-to-one sessions as an opportunity to assist them with their career and professional development. Here’s a few things that I find help when having one-to-ones with team members.
Awkward!
Yes, they can be slightly awkward at first if your team member isn’t used to them. So before you send a calendar invite out, it might be a good idea to email your team to just explain what they’re for, along with the frequency and duration.
For example:
Hi John/Sarah,
I’ll be introducing one-to-ones to the team shortly and will be sending out calendar invites in the near future. The one-to-one is a private meeting between you and I, where you’ll have the opportunity to discuss feedback you may have, ideas you would like to share, along with any frustrations that you may currently be experiencing.
The one-to-one is also an opportunity for me to provide you with feedback and also understand how I can help you.
They’ll take place every two weeks for around 30 minutes.
Thanks
Regular meetings
It’s good practise to keep each persons on the same day of the week and time if possible, as it builds a good rhythm and allows your team member to prepare for them. Some people prefer to spread them out and do one or two a day first thing in the morning, others prefer to spend the whole day doing them. It’s about finding what’s right for you.
Avoid cancelling them. Last minute cancellations can be detrimental to an employees morale. You’re effectively saying the meeting isn’t important, which means they’re not important.
The actual meeting
Try to do the meeting in a place outside of the office if you can, but ensure it’s somewhere private. Come prepared with a list of items you would like to discuss along with any actions you completed as a result of the last one-to-one. It’s important you remember what was discussed, otherwise it will look like you don’t value your team member’s time. What could be a small thing to you, may be a big thing to them. It’s all relative.
Trust
A one-to-one is a place where you can build trust with one another. One-to-ones should be handled in a private and confidential matter whereby the contents of what was discussed shouldn’t be common knowledge within the office.
Be positive
Starting on a positive note is a great way to kick start a one-to-one, perhaps thank them for some work they’ve recently completed, or provide them with some feedback you’ve heard from other members of staff. A one-to-one is not a forum to just point out things that need improving, it needs to be balanced.
Be specific
When giving feedback (both good and bad) be specific. It’s always useful to give an example and also what actions need to be taken away from it. When giving constructive feedback maintain eye contact, it can be tempting to look away or down if you’re uncomfortable, but being confident will encourage others to ask questions to seek further clarification.
Timings
Splitting the meeting into 40%, 40%, 10% is a useful structure. 40% of the meeting for your team member to go over items they would like to discuss, 40% for you to cover items you would like to cover and the other 10% for free flow conversation.
It’s OK to chat
During the one-to-one it’s OK to naturally fall into a non work conversation, perhaps about a hobby, or a recent film you’ve seen. This helps build the relationship and trust and shouldn’t be frowned upon.
Take notes
Ensure notes are taken, and encourage your team member to take their own notes. It doesn’t hurt to follow up with an email to confirm the actions either. A popular tool to help with this is Small Improvements or BambooHR
If you’re looking for questions you could ask in one-to-one sessions take a look at my recent blog post ‘Ten questions to ask during one-to-ones’
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