Contracting
Questions to Establish Workplace Expectations
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Erm, so what should we talk about?
Just like meeting any human being for the first time, your first 1 to 1 can go in a multitude of different ways. You might be lucky enough to instantly gel with your direct report; the conversation flows and away you go. Equally, you might be unlucky enough to both sit down, stare at each other and not really know what to say. Depending on their experience in their career and the current organization, cultural background, and personality in general, people may approach this meeting in different ways.
If you have started your role in a new organization, you won't know your direct reports on a personal level yet, making it challenging to judge the right level of formality for the meeting. Too serious and you might cause alienation; too jovial may come across as strange in some workplaces. If you have been promoted from within, your relationship with colleagues is changing and you may face further awkwardness — especially if those colleagues have become close…
