Managers: your one-on-one meetings are more important than you think
Learn how to increase your team’s happiness and engagement at work with this step-by-step 1:1 guide. — Co-written with Antoine Chopin
From little things big things grow (and break)
After a few years in the corporate world, I’ve been dumbstruck by how the most trivial acts, repeated over a long period, can tremendously affect people and companies.
Let me tell you the story of someone from my team. At his former company, weekly one-on-one meetings with each team member were the rule. His manager cancelled them almost every week. When they did occur, the time was used to discuss ongoing tasks in detail. This means they barely had dedicated time to exchange feedback, discuss frustrations or work on career development plans.
In the end, things exploded during their 360-degree yearly review, where deep frustration from both sides was finally discussed. It was already too late, though, and he left the company shortly after along with other team members.
Surely it is not just due to a lack of efficient one-on-one meetings. Still, having quality time together on a regular basis would have made a big difference according to him.
“What I noticed is that many managers and employees think 1:1 meetings are a waste of time because they do not leverage it correctly.”
One-on-ones are an essential tool to motivate your team
By dedicating time to your team members weekly, you make them feel valued and acknowledged for their work. You are showing them they are important, which is key for their motivation
Here is what you can achieve with efficient one-on-ones:
- Stay on track with weekly tasks, items and general progress
- Build a more personal relationship with your team members
- Share feedback (see our previous article where we emphasised the importance of praise)
At work, we tend to bottle up our frustrations and avoid conflict. This leads to keeping our problems to ourselves and to suck it up. If things are not quickly solved, they simmer and get worse. If an employee decides to leave the company and you never saw it coming, that indicates mis-communication with your team. One-on-ones help disarm these situations before they arise, simply by talking!
Guidelines for efficient one-on-ones
Having weekly scheduled one-on-ones is a great first step, but you need to know how to actually drive the conversation. Here are some guidelines to get the most out of those 30 minutes with your team members:
- Listen first. Ask questions about how your team member feels regarding the workload, the level of stress, their relationship with other teams etc. A good manager is first and foremost a good listener.
“A good manager is first and foremost a good listener.”
Just listen to your employee, and you can be sure you won’t waste your time. Now let’s see more in-depth guidelines.
- Review weekly progress and track it. This is the “retrospective” part of the meeting: make your employee look back at the previous week. What was accomplished? What was not done in time? What could have been better? Tracking this weekly will allow you to see patterns in how your team members organise and do their work, leaving room for improvements.
- Identify obstacles and disarm problematic situations. The golden rule is that if you don’t ask and prod, people are likely not going to share their issues with you. A genuine and non-judgmental approach to this is important: you want your employees to trust you and not to feel like you will punish them for bringing up issues. This may include negative feedback towards you. Take the time to discuss how to improve situations with your employee and write down concrete action items on both sides if needed.
- Give help. As a manager, you have the power and experience to help your team members with some of their issues. Ask your employee if help from you is needed and discuss actions.
- Career development: Showing your employees that you care about their long-term ambitions is paramount to building trust, making your employees feel fulfilled and listened to. Working on key actions — compatible with the team’s operations — with your team on career development will greatly increase their odds of staying in the long-term at your company.
- Take notes and act. Write down what you discussed as well as action items you decided together. Too often, we say “Let’s do this and that” then forget about everything two days later. You will get tremendous respect by actually doing what you decided together during the meeting.
“You will get tremendous respect by actually doing what you decided together during the meeting.”
- Don’t cancel your one-on-ones. The power of one-on-one meetings comes from their frequency and their ritualisation. Don’t unschedule your one-on-one unless it is urgent, and make sure it to re-schedule it ASAP. Cancelling your one-on-ones makes your employees feel like you value their well-being less than your ongoing tasks. Do this repeatedly and I promise you that tension in your team will increase.
One-on-one meetings are a simple yet powerful tool to communicate better with your team and untangle difficult situations. You are a manager? I hope that after reading this article, you will schedule and structure your one-on-one meetings better and never skip them again!
