Why should I have one to one’s with my team?
The most powerful tool available to a team in my opinion. Know what it is? It’s not fancy software or high tech training or complicated methodologies- It’s the completely underrated, humble, one to one.
That little meeting between a manager and each member of their team which everyone knows they should have, but is not always used in the best way if at all.
At one point in my career I started managing a new team and asked them how frequently they were having one to ones with their manager, the answer was something along the lines of
“Ha! you're joking aren't you they were in the calendar but they hardly ever happened”.
It's often the case that one to ones are deprioritised when a busy workplace takes over. My view is though that they are absolutely essential and should be pushed higher up everybody’s priority list.
What is so good about one to ones?
· For the manager It’s a chance to check in on the general wellbeing of your team member. Now with remote working it can be hard to spot when someone isn’t doing so well if we don’t make a specific effort to do so
· It’s time set aside to make sure a manager is able to coach and mentor your team with both short and long term issues and actions
· For the employee it’s a time where you have your managers undivided attention to ask them anything!
· Bonding time – some time to build your relationship.
· Increases engagement (actual stats from Google saying this is a fact)
· A time to discuss strategy/ get feedback on ideas together (both ways).
How Frequent should they be?
It is widely accepted that they should be diarised weekly, even if some weeks are shorter than others it's important not to skip. If a manager has 5 or more reports, fortnightly is ok.
What structure should they take?
This is of course personal too the organisation and the team and the type of function the team is in however an example of the agenda points to consider would be:
- Review of previous weeks actions
- Short term challenges the employee might need help and advice on
- Questions or projects that the manager wants to request support on
- Review of employees goals which should be broken down into small actions with an agreement at the end of each one to one of which actions will take place before the next catch up. This is a really important point and is one that is often missed which means that's longer-term goals are set aside for the benefits of shorter term firefighting. Ensuring a regular slot for this agenda point in the weekly one to one will help it stay top of mind and keep moving forward.
- Final agenda point always – recap actions for each of you and send them on an email there and then
What else?
You can even consider conducting every other one to one as a walking meeting! it's been proven that creativity is greater went out in nature and we all know that getting those steps in improves our well-being physically and mentally, win win situation all round!
And finally, preparation is key. I don't mean you need to spend hours preparing for your weekly one to one, what I suggest is taking 10 minutes a day before you'll want to want to send your talking points to the other person so you can both get the most out of the meeting on the day.
In conclusion, don't bin off your one to ones, they are important have loads of benefits to both manager and team member and they deserve a top priority in your calendar!
To find out more about ways I work with organisations to help teams gain clarity take action and smash their goals while feeling good take a look here on my website