Making the most out of One-on-Ones
Even though I have presented on how to run effective meetings, I still don’t consider myself an expert nor do I consider all my meetings super effective. One of the meeting types I have found to be the most challenging to master is the one-on-one. I have had GREAT one-on-ones and HORRIBLE one-on-ones with my supervisors and continue to strive to have one-on-ones with my staff that don’t fall into the later category. Knowing that, I decided to ask some of my mentors for advice on this. This was the advice I received on how to facilitate a great one-on-one meeting?
1) Make it all about your staff’s personal growth and goals. What skills does that person want to develop? What non-work related goals can you contribute to as their supervisor? Do things like personality or working style assessments and reflect on how their strengths/weaknesses play out in their work and within the team.
2) Dive deep into your staff’s work. What is working well or not so well in their projects? Help identify areas of inefficient time/money/thought. Wrestle around different problems and different solutions. Reflect on their progress to date. What new projects/programs/services should be on your radar in order to make their role easier and/or more rewarding?
3) Show them how they contribute to the work you are doing. Make them feel like they are part of something bigger than just filing, event planning, meetings, … whatever. Ask them for input on your big ideas/plans/strategies or ask for suggestions on how to improve a problem (team dynamics, communication, etc). Show how their work made a bigger difference in the grand scheme of things.
You can do all three, but it is best to tackle one or two of them during each one-on-one. For more tips on one-on-ones, take a look at the Management Craft’s post. Some good nuggets there too!
At the end of the day, one-on-ones should enhance the relationship you have with your staff and improve the productivity of your entire team. And it never hurts to add in an element of fun to them (like naming a fish). One-on-ones are meetings you should always look forward to!
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