Introduction
A one-on-one meeting is a great way to give your employee visibility into their work, provide specific feedback, and discuss how to address areas of improvement. However, if an effective one-on-one meeting is not executed properly you can waste both time and energy. In this post we’ll cover the basics of what makes an effective one-on-one meeting as well as some tips for the best practices when scheduling these meetings with your team members.
Determine the purpose of meeting.
- Determine the purpose of meeting. The first thing you should do is determine the purpose of your one-on-one meeting. You might want to pass along an update, discuss an issue or problem, or even give feedback or advice. Once you’ve decided what to talk about in the meeting, you can move on to defining its scope—what’s within your purview? What are some possible outcomes from this discussion that would help get everyone on the same page?
- Define goals for each agenda item. Now that you have a general idea of what it is that you’ll be talking about during this meeting, take time to write down specific objectives for each topic listed on your agenda. These goals can be very high level (e.g., “Make sure everyone at this company knows how important customer service is”) or more detailed (e.g., “Have Jane review five customer service cases per week from now until next Friday so she gets used to resolving issues”). This step will help keep both parties focused on achieving their shared objectives during both sides’ respective interactions with each other throughout their one-on-one meetings
Set the stage.
Before the meeting, set the stage with a clear purpose. Let your team member know what you want to accomplish together and why it’s important to do so (e.g., “I want to make sure we’re on the same page regarding next month’s launch event”). This will help them show up properly prepared and invested in you as their manager.
Next, set the stage with a clear time frame. Let them know how long they can expect this meeting to take—and stick to it! People respond better when they know how long they’ll be spending with their manager; if you run over by 10 minutes or more, it can make people feel disrespected and unvalued—which is definitely not what you want when trying to build trust in your relationship with them!
Finally, set expectations around what will happen next: “After this meeting we’ll have another followup call later today where I’ll share my feedback from our discussion.” This will give them an opportunity for input into what happens next as well as let them know what steps need taken after our conversation today.”
Outline your plan.
- Outline your plan. If you’re planning a meeting, it is important to outline your goals and objectives before the meeting begins. This way, both parties are on the same page about what they should be talking about and why.
- Prepare for questions. The goal of a one-on-one meeting is for each party to leave with new information or actionable steps that will help achieve their respective goals. As such, it can be easy for conversations to drift off course if there aren’t any clear guidelines as to what you want out of this conversation in particular—and this can lead people to feel disappointed or frustrated after the fact if nothing came from it other than idle chit chat or vague promises from either party that never materialized into anything concrete (which happens all too often!). To avoid this issue altogether though: prepare yourself by anticipating any potential questions beforehand so that there aren’t any awkward pauses during which neither person knows what else needs covering before moving onto another topic later on down the line!
Give your employee an agenda.
- Create an agenda.
It’s important to put together a clear and concise agenda before your meeting with your employee. You want to make sure that everyone attending the meeting is on the same page as far as what’s going to happen and when, so it’s critical you have an agenda prepared ahead of time. You could even create one in advance and send it to them via email so they can prepare accordingly, but I like giving my employees an actual physical document they can hold while we’re talking so there are no surprises once we get started (and because I’m old fashioned).
- Include specific topics for discussion.
The purpose of any one-on-one meeting is for both parties involved to communicate effectively about topics relevant to their job performance or relationship at work, so make sure those topics are clearly outlined on your agenda before sending it out—and use bullet points if possible! This will help ensure nothing gets missed or lost in translation along the way.
During the meeting, talk through performance metrics and goals.
A one-on-one meeting is a great way to touch base with your employees and give them feedback on their performance. You should use the meeting as an opportunity to talk about what the employee has done well, what they can do better, and how they can achieve their goals.
- Start by talking about the employee’s performance—not yours or anyone else’s. Review their goals, then discuss what achievements they’ve made towards those goals so far. What are some things that could be improved? How can they reach their objectives? Then focus on discussing their development needs by asking questions like “What would you like to learn more about?”, “What kind of training would benefit you?” and “Who do you think would make an ideal mentor?”.
As a manager, listen to your direct report’s ideas, suggestions and comments.
As a manager, listen to your direct report’s ideas, suggestions and comments.
They will be more likely to share their thoughts if they feel that you are genuinely interested in what they have to say. This is not just about the content of what they are saying but also about how you let them know that you are listening.
You should also ask questions during the meeting so that they can tell you more and expand upon their ideas or explain more why they came up with certain recommendations or solutions.
Ask open-ended questions.
Ask questions that will help you understand their perspective, goals, challenges and ideas.
Asking open-ended questions is an important part of the one-on-one meeting process because it will allow you to learn more about what’s going on with your employees. You can ask about their day-to-day workflow and how they feel like they’re improving at their job—or if there are any concerns they have so far. The important thing here is that asking these questions shows that you want to understand where they’re coming from as a person and how this affects their work performance.
At the end of the meeting, discuss next steps.
One of the most important things to do at the end of a one-on-one is to discuss next steps. This could include anything from setting up another meeting, assigning a task or project, or brainstorming ideas. The key thing here is to make sure everyone has clear expectations and that nothing falls through the cracks.
One-on-one meetings should be about sharing and listening.
One-on-one meetings should be about sharing and listening. The meeting should be a two-way conversation, not just you talking. It’s an opportunity to share information, ideas and how you are doing.
One-on-ones are not meant to be performance reviews or evaluations; they are opportunities for you as a manager to find out how your employees are feeling about their work and their experience at the company. You can use this time together to provide support by asking questions about how well they feel like they fit into the team or if there is anything that could help make their day happier or more productive when working at the office (e.g., making sure there is enough light in the room). If you wish to learn more, about one on ones, the 15five blog has an excellent article.
Conclusion
To be effective, one-on-one meetings must be well planned and structured. They should be limited to the amount of time you have available for them, and they must be focused on achieving your goals.
A quick recap of what we just covered:
- Don’t forget to communicate your expectations before the meeting begins. Are you looking for feedback on a project? Do you want advice on how to approach a problem? What are your goals? What time can they expect this meeting to finish at? Don’t wait until after you’ve started talking—that’s too late! Also, keep in mind that as a manager, it’s your job to make sure everyone in your organization feels like their voice is heard when discussing any topic under discussion during these meetings (even when some people may not feel comfortable speaking up).
- Make sure everyone involved knows what topics will be discussed so that no one is caught off guard or unprepared with an answer when asked “how did that go?” because they had no idea what was coming next in the conversation.” This will also help keep conversations focused on specific areas rather than meandering into irrelevant topics—which can often happen when people aren’t prepared or don’t know why they’re there yet.”
