5 Keys to Getting the Most Out of Your One on Ones
Introduction
One on one meetings are very valuable to an employee's well-being, their experience as well as career development opportunities. One-on-one meetings are a place where managers and employees can conduct open, honest, and meaningful conversations. It’s good to have one on one meetings regularly to stay involved and in touch with your employees.
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One on One's Allow for:
Dedicated time to go through tasks and priorities
Talk about career opportunities
Motivate employees
Build personal relationships with employees
Overcome challenges
Get honest status updates on big projects
Ability to go over action items/projects in-depth
While one on one meetings can seem time-consuming, the benefit is worth it!
Benefit of One on One Meetings
Builds trust and relationship between an employee and their manager
Improved productivity and performance
Connect work to a greater purpose
Connect work to the company mission
Builds strong leadership skills for managers
How to Make Your One on One's Count
To get the most out of your one-on-one you must prepare. Here are 5 steps you can take to take advantage of your one-on-one meetings.
Have an Agenda
One on one meetings should be personalized, the time for general announcements is in a team meeting. What you bring up in the meeting should be individualized to the employee you are meeting with. One on one meetings are the time for you as a manager to provide support, answer questions, dismiss barriers, and most importantly actively listen!
Have It Be Employee Driven
In one on ones, your employee should be driving the majority of the topics. This is their time to talk to you, get advice, ask questions, get clarity or bring up career goals. Softwares such as ActionPlan offer a one stop dashboard to manage these career goals and action items for your employees. Managers should encourage their employees to prepare for the one one one so the discussion points are not forgotten.
Make the Agenda Active
A great way to make your one on ones active is to have a shared document with your employee before the meeting. The employee can put in the topics they want to discuss, ideas, questions, and anything in between. Put in the topics you would like to discuss as well so your employee has a chance to prepare for your discussion topics as well. This allows for the meeting to be collaborative and ensures both you and the employee show up prepared.
End One-on-One’s with Takeaways
Always end your one-on-one meetings with clear and specific action items. Have the employee share their main takeaways, this allows for any confusion or misunderstandings to be cleared up in real-time. Go over the action items at the end of the meeting so that the expectations and takeaways are clear to both you and the employee. Having clear action items will also prepare you for the next one-on-one.
Make Them Regular
To maximize one on one meetings it is important to have them with some kind of regularity. Whether that’s weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, having a one-on-one on a recurring schedule demonstrates the manager is invested and committed. If something does come up it's important to reschedule because canceling sends the message that the meeting is unimportant.
Sample Topics for One-on-One Meetings
Manager improvements
Career goals and career planning
Performance goals
Employee engagement
Employee satisfaction
Work habits/ employee performance
New ideas
Conclusion
One on One's are a useful tool managers should use for their coaching skills as well as for employee development. One-on-one meetings demonstrate that as a manager you are invested and committed to your employees. Fostering a personal relationship with employees where they can learn, share their ideas and get direct feedback is important for company culture and employee longevity.
