What’s the point of staff one to ones?

Today you will find out why ‘One to Ones’ are so valuable for you, your staff, and your business…..

The starting point has to be identifying what you want to achieve from the meetings. Sadly some see it just as a chore. Never under estimate the impact of sitting down with each member of staff on a one to one basis. Your aim should be to motivate your team members to either continue or sustain good performance and to feel confident that they have the ability and support to fill any gaps where they need development.

It’s an opportunity for them to have their contribution recognised – not just performance, but have their ideas heard. And finally it devotes time to set direction and goals for the coming weeks.

The net result should be an enthused and motivated employee who knows what they should be focusing on, and how this will contribute to the business.

Finding the time for you staff one to ones.One of the common concerns I hear is that the process is time consuming, particularly when you have 8 – 10 people reporting to you. Well, ask yourself this – how much time potentially will you need to spend rectifying things if you don’t take that time out with them?

I often hear of managers spending literally hours preparing for the meetings, then finding themselves having to work twice as hard to get the employee to contribute their ideas and views to the meeting. One to ones are as much for their benefit as yours, so ask them to take some responsibility too for the preparation.

There may be things they’ve done that are worthy of comment, which you are oblivious to; remember you don’t see them every minute of every day they are at work. So ask them to plan what they would like to discuss. As a minimum you may like to consider these 3 questions:

What successes or achievements have you had this month or what have you done this month that you’re proud of?

What disappointments or frustrations? Or if you had a magic wand, what would you change or do differently?

What do you feel needs to be your number 1 focus for the coming month?

You don’t need to use this wording, but you get the gist.

Their preparation obviously doesn’t let you off the hook altogether, but if they are well prepared it will certainly reduce the amount of time needed in the meeting to achieve the same result.

The preparation is key for these meetings, so tomorrow you can read my thoughts to ensure that a good agenda and the right environment helps with the process of getting on track for a good meeting.