1 to 1 meetings?

LegacyUser

I have to start doing 1 to 1 meeting next week in my new role.I am a bit nervous about this as I am a shy guy.Any advise welcome.How long should they go on?what to discuss etc.Feedback from Team leads welcome.Thanks.

BuffyBot

Hard to tell as they'll vary from company to company but generally they will look at how you have been doing, areas they think you can improve on (if any), setting goals for you. It's also a chance for you to flag up any difficulties or training needs you might have so think about those and be prepared if you are asked: being proactive always looks good.

Procrastastudy

It depends on what it is you're doing. I used to do month meetings with all my PT guys and weekly ones with the FT guys.

Quick "Any problems - how are you?"

The Bullsh!t sandwich about last week / month (Good thing, bad thing, good thing)

Agree targets for the next week / month

New/progressing staff would be set training tasks/have training reviewed.

Off they went - took about 10-15 minutes.

LegacyUser

thanks for this guya.

silja

yeah unless there are major issues no longer than 15 mins per meeting, especially if they are regular (every month or so).

If you have something negative you need to say, "sandwhich" it- ie say something positive first, then the thing that needs improvement, then something good again.

Make sure to keep a record of the meeting, and have the employee sign it.

Mrs OBumble

What does your own job-description say you need to achieve with the team? What's the difference between where the team is, and how you want it to be working?

Sometimes 1-1's can be short-sharp fact finding missions, or target setting chats.

Sometimes they can be longer sessions, where you coach people on skills, review work progress in detail, or work together on complex tasks.

Another thing you can do is ask the team for feedback about your own performance - what you could do that would enable them to work more productively. Yeah there will always be a smart-ass who says "cancel these meetings" or similar, so you have to use judgement about what options you put on the table, but honest feedback can be helpful.

Re being shy ... in short, you will get over it. Grit your teeth, plan your own objectives for each meeting and what process you would like it to have. You need to control the discussion.

Equality

Keep them short. The biggest idiot I ever worked with allowed these meetings to go on for hours, and usually left with a list of complaints.

Direct the meeting.

eg You did a good job on X (you are praising the person).

Then raise the problem, if there is one, and make sure it is known that a more senior manager asked you to raise it. eg Management asked me to mention to everyone that the morning break is only 20 minutes / that the newspaper is not to be read during work hours..

Then finish with praise.

Irish_Elect_Eng

Here You Are, from Salesforce.com:

How to run an effective 1:1



Overview
Having regular 1:1s is an essential part of keeping your team aligned. Depending on the size of your team, schedule 1:1s every 1-2 weeks. These meetings are an ideal time to discuss status, goal progression, engagement and career development. Senior members of the team may require less contact, less experienced individuals will likely require more

Scheduling
Try holding 1:1s face to face. If this isn’t possible. Skype can be a really helpful way of staying connected. For remote workers this is often the only "live" interaction of the week
Consistency is important: if 1:1s are irregular or infrequent, reports may feel that they can't/shouldn't bring up the little things, and won't know how or when to bring up the big things (professional growth, etc.)
Reserve sufficient time, particularly for remote reports -- 15 minutes to an hour is a good target depending on frequency
Too compressed and there is a chance that reports may not bring up the potentially large and challenging issues
Too long and it could feel like you have to account for every second
Responsibilities

Manager's responsibilities
Prepare for the 1:1 -- go over any previous notes, have an idea of what you want to talk about, information you need, information to pass along, etc
Generally, help your reports:
Recognize and leverage their key strengths
Give actionable feedback towards the professional development
Focus and execute on the right work at the right time
Develop and grow their roles within the organization
Understand how to succeed

Report's responsibilities
Prepare a rough agenda for your 1:1.
Know your blockers and what you could use help with
Focus on what your currently working on, but think about what you need to do next
Track progress against goals
Having the report do most (but not all) of the prep work for the meeting scales well - this way each person only has to prepare for one 1:1

Shared responsibilities
Make sure the 1:1s happen
Be engaged when they do happen - put the phones and computers away
Try to make sure the meetings are a net positive, not negative
Keep the meetings effective and personal

Discussion Topics

Cover the following regularly, but don't worry about getting to each in every meeting!

Day-to-day
Project status
Blockers
Administrative issues: expense reimbursements, etc

Goals and focus
Current focus: are you working on the most important thing?
Quarterly goals: track progress against set goals
Planning: rough planning for the next week, or the next phase of a project

Engagement and concerns/issues
Report's concerns/issues: frustrations, problems, etc
Engagement: whether generally happy, motivated, enjoying the work, looking for challenges, burnt out

Professional growth and development
Professional growth: go over long-term goals and objectives.
What are you doing to grow professionally?
What could you be doing?
Work on putting together a roadmap towards leveling/progression

Innovation and expansion
New ideas: Sounding board for new ideas and directions

Outcomes

Every meeting
Any blockers have been brought up and discussed/resolved
Both manager and report understand the current focus and its importance
Both are aligned on goals, expectations, upcoming work
Document and share feedback, outcomes, and decisions

Long term
Coaching/teaching: each should be learning from and helping the other.
Progress and development: report understands his/her place in the organization and understands how to advance and progress.
Socialization, relationship building: don't underestimate the importance and value of random chit-chat!
Everyone leaves the meeting with more energy than they came in with.


Br honest don't play games and everything should be grand