So, just to be clear, most of the ideas for this post come from manager tools. When I was first promoted to this position, I was a bit overwhelmed. My ability to perform and execute had finally paid off and now I’d been promoted. In my new position, I was responsible for 45 people and 18 of them were direct reports! I’d never managed more than one or two people in my life. What should I do?
I started my search by reading books. I couldn’t digest enough books on the subject of management. One minute manager, Good to Great, First Break All The Rules, etc… But I was still struggling with what my “day to day” process of managing would look like. Lots of high level thinking, but very little actionable day to day stuff. Then I discovered podcasts. I found Manager Tools and started listening to Mark and Mike about the art of management. Each session gave you specific, actionable items you could use in your day to day process. And their number one tool? One on One’s.
So what is the one on one? It is a half hour meeting held weekly with your direct report. It is that simple. The structure is also simple. 10 minutes for them, 10 minutes for you and 10 minutes for the future. This structure will vary from week to week and person to person, but it is the basic framework for the meeting.
The purpose of this meeting is to develop a great relationship with the people you work with. In all the studies that have been done on employee engagement, the number one factor is the manager. People don’t quit a company, they quit the manager. So why wouldn’t you want to develop the best relationship possible with the people you work with? This half hour each week gives you the opportunity to get to know your direct reports. To know what is going on in their lives. To know about their kids and their families. The meeting starts with their 10 minutes because this meeting is all about them. They may want to tell you about something in their lives or they might want to dive right into work. Either way, it is their time to tell you about what is really going on. I usually start the meeting with something like: “So, how are things going?” Or: “So Pete, what’s going on?”. From there, it’s their show. They might tell you about how they are feeling, they might talk about what they did on the weekend or an upcoming vacation, whatever they’d like. After 10-15 minutes, we usually roll into questions about projects we are working on. Each of my directs are working on projects outside their day-to-day work. They may be teaching lean classes, implementing a new process or working on a team to improve something. We will usually touch bases on this type of thing.
So that gives you an idea of what a one on one is. Here is what it is NOT. It is not a status meeting. This is not the forum to keep tabs on everything the person is doing. It is not your meeting. You should not start the conversation and you should not cut them off at 10 minutes so you can talk about what you want to talk about. This meeting is for them and at times it is 30 minutes of just what they want to talk about.
The other thing is that you have to commit to these meetings. If you are going to start having one on one’s with your directs be sure you can commit to a time every week forever. Don’t start these meetings then fall off. That would send the completely wrong message to your people. If you can’t commit to a half hour each week, don’t start at all.
So, now you might be wondering, how am I going to carve out a 1/2 hour each week for every direct? As I mentioned, I had 18 directs when I started and that was a 9 hour a week commitment. How was that going to work? So I broke it up between two half days. Tuesday afternoons and Wednesday mornings. Don’t do Mondays or Fridays. Too many holidays and people are off on those days more than the other days of the weeks. Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays work best.
Here is what I found. When I started this job, I would usually have a line outside my door where people needed to talk to me about things. As I started the one on one’s, I found that since people knew they had a half hour with me every week, they began to just bring the items to the one on one. I had given up part of my week but gained lots of control over the rest of my week. In addition, some people don’t come to you unless there is a problem. But if you are meeting with them weekly, they might talk to you about things they are unsure of and you can head off the problems all together.
This one tool has been the best thing I’ve ever implemented. I feel like I have a great relationship with the people I work with. I know their families, their struggles, their successes and what is really important to them. I think it helps us communicate better and more regularly and I believe it has made me a better manager and a leader.
So, if you have the chance, check out the manager tools podcasts on one on ones. They go into great detail about the whole process. I just wanted to give you some insight into one of the best management tools I’ve found.
