One-on-One’s are vitally important for the development of your team and individual team members. Providing team members with a safe space to meet and discuss any topic they choose is important in developing a a strong relationship.
The benefits of holding one-on-one’s with your team members:
- Building Trust.
- Foster Open Communication.
- Promote Employee Engagement.
- Encourage Professional Growth.
- Provide Coaching and Feedback.
A recommendation would be for a thirty minute meeting on a weekly basis to ensure that one-on-one’s with your team members are held consistently. Schedule them on the calendar ahead of time and do not cancel. This time is sacred, move them if necessary, but hold them at the same time the majority of time.
During one-on-one’s with your team members your complete focus is essential. Remove all distractions to ensure that you are both able to concentrate on the discussion. It is recommended to avoid using your computer or device during one-on-one’s with your team members, so taking notes should be done by hand.
Formats of one-on-one’s with your team members can vary. You should always provide your team members the space to talk first during the meetings and let them lead the discussion. In the early days of one-on-one’s, your team members may take up the majority of the thirty minutes, and that is perfectly acceptable. A simplistic format of three, ten minutes sections for a one-on-one provides adequate space for all.
- First ten minutes allocated to your team member for any subjects of their chosing,
- Second ten minutes allocated to you to provide feedback and coaching.
- The last ten minutes allocated to an open discussion on career development.
Where possible you should use your one-on-one’s with your team members to get to know them better on a personal level. Do not force these conversations and allow them to develop naturally over time, with your team members leading the way. If team members start talking about their life outside of work, engage with them.
Ultimately you want to utilize your one-on-one’s with your team members to understand and eliminate roadblocks that get in their way of executing on their goals.
Overall best practices for one-on-one’s with your team:
- Meet regularly and do not cancel unless absolutely necessary.
- Check-in on well being. How are they doing?
- What are they working on? or what are their priorities for the next week?
- Understand their challenges.
- Celebrate what works.
- Agree on any goals.
- Active listening. Listening should cover 80%+ of the meeting.
