One-to-ones could be an effective tool to driving performance. But they are not. Instead, they are cancelled, postponed, slimmed-down, or never done. If they are done, they’re ineffective for one of seven reasons:
- Lack of purpose
- Task-focused, not people focused
- Poor preparation
- Inconsistent, often de-prioritised
- Lack of psychological safety
- No follow-ups
- One-way
Preparation will probably never happen as it’s like having an agenda for a meeting – we know we should, but we don’t. Inconsistency will be fixed when one-to-ones start adding value. The ‘safety’ and ‘one-way’ elements will be solved when we deal with the first two reasons – purpose and task-focused – with the three ‘Fs’ of one-to-ones: feeling, feedback and perFormance (with apologies for the jamming in of the final F!).
These three are the keys to having meetings with your reports that drive performance.
Feelings: Ask how they are feeling about work. Each time, ask about their thoughts and feelings. What motivates them? What did they like doing this week? What do they dislike? Imagine if one of your reports shared their feelings about work consistently, and together you aimed to create an environment where they could be happy. It sounds twee, but happy people get more done.
Feedback: Ask for one thing you could do to help your report. Share something positive they did this week and remember to add why, because when people know what they do well they’ll do more of it. For example: “The presentation to client Z was excellent because you were calm, confident, and your deck was full of images that were very engaging.” They’ll do it again.
PerFormance: Most people have heard of SMART targets, and yet only 1% of people use them. Using SMART targets means there is no ambiguity. It’s not a subjective discussion, instead it’s a discussion about how ‘we’ are going to deliver on them. Your part of the ‘we’ entails a bit of gardening: getting things out of their way that stop them performing (weeding) and also creating the soil for them to grow. Maybe by coaching, mentoring, or training.
Whatever you do, don’t avoid them – schedule in one-to-ones every two weeks.
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