Managers seem to have more on their plates than ever today. After navigating the pandemic’s demands for immediate remote work, leaders are adjusting their approach to new ways of managing teams.
Cloud-based collaboration tools, asynchronous work styles, and swimlane diagrams have injected greater efficiency into the workday.
While moves toward increased efficiency can have great benefits, leaders should be mindful of preserving management staples like one-on-one meetings.
These individualized check-ins with direct reports foster the human connection essential for high-performing teams. Even in a digital-first, distributed workforce, such meetings enable more than just status updates.
One-on-one meetings nurture talent, increase engagement, and can even improve retention. If you’ve been tempted to cancel your one-on-ones, think again, considering their lasting impact.
4 Facts That are Devolving On Stating One-on-One Meetings as a Management Staple
1. Individual Connection Creates Trust
You wouldn’t trust someone you don’t know, especially at work. Start building trust with your team by scheduling a regularly occurring one-on-one meeting with each direct report.
Use an agenda to guide your discussion but build in time for open dialogue. Do your best to keep this appointment, only moving or canceling when absolutely necessary.
Most work meetings are rigidly structured, leaving little time for ad hoc discussion. Create space for this valuable trust-building time by encouraging your direct reports to speak freely. Tee up conversations that spark creativity and nudge your employees to make suggestions to business problems.
Provide a safe space for wild ideas that might well be the ones to revolutionize your organization. By doing so, employees will feel heard and encouraged to speak up, knowing that you’re in their corner.
2. Scheduled Check-Ins Encourage Accountability
Maintaining a scheduled one-on-one with a supervisor encourages employees to be on top of their game. Knowing that they’ll be sitting down with their boss weekly or biweekly can help direct reports focus on meeting deadlines.
Stay accountable to your employees, too, providing any resources or completing any tasks you committed to at your last check-in.
Allow time to review progress on short- and long-term goals, development plans, and regular tasks. While some task-focused details may be more than you need, getting exposure to your employees’ daily work can be eye-opening.
It lets you identify schedule overload before it causes burnout, and you can help fill process gaps when you’re informed of them.
3. Issues Can Be Addressed in Real-Time
Personnel and process issues can be the chisel that slowly chips away at your employees’ job satisfaction. Lose sight of them, and your team members may start leaving in droves while you’re left wondering why.
Allow time to draw out pain points during your individual meetings, starting the conversation with storytelling. Use your experiences of identifying issues and proposing solutions to spark creativity and find common ground.
This call to action doesn’t mean adding gossip to the agenda. Extract issues organically by posing leading questions. Asking “What could make this process more efficient?” or “What’s standing in your way?” encourages direct reports to turn inward for answers.
Sometimes lingering issues may lie under the surface, and team members’ answers may come as a surprise, even to them. Charge employees with suggesting solutions, a move that can encourage them to buy into the necessary changes.
4. Personal Development Plans Can Be Nurtured
Daily job responsibilities can easily leave team members overwhelmed at the thought of working on their personal goals. But great leaders know that nurturing personal development is one of the best ways to engage and retain employees.
Remember that the whole of the person matters and seek to understand what your team members need to be successful. A templated plan won’t work for everyone, yet drawing up a personal development plan may seem daunting. Help your direct report develop a growth plan based on their performance, organizational needs, and their personal goals.
Then collaborate with HR leaders to ensure your employees are being connected with the development tools and dollars they’re allotted. Suss out whether they want to grow in a new direction and learn skills that open up new opportunities.
Nurturing employees toward new roles may seem counterproductive, but remember that some of the best moves are internal. Longtime talent can often find solutions to thorny business problems when given the opportunity to make an impact in a new way.
Invest Personalized Time Into Your Employees and Reap the Rewards
Many talented professionals leave organizations simply because they haven’t received individual attention and feedback. The job market today is competitive, and employees have myriad options now that remote work has become the norm.
Protect your organization from talent drain by prioritizing personalized time with your team members. When your employees feel valued and get face time with their leaders, there’s a greater likelihood they’ll stick around. Furthermore, happy, engaged employees often do the best-quality work — and can help you recruit the most qualified new talent.
Organizations run more efficiently and are healthier when employees have good relationships with their leaders. Antiquated hierarchical structures, where the boss’s office is an unreachable Olympus, are thankfully falling by the wayside. Offer transparency and attention to your team members, and you’ll reap the rewards.
Invest time and energy into ensuring the success of your most valuable assets, and you’ll earn their respect and loyalty. You’ll soon become the manager everyone wants to work for, thanks to your individualized attention and support.
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