What Is the Purpose of a One-On-One?
It is important to establish positive and productive relationships between the manager and the individual members of your team.
One-on-one meetings help each other grow personally and professionally. One-on-one’s provide a platform for managers and employees to update about a task, set job expectations, assess motivation and engagement, reinforce workplace values and visions, strengthen relationships, and minimize confusion.
Great managers know that communication must go both ways. A good way to start off a one-on-one is to ask questions such as, “How are you doing?” to get a sense of how they’re feeling about work, life, etc. During this conversation, as work topics emerge you may cover performance expectations related to the work that they’re doing. In exchange, ask what expectations they have of you as their manager and leader, and how you can support them better. This helps establish comfortability and trust.
To understand the purpose of one-on-one’s, it is also important to understand what they should NOT be used for. You should not use one-on-one’s as a cram session. You should not use a one-on-one as a job training timeframe. This means that you should pick one-to-two specific topics or ideas to cover and leave things such as performance management, learning, and development, or project and task management for a separate type of meeting and time.
To begin your one-on-one meeting, it is always a good start to check on your employee by asking casual open-ended questions that create a calm and open environment. Ask them how they are doing emotionally and how their energy level is holding up. It is also good to touch base on their personal lives, such as asking about their children or parents. These types of questions may seem unnecessary but can open areas of conversation that were unplanned for and help to build trust. Their response will also help guide you in how to approach the rest of the one-on-one conversation.
Once you establish the tone, lead into the work side of the conversation. This is where you check in on the status of any projects mentioned in your last meeting, updates on future projects and goals, and to see if there will be any obstacles in the future that would effect their work. Make sure to keep the obstacle topic broad and as work related as possible, such as working with other team members or a problem with the business process. This will help keep the conversation moving forward by making sure these obstacles are something you can help make changes to.
Next, it is your turn to speak. This is where you can share important information such as new policies and procedures, job expectations, feedback on current performance, new goals and objectives, and what is expected in the future. Another good thing to add into the conversation is how you can better support them in their work. Make sure to let them give feedback during this conversation.
After you have touched base on the important topics you wanted to cover, allow some time for flexibility. This will allow you and your employee to have a deeper discussion on an important topic. If there is nothing else to cover, simply end the meeting early!
