Why One-to-One Meetings Increase Employee Engagement
Gain trust and increase the engagement of your team
You don’t need to be able to fly, leap buildings at a single bound, or even have a fancy powered up suit (think the Bat or Ironman) to have a superpower.
Because you’ve already got one …
If you are a manager or leader, regular one-to-ones (private meetings between you and your direct report) are your single most effective way of managing your team and raising engagement. Done correctly, the content of your one-to-ones relates directly to several engagement questions about leadership.
In this time of overwhelm and uncertainty, courtesy of Covid-19, gaining trust, getting to know your team and raising engagement are even more crucial.
I write about leadership & training, and I’ve designed The New Leader’s Starter Kit to help leaders better communicate with their teams. Get your free copy here.
Engagement Question One: Does your manager get to know/care about you as a person?
If you have regular meetings, in private, with your direct reports you will naturally get to know them better. Ask about their family, what’s going on at home and, their hobbies/pets as an ice-breaker. A one-to-one provides a natural forum for discussion when your direct report has something on their mind. Remember that your team could be quite nervous about broaching some topics and the meeting could provide a safe space to do so.
Engagement Question Two: Does your manager provide you with clear goals and direction?
Goals/objectives are agreed in the performance appraisal process. One-to-one meetings are an ideal time to check on progress, identify roadblocks, and celebrate milestones. Goals generally change throughout the year — they get bigger, smaller or, even disappear/appear out of nowhere. Changes to priorities, goals, and timelines can be discussed and clarified in the one-to-one.
Engagement Question Three: Does your manager discuss development opportunities with you?
Most employees would like the opportunity for development and look to their managers to provide it. Discuss development goals regularly in your one-to-ones. It is also an opportunity for you to discuss the development that you would like to see in a team member.
Engagement Question Four: Does your manager listen to your ideas and suggestions?
When it comes to getting great ideas for improvement, it’s best to ask the person who does the job. But do you make it easy for your team to submit ideas? Encouraging your team to come up with ideas/suggestions will make your life easier, get your team used to being solution focused, and raise engagement. Whether the idea is viable or not, make sure you get back to your team member and update them on progress.
Engagement Question Five: Does your manager give you regular feedback on your performance?
Whether feedback is good or bad, it needs to be delivered sensitively. One-to-ones are an ideal setting for these sorts of discussions. Performance issues or behavioral issues can be discussed in the meeting. Where coaching is needed, the meeting can also be used for development.
What makes an effective one-to-one?
- Regularity: Every two weeks is optimum — not too many to be onerous, but if you miss one, you are still catching up often enough to make it count. Schedule the meetings in your calendar and avoid canceling.
- Privacy: Meetings in private mean your direct report can talk about personal matters or issues about the team/other employees in confidence. A regular, private meeting means your team will have access to you for venting or broaching sensitive topics.
- Structure: Avoid a rambling chat that has no purpose. The one-to-one is structured to cover goals, projects, milestones, roadblocks, feedback, development and, a general check on whether your team member is OK. An ‘any other matters’ section is useful for capturing topics that are important to your team member or random items that don’t fit in anywhere else.
- Records: There are likely to be action points arising from the one-to-one so keep records, and make sure action points (yours and your direct reports’s) don’t get forgotten.
- A link to the performance appraisal system: Include your team member’s goals and development goals from the performance appraisal system. Check on progress in the meeting, so agreed goals don’t get hi-jacked by urgent day to day issues.
- Templates: Design a simple template so that the different elements of the one-to-one don’t get missed.
Even if you don’t measure engagement, regular one-to-ones with your team will increase it anyway, and you will all reap the benefits.
Good Luck!
Click here for a free One-to-One Toolkit including a one-to-one template to get you started.