Your 1:1s don't have to be painful.
Take the drudgery out of the weekly catch-up
My employee, Tanya, treated her weekly 1:1 like a never-ending status update. I started dreading that weekly half hour.
She’d run through the list of everything she was working on. No color commentary, no questions, just: here’s what I’m doing.
One day I stopped her mid-recitation.
I asked her what would make our 1:1 time more useful to her.
She gave me a blank look.
That’s when it hit me. The mind-numbingly boring 1:1s were my fault.
I hadn’t made it clear to Tanya that these weekly 1:1s were for her, not me. Time she could use to bring up a problem, discuss an idea, get clarity on an issue – whatever she needed that week.
It was clearly a new concept to her, so to start the ball rolling, I asked, “If I could wave a magic wand and take one thing off your plate, what would it be?”
This time she didn’t hesitate.
“The monthly data we collect for the VP. It takes hours. She never asks any questions about it, and I don’t even know what she’s using it for.”
So I did a little investigating. It turned out the VP was collecting data from every team, every month, to have on hand for her monthly meetings with the CEO. Not because he was asking for it; because she was afraid he might.
After a heart-to-heart with the VP, we negotiated a solve: instead of pulling every scrap of data just in case, we’d be on call during her meetings with the CEO, ready to provide any info he asked for.
Fixed.
Had I not asked Tanya that question, we’d still be wasting hours pulling that data.
But had I made clear the point of the weekly 1:1, I wouldn’t have had to ask. Tanya would have had it on her agenda to discuss.
Lesson learned: 1:1s are goldmines if you treat them right. When you make the time theirs, they might give you what you never knew you needed.
If you need to spice up your 1:1s, you’ll want The Good Question Handbook. The early access list is open – sign up here to find out the second it drops.
I view 1:1s like a gift. It’s the gift of a manager time to improve an employee’s mood, work life, career development, or just your relationship with them. Work updates are for stand up