How to get the most out of your 1:1s

Post by benhurmarcel » Fri, Mar 11, 2022, 11:03 PM UTC

hunglee2 wrote: post #13

one good way to 'get the conversation going', as well as provide invaluable feedback, is to reverse roles and start the session with the employee review of your own performance as their manager. You can even say 'hey, this 1:1 is for me rather than you!'. It's fun and serious at the same time, and if you do it without ego you can learn a lot about how you are impacting your employees work, what you need to do to make…

As the employee I can't imagine I would ever tell any true criticism of my manager to his face, even if he asks for it and says he puts his ego inside.

He's the one with the power, he's deciding the raises, he's in the room his HR when they're discussing promotions.

Post by danparsonson » Sat, Mar 12, 2022, 2:40 PM UTC

benhurmarcel wrote: post #210

danparsonson wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have major concerns, why not just schedule a meeting? Why are you waiting for a monthly catch-up to air them? I think this whole one to one thing is pointless - if there's a problem, organise a meeting to discuss it (or talk about it during one of the regular team meetings if it's not a private matter); if not, let's just get on with doing some actual work.

That doesn't work. In a department I worked in, there were no scheduled 1-to-1, just a weekly slot that was guaranteed to be available if requested. Nobody ever took it. The manager thought it meant that everything was fine, while in reality he had no idea about how people were doing or how they were feeling. Nobody wants to come to the manager with problems when he's the one with the power and they don't have a trus…

I see what you're saying but it doesn't sound to me like the scenario you describe would be fixed by scheduling 1-to-1s. Sitting down to talk with someone you don't trust doesn't make you trust them - trust is earned through behaviour over time. If I don't trust my manager then our 1-to-1 is going to be pleasantly bland and provide no value for anyone.

Once the trust is there then the 1-to-1 is proven to be unnecessary because the employee will feel comfortable raising issues as needed.

Re: How to get the most out of your 1:1s

Re: How to get the most out of your 1:1s