Successful Employee Meetings
Are you holding individual meetings with your team and if so, are they making a difference? One thing we learned during the pandemic is the critical importance of personal communication. We don’t want to lose this connection.
Since these are individual meetings, there really isn’t a format to follow or a script to use with each one. You must know your team members well enough to engage each one in a conversation that allows you to get a sense of where they are in their work and how they are doing as a person.
This isn’t easy, but the pay off is great if done well. The more a manager takes an active role in coaching people to be their best, the more they will be inspired to achieve their goals.
One way to evaluate whether your meetings are successful is to monitor how much dialogue takes place. Lots of employees describe their one-on-ones as them listening to a monologue rather than a conversation where each person gets a chance to participate.
So, let your employees talk and not just fire questions at them—engage in problem solving then and there. Keep in mind that you’d like to end the meeting with increased knowledge of their motivation, their challenges, and most importantly, how you can help them to meet their goals.
You need to use your probing skills in these meetings. You want to get to the heart of the issues they raise so use follow-up probes like:
Tell me more…
Can you give me an example?
How so?
If you need more ideas about getting to the heart of an issue, check out The Conflict Resolution Phrase Book. The first chapter is devoted to understanding the problem and encouraging dialogue. (You can get a copy at https://tinyurl.com/ycktzyz9)
Just holding the meeting isn’t enough—you want to gather useful information to build your relationship with each staffer so that your organization can be as successful as possible. Remember your goal is to know more about any issues your team members are facing in their job and a bit more about who they are and where they are in their life journey.