When most mid level people hear the phrase “one on one” or “one to one” spoken they have shivers run down their spine. They tend to think, “oh no, I’m going to get my butt chewed.” They think every private conversation between an employee and and a direct report which is initiated by the boss is about to be bad. Praise in public, critique in private. That whole thing. Well, I think it’s crap.
For years I have invested 30 minutes per week with each full time employee that reports directly to me –and many part-time employees. The performance results have been tremendous. And, the weekly 1:1 has enabled me to sustain more direct reports than without the weekly 1:1. At several points in the last 10 years I’ve had as many as 20 direct reports –and in extremely diverse roles.
How can a person run multiple locations across a diverse business line and keep track of everything? They cannot. You MUST depend upon your team. How can your team depend upon you if they outrank you in technical expertise?
Almost every single small business owner –and every successful small business owner– we have acquired from was the technical expert and sales expert of their single location business. It’s the number one reason they are successful. They command respect from people because they’ve earned it. It’s also why buying these small companies is dangerous. You pull that leader out and the rest of the crew can and usually scatters. How do you pull it off?
You can be the expert and come in heavy handed. That works well. I’ve done it. But, at some point you hit a ceiling where you simply cannot be everywhere at once and you need local leadership. Then, at some point you need leaders of leaders. How the heck do you prepare yourself for this? You have to become a good manager. And then you have to install good managers.
Most small business owners complain about not being able to find good help. It’s crap. They either don’t pay enough to get the talent they need or they don’t have the systems to train the uninitiated to be good at doing the job they need them to do.
Okay… enough rant. Let’s talk about how to listen. In my 1:1’s with my direct reports I usually speak fewer than 5 words in a row. They do all the talking. I do 99% of the listening. And most of what I say is prompts to keep it moving or on topic or to agree or grunt. I ask questions.
“You ready?” (that’s two words that hand the meeting to them.)
They roll their their KPI, health stats and highlights from previous week. Maybe they have a lingering question or two. Maybe they save it for later in the meeting.
“How about the week ahead?” That’s five words… it transitions from talking about the past to the week ahead. What are their plans to win the week ahead? Changes they’re working on? Challenges or blocking issues they see coming down the pipeline?
“Four weeks?” Two words that extend their timeline. Often brings forward staffing challenges or unusual events.
“Misc?” I even truncate syllables to reduce how much I’m saying. This sometimes a laundry list of todo items they need from me (when I’m meeting with accounting manager) or it’s something that’s not urgent but grating on their nerves in the background. Responses might be more than five words but rarely am I blabbering on about something for too long. It’s their time to report, vent, share, inquire and clear up any private issues.
I recently had someone tell me about a medical issue someone was having. We laughed and agreed that it would be embarrassing if the person knew I knew that. I also said it’s a sign we have huge trust. If we’re not hearing about this level of stuff our people don’t trust us. It’s a sign of health. We’re trusted. And we’ve earned it through many years of weekly 1:1’s.
Why weekly? Because daily is too much and bi-weekly is too few.
Why recurring day of the week? Because then it’s not put off, nor is it a hassle to schedule every week.
Why 30 minutes? Because it’s long enough to get a ton done but not so long that you can do lots of them in a day.
Phone, video or in-person? All work. Key is synchronous. An email with details is only a supplement to being heard and listened to.
Digital or paper notes? Taking notes is key to managing more people. You simply cannot remember all the details as you manage more than a small handful of people. I’ve recorded these on a computer and on paper. I prefer paper because it communicates that you are listening to the speaker better than typing away on a keyboard. That signals something too permanent and too easily transmitted to someone else. Hard to trust someone who is typing while you are talking. Just sucks. Scribble notes. It’s better for the speaker and makes you a better listener.
Same time every week? I prefer it. But I’ve also been good with a “you follow him” plan or “end of day” or “beginning of day” cadence, too. They key is they know it’s going to happen and they can batch up non urgent items.
Why batch up anything? Why not just interrupt the manager whenever the employee has a thought? Whack-a-mole. It drives managers nuts and their tempers flair. Employees also won’t bring sensitive stuff forward because they’ll be dismissed. Managers need to prepare themselves to listen. Employees know that surprising their bad boss is a quick way to make a mess of their lives. The ultimate result of “we talk all the time” is that you don’t actually listen to your reports because they don’t actually share the dirty details with you because you’re never really available to them exclusively.
In conclusion… We could make you a better manager by installing The Listening Way. And if you think you’ve got it all figured out and you’ve got managers beneath you then have us install The Listening Way with them and their direct reports and watch your job get super easy. You want to manager your front line managers jobs easy so you can hire people more easily? Teach your front line people how to do good 1:1’s with their managers. Then, you can scale. Or, you can goof around with all your free time.
Install the Weekly 1:1 after doing Daily Huddles for one week. Persist in the Weekly 1:1 for at least 90 days with a greater than 80% completion rate. Start with just your top people if you’re scared to make too big of a change too fast.
If you hire us to install it, I will guarantee your satisfaction with the result.