1-to-1s

I have had 25 bosses during my career, of course some are incredible leaders and I consider myself fortunate to have had the experience and opportunity to work with many of them. The nature of 1-2-1s with those leaders was surprisingly varied and ranged from them being totally focussed on KPIs to a general chat about topics of the day. The frequency was also surprisingly varied and ranged from regular weekly sessions to adhoc event driven sessions. The goal of this post is therefore to take the best of what I experienced and picked up from others and provide a framework for what I would argue is one of the most important events in the rhythm of the business.

Why do 1-2-1s?

At first sight this might seem a redundant question but the importance of a regular cadence with each of your team members on a one-to-one basis cannot be overstated. Here are my top 5 reasons for doing them.

1. Understanding your team

Spending exclusive time with your team members is the only human way you can really understand their strengths, areas to work on, blind spots and generally what motivates or demotivates them. The understanding evolves over time, and it enables to as a manager to anticipate need and prevent mishaps.

2. Supporting your team

The insights gained will enable you to better support them and add real value to what they do and how they do it. The chances are that you will be viewed as a value-added leader rather than somebody that they report to and approve their expense claims! Remember that the priority of any leader should be the success of the people that they are responsible for.

For example if they are having a problem with a peer in another function of the company a supportive approach would be to agree an action point for them to take and then say "if this doesn't result in a reasonable outcome then message me and we can look at other options - for example I could contact the persons manager to discuss the issue if we agree that's appropriate".

3. Coaching opportunity

It doesn’t matter how good somebody is, everyone can do better. The idea of continuous improvement is something everyone should take to the core of what they do. The 1-2-1 sessions therefore enable you to coach and help your team members improve and do great things.

4. Feedback

It’s an opportunity to course correct and give feedback or raise awareness early before issues become much more difficult to resolve. It’s also an opportunity to get feedback and improve how you manage the individual.

5. KPIs

I deliberately didn’t put first because there is often an over emphasis on this to the expense of the other 4. Without a doubt it is the best way of reviewing progress against the KPIs set for the individual, team, and organisation.

1-2-1 Content

This order will vary based on the nature of the business so adjust accordingly, for example the last month of the quarter might mean more focus on performance or operational aspects. A typical standing agenda should include the following headings listed below. Additional items to be added should be socialised by either party prior to the call.

Use the session to proactively identify points where support can be offered. Remember that if they are an individual contributor it's probable this will be their only meeting with you until the next one.

Performance and KPIs

Depending on the role this could involve one or more of the following.

• Revenue Forecast delta

• Pipeline generation and deal progress

• Delivery milestones in either a product or project context

• Customer feedback

Operational Issues

This could be conflicts, people problems, customer escalations, a request from another department or senior management, team dynamics.

Developmental and coaching

• What have learned? 

• what are they going to be working on to develop themselves?

• How are they progressing against their goals?

• What are the impediments or roadblocks affecting their ability to do their jobs?

Managers

If the individual is a manager of people, then there are some additional areas to consider

• Are they assessing their staff – who are their top performers and bottom tier?

• What are they doing about the poor performers?

• Hiring progress

• What are they doing to coach and mentor their people?

• Are there any standout or shout moments that should be commended on?

Frequency and Duration

There are a number of factors that will determine the frequency such as team size, the nature of the role, and the dynamics of the business, so as a general rule they should be at least monthly for 30 minutes. For small teams or more dynamic environments, weekly for 30 minutes would be typical..

Final Comments

So now you have a framework to use with your people but I can't stress enough that you should touch on all of the aspects mentioned above during a cycle of 1-2-1s. It's natural or even expected that a fair amount of time is spent on the KPIs and business performance aspects however, a balanced approach will help to ensure that the business objectives are naturally achieved, because the employee is empowered and motivated to achieve them.

Acknowledgements

Thank you again Mr William Brown, previously SVP GCC at Software AG and Mr Steve Abrams, previously at Microsoft for their counsel and review