Are you meeting one-on-one with your leaders?

Often, when we ask that question, the answers we get are; ‘yes, some’ or ‘kind of’.

When it comes to leading your people you cannot ‘kind of’ lead them. Your team, whether volunteer or paid, is your most valuable asset and although one-on-one meetings can feel small, the impact is huge.

You may be thinking that there are too many challenges getting in the way of establishing one-on-ones in your context.

Maybe you have looked at your schedule and thought that you don’t have enough time to have several individual meetings. You may also think that communicating via email or via announcement is more efficient and time-sensitive.

But, as a leader, that just won’t have the desired impact for effectively leading your team. When we use mass communication tools, we can cover a lot of ground for a broader audience. But in leading people, we cannot discard the value of the one-on-one meetings. Through one-on-one meetings we build trust, personal insight and accountability to following through on what was promised.

You may have been leading a team for a while and though you have had regular team gatherings, you haven’t had one-on-one meetings with individual team members. What would your team think, if all the sudden you ask to spend one-on-one time with them?

You don’t want to meet only when big, huge, things (good or bad) are happening. That is no way to build a successful, functional team. Plus, one-on-ones can give you insight into the lives of your team. Where are they winning and where are they facing challenges?

So, how do you begin? What do you have to do to get started? Maybe you are thinking some of these things:
• What do you say?
• How do you make it work?
• Where should you meet?
• What will they think?
• How do you get started?

We have worked with many organizations who have implemented one-on-one meetings as a key to their success. Through their learnings and ours we have gathered some great insight into beginning one-on-one meetings in your context.

If you have found success in using one-on-one meetings as a leadership tool, share what you have learned here. If you haven’t yet tried this, how do you think one-on-one meetings could affect your culture?
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