The manager's dead. Long live the leader-coach! In this series of articles, we propose concrete levers to engage your teams on the road to success and become an inspiring leader. Our promise: to do academic research to go beyond the clichés drawn from the same 10 American books we hear all the time.
In this article, discover:
1. Why individual points with each employee (or 1-to-1 meetings) are key to developing the commitment and well-being of your employees.
2. How to make it a powerful management lever, all the more indispensable in a context of partial or complete telework.
The 1:1, kesako? This practice, formalised in Anglo-Saxon literature on management, simply consists of taking a special moment at regular intervals with each of your employees to discuss. The objective for the manager is to talk about non-operational subjects and to put in a posture of active listening and coaching.
Frequent 1-to-1 exchanges allow you to :
- Monitor the overall progress and motivation of your employees
- Establish a relationship based on trust and listening with the members of your team
- Giving feedback that makes you grow
Another benefit of this managerial routine: defusing conflicts. In face-to-face work and even more so in teleworking, misunderstandings and frustrations lead to latent conflicts. If they are not detected and resolved quickly, their impact is amplified. 1-to-1 is the way to avoid accumulating grievances that can lead to disengagement or even surprise resignations.
Frequency: every two weeks or even every week if you interact little on a daily basis. Do not cancel any exchanges unless you have a compelling reason. The power of 1-to-1 comes from frequency and ritualization. The feeling you give your employee by cancelling is that you are giving them less importance than your day-to-day tasks.
Posture: listen more and talk less. According to the Harvard Business Review, 80% of 1-to-1 time should be spent listening. Ask questions about how your employee is feeling, about their workload, their stress level, their relationship with other team members, etc. A good manager is first and foremost a good listener.
80% of the time of a 1-to-1 should be spent listening
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Help the employee to highlight his or her successes and progress. This is the "retrospective" part of the meeting, where you look back over the previous period.
Sample questions: "What has been accomplished that makes you particularly proud? How could you have gone further, done better?"
Tracking the previous week will allow you to identify trends in the way your team members organize themselves and do their work, leaving room for improvement in the following weeks.
Identify points of frustration and disarm problem situations. If you don't ask and push, your employees are unlikely to share their problems with you. Tip: Ask the employee for the least favourite part of the week to bring up the topic, and then dig deeper.
Career development. Show your employees that you care about their long-term ambitions. This is essential for them to project themselves in the company and to be able to coach them properly. Below is an exercise I do during my first 1-to-1 with each employee. I ask them to imagine their Techcrunch article (startup reference journal) in two years time. You can ask each 1-to-1 what your collaborator has done to get closer to this goal.
Follow up on the actions. Write down the key elements of each exchange, as well as the actions you decided on together. Avoid the "let's do this and that" that are forgotten two days later. You will be respected as a manager by walking the talk.
In short, 1-to-1 meetings are the simplest and most effective lever to structurally improve your management and take care of your employees.
