One on One Meeting

The best bosses and leaders are those who are genuinely invested in the success of those below them. This isn’t a stat. It’s not a famous quote. It’s a simple truth that we should all intuitively understand. But, believing these words is a far cry from putting them into practice. If you want to find a reliable way to help bosses invest in success, one of the best tools available is the one on one meeting. Also known as another name for one on one meeting or another name for staff meeting, the 1 on 1 meeting with manager is basically a designated time for an employee and their direct supervisor to have an open dialogue about work.

The Importance of a One on One Meeting

With modern tools, it’s not exactly a costly process to meet directly with an individual. You don’t have to pay for flights. You don’t even have to lose time walking to a meeting room. The barriers that used to come between one-on-one time with employers and bosses have mostly been deconstructed. From the first one on one meeting with employee or first one on one meeting with manager, it is all about benefit, and there are more than a few gains to be found in creating a space for an employee to go through their list of one on one meeting questions to ask a manager.

Personalizing the Process

It’s important to understand that a 1 on 1 meeting with a manager is an investment. If an employee is likely to respond positively when they are recognized, then regular meetings provide ample opportunity to grant that acknowledgement. This isn’t just about awards or accolades. You can acknowledge the good, the bad and everything in between. The point is that the meeting is intimate (in a professional sense of the word) and fosters trust. Most of all, carving time out of a boss’s schedule for a personal meeting is a display of investment. The employee understands that you’re dedicating resources specifically to them, and that’s an act of acknowledgement that shouldn’t be underestimated.

It’s amazing how much this is reinforced by proving a one on one meeting template doc, 1 2 1 meeting template Word (a one on one conversation synonym or another word for one on one communication), one on one meeting template excel sheet, or any one on one template coaching. Every little detail shows effort, and that matters.

Removing Ambiguity

On a less personal note, the meetings are an excellent means to closing communication gaps. A large or group meeting is often a great way to disseminate new information. Seasonal strategies, tech upgrades and all kinds of changes to the workflow are easily expressed in those larger meetings. But, those same meetings are notoriously bad at providing personal clarity to everyone involved. Especially since meetings are often shunned as a loss of productive work time, too many people are willing to leave confused rather than risk the ire that comes from making meetings last longer.

In the one on one setting, this isn’t an issue. The time is already dedicated and no peers are going to be frustrated by personal, or even redundant questions. By focusing on 1 on 1 meeting questions, first one on one meeting with employee template, one on one meeting questions to ask manager, questions to ask boss about career development, or using a one on one meetings with direct reports template, you can remove ambiguity from the endless changes that inundate any workplace. A one on one coaching template, list of questions to ask your boss about the company, or list of questions to ask your boss in a group meeting can all be personally addressed, adding clarity to any topic imaginable.

Filling Cracks

Ambiguity cuts both ways, and it’s a common problem for bosses to fall out of touch with some of their subordinates. An open door policy is supposed to help with this problem, but many people are too busy or too shy to make use of such a policy and actually voice the smart questions to ask your boss.

The one on one meeting reserves time and cuts through shyness. The conversation is going to happen, and the employee might as well use that time to express their side of things. By making dialogue a regular interaction between bosses and subordinates, you create an environment where it’s more difficult for any one person to slip through the cracks.

Reasons Why One on One Meetings May Be Useful or Necessary

Understanding the importance of these meetings is only the first step. It’s also necessary to understand how they impact a business on a more functional level. In fact, your employee one on one meeting template should include these four goals.

Building a Relationship

Employees who have a positive relationship with management are happier, more productive and more likely to stay with their employer. On the flip side, bad bosses are the most cited reason for quitting a job. In fact, employee-boss relationships are tied to a lot of the most important stats in employee satisfaction.

BusinesSolver did a study that showed 92 percent of employees think their bosses don’t show enough empathy. Lifeworks found that 76 percent of employees who don’t feel valued are looking for new jobs, right now.

There’s no escaping it; these relationships sit at the core of employee satisfaction and engagement. From the first one on one meeting with an employee or a one on one meeting with boss agenda, you are fostering that relationship. Once it’s there, everything else can build on a solid foundation.

Tracking Performance

Engagement is another massive component of employee satisfaction, and engaged employees perform better. Performance tracking can build or destroy engagement. Someone who is handed a dispassionate checklist that they’re supposed to blindly obey is far less likely to feel engaged. Conversely, someone who has a close developmental relationship with their direct supervisor can feel engaged by the process of performance review.

It’s not rocket science. One on one meetings allow supervisors to discuss performance in an ongoing, approachable manner. Replacing a ransom list of demands with an engaging dialogue takes the harshness out of performance tracking. Metrics become discussion points instead of threats, and the mutual goal of seeing employee success turns KPIs (key performance indicators) into tools for engagement.

Making Adjustments

Naturally, performance tracking leads to performance adjustments and this is where relationship fostering is at its strongest. Most people can self-reflect well enough to recognize their own weaknesses. One on one meetings can serve as a weekly lesson of sorts that empowers a worker to tackle aspects of the job that they find difficult. When implemented correctly, the meetings are a tool for finding actionable behavior adjustments that help employees succeed. It might sound weird that critiques can be used to improve employee relationships, but feeling good about getting better at things is fairly universal.

Feedback

Most importantly, behavioral adjustments are a two-way street. One on ones using 1 2 1 templates give employees a space to provide feedback on their positions in the workplace. Whether they’re complaining about coffee, sharing one on one meeting questions and answers, or discussing a global marketing strategy, employee feedback is vital. Since the one on ones help prevent anyone from slipping through the cracks, this designated opportunity helps each individual feel heard, and that is vital to morale.

Preparing for a One on One Meeting

One on ones are starting to sound like a magic cure for everything ailing a place of business. That really can be the case when they’re used correctly but it’s going to take more than a 1-2-1 meeting word template to succeed. The key to squeezing value out of every meeting is preparation, and it can be summarized in three points.

Create an Agenda

The meeting should foster dialogue. That usually leads to a less formal setting, but that doesn’t mean they should be disorganized. Every meeting should have a clear purpose, and both participants should agree on that purpose. By creating a one-on-one agenda and sharing it with the other party, you can be sure to cover the important topics. It helps avoid wasting time or letting meetings devolve into something unproductive. This is where you put your one on one meeting template to use. Using a tool like Docket, you and your associates can create or select a one on one meeting template and collaborate for each meeting to provide consistency and structure but with some flexibility depending on the topics at hand.

It is also vital that your 1:1 agenda reserves time for employee feedback. That’s one of the most important reasons to use the one on one setting, and reserving in the one-on-one agenda will help you avoid bulldozing past the employee’s biggest concerns. In some cases, you may even need to help employees get started on the right page. Navigation help with a list of one on one meeting questions to ask your manager can be a great tool. Preparing one on one questions and answers for both sides will expedite the meeting.

The best way to ensure you accomplish all of this is with a one on one meeting email template. When you send the one on one meeting invitation or one on one meeting request email sample, the included template will help you both get ready. The template is at its best during the first one on one meeting with a manager.

Focus on the Person

The entire point of a 1 to 1 meeting is to add a personal touch. By all means, it’s reasonable to talk about workplace initiatives, KPIs and stats in general, but all of that can fit in an email. The key is dialogue. Make it personal. Make sure you have good one on one questions to ask employees. Make a list of effective one on one questions to help you focus on the individual doing the work, rather than the work itself.

Likewise, encourage reciprocal questions. Suggest the employee think about good questions to ask your boss’s boss. Offer a one on one meeting questions format. You can even invite them to bring up questions to ask your boss at lunch. This back and forth helps a personal and productive conversation flow.

Involve the Employee

Sharing the agenda isn’t just a courtesy. It allows the other person to prepare one on one meeting questions, concerns and ideas. In fact, you want to provide them with sufficient tools to empower their side of the meeting. Share a 1 on 1 meeting template through a tool like Docket if you think it will help. Include it in the one on one meeting subject line to avoid confusion. You can even involve them in thinking of creative names for one on one meetings. This is pure engagement.

What Happens Next?

What happens next is more important than the meeting itself. After you have traded questions to ask at a staff meeting, you have to follow through on the one on one meeting answers that were provided.

There are two components to follow through with a one on one. The first is systematic. You want to make sure you properly file any important information from the discussion. You also want to use that information to inform any changes you need to make in performance tracking and planning the next meeting.

The second component is personal. You’re making sure you take the time to understand what was conveyed during the meeting. Follow-through might involve following up on a suggestion. It might mean making mental notes about how a person feels about a new initiative. Paying attention and addressing the personal side of the conversation is what proves that you were listening and that you value the input you were given. This is the heart of how you use one on ones to build morale.

When you put it all together, your staff meetings become more than just another name for a one on one meeting. They are the indispensable resource that helps you understand how to keep employees engaged, satisfied, happy and ever improving in their work capacities.