1:1 meetings are an important part of managing a team. It’s much more important that you realize your team’s potential than drive particular expectations when someone is growing, and so – sometimes doing that requires a bit of iteration and creativity. This week, I tried out some new 1:1 questions into my rotation courtesy of this guide from Small Improvements. Here are some of my favorites that yielded the best conversations:
What have you been doing for fun lately? and How is your family?
I love this one. We’re all a bit languishing at the moment while we wait for COVID circulation to die down, and the winter snow to pass. What are people doing to keep up for fun? What should we do together to have some fun? Making the connection with someone you manage during this time is critical that they trust you really care about them, and you’ll feel more stable when you need to make a request that you know what’s going on in their lives.
What vacation plans do you have coming up?
It’s probably time for people to make sure that they have vacation on the books so that they can reset and recharge. It’s also probably important that you know when this is coming up so you can proactively manage expecations.
Tell me about something new you learned since we met last.
People are dying to let you know what is a pain in the butt. Make it less of a pain. Or – listen to what they learned – did you know that? Does your team?
What about your job is most satisfying for you? and What about work is frustrating?
Try to amplify the first as much as you can and make sure that you line those wins up for your team. As for what’s frustrating – are they in the learning zone, or are they in the anxiety zone?
Connor MacDonald 