How to run a 1-on-1

Why run a 1 on 1?

Once a company starts running 1 on 1's between managers and members of their teams, a transformation begins.

?? The team starts working together better

?? Team members start growing in their capabilities

?? Retention rates for the team start climbing

? Management better understands whats happening on the ground

?? Great ideas begin getting passed up the line faster

Over 25 years in business, I have run thousands of 1 on 1's and have helped dozens of teams implement them. At almost every company I have helped implement them, it's been a paradigm shift.

At this point, I am even helping start and grow a SaaS business that focuses on team performance growth, specifically focused on 1-on-1s!

?? Freebies on that at the bottom.

How to run a 1-on-1

First off, this is a 30-minute meeting. It's a goals, career, and personal check-in, and coaching session. It's NOT a therapy session, although if someone is going through something terrible, sometimes it is worth putting aside professionalism and just listening to someone's problems. But, this is the EXCEPTION, not the rule.

Throughout this meeting, you should have in front of you:

1. Your last meeting's notes
2. Talking points for this week's meeting. These are often based on the previous meeting.
3. A list of last week's action items
4. A list of the person's goals - business and personal (if they want to share)
5. I like to have their DISC assessment so I know how best to respond
6. Other notes like their birthday, anniversary, what activities they like, family members, etc.
7. Notes on how I think they are doing, why I think this, and what I think they could do better. This includes initiatives they are working on to improve in certain areas.
8. Your assessment of how they are doing overall and what they could do to improve - which you will inform them of near the end of the call.

Choice of medium for the meeting

Almost all of my meetings are remote these days so my preferred choice is a video call. I prefer Zoom because my image and the interviewee's image can both be placed at the top center of the window and I can look at the person in this area. This way, I am looking much closer to my camera and it looks like I am looking at the person instead of down at the screen. I keep the larger video feed of the person I am speaking with enlarged below so I can see what they are doing, and what they are looking at, and I can analyze how they are interacting with me as the meeting proceeds.

All that said, doing these in person is my preference. This way, I get a much better connection to the person.

That said, any video call is better than a regular call. You want to see them looking at you and how they are reacting to what you're saying.

Running the meeting

1. Start out with the mood-o-meter.

This is easy, just start with the question "On a scale of 1 to 10, how are you feeling?" I like to start like this because it gives me an indication of how the meeting is going to go and it helps determine if something is really off. Sometimes this is the indicator you need to skip that coaching session and just listen. But, if the person is always a 6 or less on the meter, maybe there are some issues that need to be addressed.

2. What did you do well in the last week (or 2 weeks)?

I like to start on a positive note after the mood-o-meter, so a 'what went well' conversation is a great place to start. In this part, I ask the question "What did you do well in the last week (or 2 weeks)?" Then I inquire about what else they were happy with, what else went well, and where those successes are taking them. During this time, I note what these were and sometimes how they were connected to the person's goals.

I also make sure to ask about personal things that went well. Did their kids have birthday parties? Did they get that workout in they were trying to get to on Tuesday? Did they watch a TV show they liked?

3. Did you have any 'Next Times'?

I like to phrase it as 'Next Times' because I think it's a nicer way of saying "What did you mess up?" or "What didn't go well?" I haven't had anyone yet get upset about asking this way. It's written on their documents as well in this way, so they pretty well know that this is what we're talking about.

Most of the time the people I work with don't mess up. They just have things they would like to have done better. This is one of the best places to help coach a teammate. I like to ask things like:

1. What do you think you could have done differently?
2. What would you do next time if this happens?
3. Do you need extra training or resources to help with this in the future?
4. Who on your team could have helped you with this? I particularly like this question because it helps team members start thinking more like a manager.
5. What would have kept this from happening? This is often the question that indicates what other teams or teammates are doing that are causing problems, whether they realize it or not.

For each of these questions, I like to help them figure out if there are things they could have done to fix the problem or fix the problem before it became a problem. This is also the place where so many people give you great ideas for ways to solve problems in the organization.

??Want to get ?? free access ?? to a system that manages all this for you?

I am helping design that tool now that does everything explained in this document and can get you free access to the system. Just click here and get set up an account on HeyRamp.com and then add a comment in the messages below letting me know you signed up for the free system and I will move your account to be free for the next year (maybe longer).

4. Action Items

? Two parts to using Action Items ?

Part 1: You should have last week's action items in front of you, which you're going to get to in just a minute. But first, as you're going through the 'Did Wells' and 'Next Times', start writing out action items that they can accomplish by the next meeting.

The goal here isn't to create an action item for each success or failure, it's to create an action item that makes a difference for next time. I like to have just a handful of action items that take into consideration the person's day-to-day activities and how much they have on their plate now.

?? What you want to avoid at all costs is a team member dreading their 1-on-1's because they are getting tons of things to do on top of their regular work. So keep it reasonable! As I am writing each action item, I like to ask the person, "Do you think it's reasonable to get this thing done by next week?" If they say no, then I try to either eliminate other items or inquire as to why and work out something that is reasonable for them.

Part 2: You've been writing down your new action items for next week, now it's time to review last week's action items.

I like to just go down the list and ask if the item is completed or not and what they thought about the item. Problems start arising if your teammate isn't getting action items done on a regular basis, and they are not overloaded. This is your opportunity to start asking why things aren't complete and what you can do to help make sure things are completed on the agreed upon deadline. Sometimes, it's because they just had something else pop up, sometimes it's that they were too optimistic with their time. And sometimes, it's that they just didn't do the work. If they didn't do the work, then talk about why and give the same or a similar action item again.

If a team member is constantly not accomplishing action items, not meeting goals, and potentially having other issues, then it may be time to run a Performance Improvement Plan to help them improve or help on their path to a new job.

One of the goals of this area is to ensure people are working and working together. If those things aren't working this process makes it hard to hide.

5. Company Goals / KPIs / OKRs

In the company goals area, I like to have a list of all the goals the person is working on for this quarter. Some teams set goals as often as weekly, but I much, much prefer goals on a monthly basis. If you have to set goals each week, you're probably micromanaging or you don't have the right people on your team.

For this area, I have each goal listed and I ask if the person is:

• On Track
• Off Track
• Not Started
• Completed

Sometimes, when a company first starts setting goals like this, they are overly optimistic and a lot of goals are Off Track. Other times, just the person was overly optimistic and they have off-track goals. So, for the first quarter, I like to give some slack on goals progress. But after that first quarter, if there are more than one or two goals off track with usually somewhere between 1 and 10 total goals, then we start talking about how to allocate more resources or time to get these goals accomplished.

We do ALWAYS talk about each goal that is off track and set action items to get each goal back on track.

6. Quick Review Of Action Items For Next Week

Before the final step, I like to just do a quick review of all action items and ask the person if they think all of these are reasonable by next week and make sure that I have assigned goals that are reasonable for the person.

7. Performance Feedback

???? THIS IS IMPORTANT. DON'T SKIP IT. ????

In addition to being important, it's also hard. Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes in life: "Hard decisions, easy life. Easy decisions, hard life."

The same applies to business. You need to do the right thing and give reasonable feedback to your teammate about how they are doing. My recommendation is to use the following categories:

• Far Below Expectations
• Below Expectations
• On Track
• Above Expectations
• Outstanding

Most people, most of the time, get On Track.

But, if someone isn't hitting goals, isn't making the cut, or isn't completing their action items then you need to give them the appropriate feedback. Then, no matter what you gave them, write down a Performance Feedback Explanation that they can see and respond to at the time you're writing it. It should be clear, concise, and based on the facts - not yours or their emotions.

You need this performance feedback because they are going to ask for a raise and you need to have a history of what they did, how they were doing, what they did and didn't accomplish, etc. for the entire year to go into their yearly performance review and/or 360. Sometimes, people can be great then fall off because of personal issues and so having an objective log can sometimes save a great teammate that you might be considering terminating because they're going through something hard now. Or, don't he flip side, it may finalize your decision to terminate the employee. Either way, now you have ongoing feedback, which everyone appreciates for many reasons.

After that, thank them for their time and wrap up the meeting.

How long does this take again?

That was a lot to cover, but once you run it a few times, you'll realize that 30 minutes is more than enough time to cover everything.

Blocking 1-on-1's

I like to knock out all my 1-on-1's all at once on Wednesday mornings. I have 5 reports and thus 5 1-on-1 meetings right now, so I just do them back to back and wrap them all up in the first 2.5 hours of the morning, and I do mine every other week since I am working with a lot of very experienced professional managers and more than that isn't necessary right now.

??Want to get ?? free access ?? to a system that manages all this for you?

I am helping design that tool now that does everything explained in this document and can get you free access to the system. Just click here and get set up on HeyRamp.com and then add a comment in the messages below letting me know you signed up for the free system and I will move your account to be free for the next year (maybe longer).

If you've got questions, just post them in the comments!

- Jason