My manager keeps canceling my 1:1s! What am I supposed to do?
Maynard Webb
Founder, Webb Investment Network; Author ‘Dear Founder’; Board member Visa and Salesforce.
What do you do when your manager won't do regular 1:1s or checkups, and when they continually cancel your weekly scheduled 1:1 the day before? What if this goes on for months?
-Associate Director?
Dear Associate Director,
Thank you for your question. Now, if I may ask you a question to help get more clarity on the situation:
Is this situation unique to you, or is this what the manager does to everybody?
?-If it’s unique to you, you have to get to the bottom of why it is happening. It may be a warning sign.
?-If it’s not unique to you and your manager is consistently inconsistent with their other reports, that’s also a problem—but don’t take it personally.
In either case, you must figure out other methods to communicate, gain your manager’s insights, and get your work done.
There may be 1,000 different reasons why your manager changed this 1:1, but it sounds like it’s a pattern that happens a lot. When you’ve prepared for a meeting and it gets canceled, you can still try to move things forward. It could be helpful to reply with something like, “I see our meeting was canceled. Here’s what I was going to bring up. Here’s what I need from you. Your manager will then have the information and can decide the best way to proceed.
Looking ahead, there are several different ways for you and your manager to interface if 1:1s aren’t going to work.
1.???? If you don’t do this already, send a weekly status report. Include what you’ve accomplished, your goals, and what you need from them. Sometimes, it’s inclusion and you can say something like, “I’m in the middle of coming to a recommendation, I’d love your input. Do you have a point of view?” Other times, you may be looking for approval on an approaching deadline and it’s good to be clear. Say something like, “I have to finalize this decision, please let me know if you have any issues.”
2.???? Are there weekly staff meetings? If not, and if there’s interest, you can volunteer to help schedule and orchestrate these meetings to get everyone together.
3.???? Does the company survey employees to find how happy people are and identify concerns? If so, maybe some of these issues will get highlighted and your manager will have to create an action plan to make things better.
It sounds like it’s necessary to speak up and advocate for a change, but I don’t recommend doing everything at once. You want to make sure you’re not being seen as annoying. I remember early on, when I was trying to grow my career, I kept on volunteering and speaking up and my boss told me, “Just calm down, you’re doing fine.”
I do think that anybody who has a boss should have an opportunity to get aligned with them and that is usually and ideally through regular check-ins. ?I’m sorry that’s not happening in your case. I encourage you to try to change things where you are or get to place where this kind of communication and alignment does happen.
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Every week I respond to a new question. Ask me your question in the comments section.
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Sales expert in Sales Department at Shayan Diesel Co. IT Engineer.
2 个月sounds good
Account Management | Customer Success | AI SaaS since 2017
2 个月In the “not unique to you” scenario, there is usually low risk of tackling the issue as a team. Start with one colleague to brainstorm ideas and expand from there. One caveat would be to minimize any perception of mutinous or “ganging up” type of behavior.
The owner of a company I worked for did the same thing 90% of the time. Would cancel on me, was late and only gave us a few minutes, would leave early since he made other appointments or would simply talk about other employees or his person problems with me. I voiced my concerns that I did not feel valued and he told me he shows he values me with what he pays me. Needless to say, I no longer work with this company.
Leadership is more than just giving orders.
2 个月Good advice on the documentation of what you are doing for the company. I've had it both ways with the same manager in a past job. It turned into a toxic environment before it was done. I would follow the directions but then the directions would change but only for me. The problem was there were no safeguards within the organization for stopping what was happening. I made a poor choice transferring to the department. There were other options available but to be honest I didn't realize what I was walking into. Hopefully this isn't what is going on with you. Communication is very important. Be sure to document the discussions. Believe me. It pays to be safe.
Senior Sales Executive & Principal @ Turley Mediation Group | Workplace Conflict Resolution
2 个月I concur to get to the bottom of this major disconnect. 1:1 meetings are an important aspect of the employee/manager relationship. Find out why. Potentially, you may be doing well, so there is no need for the session. Document in a positive light.