Why you should never neglect one-on-one meetings

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Face-to-face meetings with each member of your team will undoubtedly take up a lot of your time. But if you neglect these meetings, then your working days will turn into chaos.

If our life is filled with numerous meaningless meetings, we begin to feel like a squeezed lemon. We spend a lot of time thinking about how to make meetings faster, more productive, and less boring.

When managers are under the pressure of constant meetings, many of them fall into the trap and begin to believe that they are too busy to have one-on-one meetings with their subordinates.

Elizabeth Grace Sounders Time Management Specialist

Here are some compelling reasons why one-on-one meetings should be a priority. So let's speculate what will happen if you don't talk face to face with every member of your team.

You will not save time - yours and your employees

If you stop taking the time to communicate in person (or, in extreme cases, using Skype) with your direct reports, this can negatively affect the work of your team, its members may remain a lot of confusion about work tasks.

Half an hour of conversation on the case can resolve many issues. If this conversation does not take place, then your employees may spend days and weeks working in the wrong direction, simply because they do not fully understand exactly what is required of them. This is a waste of both your time and the time of your subordinates.

Of course, some employees work more productively without supervisory control, but most still need outside help.

Your office will turn into revolving doors

If you do not want to schedule regular one-on-one meetings with your employees, and instead introduce an "open door" policy (employees can come to your office and ask questions), then from a productive leader who plans his time and sets priorities, you turn into a help center. Ultimately, when you calculate how much time you spent on unplanned discussions, you will find that it is much more effective to arrange regular meetings with subordinates.

You will say goodbye to the dream of seeing the number zero in your inbox

So you've decided to cancel your regular one-on-one meetings with your employees. Now you have a few free hours a day. What will you spend them on? Of course, to sort out the debris in your email. Your mail will be filled with letters from employees, each of whom needs to know your opinion on such and such issues. And what else can they do if there is still a lot of time left before the monthly general meeting, and the deadlines for work tasks are running out?

You will not know the joy of joint creative work

We all dream of working in an environment where colleagues help each other, and monthly meetings are held in such a way when all 30 members of your team take turns speaking, sharing their opinions and successes. But often this is just a dream, and in real life everything is not so smooth. Some employees will never be able to express their true opinion and share their ideas in a general meeting, no matter how relaxed the atmosphere you create.

If you meet with each member of your team one-on-one, then there is a better chance that the shy employee will not hesitate to share his thoughts on work projects and tasks with you. This will not only endear your employees, but also prevent valuable ideas from being lost.