A one-on-one meeting in an professional environment is the best way to discuss issues, develop a good rapport between the employee and the employer.
A one- on-one meeting should not be made into a status update meeting and should be more oriented to the employee and not the work. This will enable the employee to feel comfortable and more honest with the manager.
An article in officevibe.com lists out the structure for a one-on-one meeting.
* The comfort of the employee should be the first priority and to achieve this the meeting can start with a informal catch up. You can start by asking how their life is going outside work.
* You have to start listening instead of just talking. If the employee is feeling hesitant encourage them to open up.
One pro-tip for this part of the meeting is to pause for 3-4 seconds before responding to what they just said. This allows them to dive deeper into what they were just saying.
* If your employee does not have enough points to talk out. Then you start speaking your mind and tell them how they can improve in their career. Now and then start using some questions to get the conversation going.
* Instead of leaving the conversation as soon as it ends, come up with a follow-up plan in relation to what was discussed.
These meetings at times can be very difficult for the managers who are not much experienced. Here are a few tips for the managers.
* A prime point to be remembered is that it is the employees' meeting and you should focus on the employee.
* Ask them their opinion on how they want you to treat them. Feel free to prompt them to get the discussion going with yes/no questions about leadership behaviours you have.
* Inform your employee 24 hours before the meeting so that they can prepare for it.
* Start taking notes of what your employee is saying. This will come in handy to review during your next meeting.
Remember that one-on-ones are your best opportunity to discover what is on an employee’s mind. It’s a chance to have a private, informal chat about what they like and don’t like.
