1. Strengthening Relationships: The One on One1

2. Agenda By the end of this session you will be able to…
Define a One on One meeting
Hold and monitor successful One on One meetings
Implement One on One meetings with your team
Welcome and Objectives
In Today’s session we will provide you with an important practice to help you strengthen relations amongst your team members. Through the simple practice of the One on One meeting you will improve communication and expand your relationship with team members.
By the end of this session you will be able to:
Define a One on One meeting (what, why)
Hold and monitor successful One on One meetings (when, where, how)
Implement a One on One meetings with your team
We will also draw from you and your experiences; what successes and challenges you have had and what you did to make the One on Ones work
TRANSITION: Let us begin with the basics….

3. What is a One on One A once a week meeting with your direct reports
Lasting no more than 30 minutes
Focuses on your direct report
Covers current and future issues
A One on One is a meeting between the manager and his or her direct report. In weekly one-on-ones, you conduct regular, private conversations with each employee.
It is a…
A once a week meeting with your direct reports
Lasting no more than 30 minutes
Focuses on your direct report
Covers current and future issues

4. Who is conducting One on Ones?
Who is currently holding One on Ones?
Do you find the One on One’s helpful?
Great, well hopefully by the end of the session, you will all wanting to be conducting One on Ones!

5. What are the benefits Strengthens relationship with direct reports
Establishes a flow of communication
Strengthens relationship with direct reports
Saves time
Stimulates productivity
So the big question here is: Why have One on Ones? For managers at CARE the days are not long enough and our “To Do” list are always growing. So why would we take time to have conversations once a week with employees?
The One on One produces many benefits and positive outcomes, by having One on One time with your employee it….
Improves relationship with direct reports (Relationships start when there is an exchange between two people of listening and understanding one another. A strong relationship is one where the exchange is constant)
Strengthens and clarification of communication within your team (when you are consistently communicating with one another, it helps to clarify what could be misconceptions and strengthen any other messages needing to be shared.)
Advances overall organizational communication (again the One on One allows for a consistent flow of communication)
Sets the flow of communication from management to employees, as well as from employees to management. (employees will begin to understand the information will come from their manager and will feel informed. It will also allow for employees to relay information that you can share)
Creates a feeling of involvement for the employee and increases the sense of ownership that stimulates productivity (the employee feels heard and understood and the employee feels in the loop)
Saves you time. (People will interrupt you less often with small issues because they know the have 30 minutes of your time every week.)
What are some of the other reasons why you should hold One on Ones?
TRANSITION: Overall there are many benefits to having One on Ones but they take time to set up and to plan. You need to make sure you have the foundations in place to begin One on Ones with your team.
Improves Communication
Creates a feeling of involvement for the employee

6. When do you have One on Ones
Hold once a week
Same time every week
30 minutes
Never Cancel only Reschedule
It is important that One on Ones are consistent. In order to be effective, One on Ones should be:
Held Once a week. More than once a week may be to often and you may find the meetings not as productive. Less than once a week is too long in between meetings and it will be difficult to foster the communication.
For minutes (1 hr is too long) seems just right for the interactions to take place.
Have the meeting at the same time every week-It will help keep the meetings consistent and you will not have to reschedule as often.
Never cancel, only reschedule. Only reschedule when you absolutely have no other option. Canceling the One on One can send the wrong message to your employees (i.e. They are not important; they are not doing a good job). They may start to feel left out or removed from what is going on.
Even when you are traveling, it is important to find time to have your One on Ones. With technology these days there are plenty of ways to make this happen: phone, skype, WebEx… .
*Remember to do what works best for your team.
TRANSITION: Where do you have these meetings?

7. Where do you have the meeting
Just like any other meeting it is important to find a place for good, private conversations.
This includes:
In your office. If you are in your office remember to set your phone to DND. Meeting rooms are fine but you will want to avoid meeting rooms if you can’t get the room every week at the same time
At a coffee shop
And yes, they can be done on the phone just make sure to not take interruptions. A trick that is told is to shut your eyes when you are listening, so you are really focused on the employee. However, that could cause difficulties while you are taking notes. It may be helpful to turn away or even turn off your computer while having the phone conversations.
Remember, no matter how good we think we are at multi tasking, "You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time."
TRANSITION: Now we have the when and where figured out, lets take a look at what goes into these meetings.

8. How do you structure the meeting
15-30 minutes
The Employee
5-10
The Future
5-10
So what does the actual meeting look like. Have the sessions last minutes.
5-10 minutes for them
Whatever they want to talk about in their life. Try not to interrupt.
This session will be different for each employee. Some employees will talk solely about work while others go into their personal lives.
5-10 minute for you
Whatever you want
Work, projects, changes in the organization, announcements
5-10 minutes for future
Planning
Future projects
If you have a large topic to talk about set a separate meeting
Remember it is important to have the employees drive the one-on-one meetings. You want them to bring the issues, challenges, opportunities, and ideas to discuss. The last is for you to communicate and share with them.
TRANSTION: So, How do you prepare for this meeting? And yes you will need to prepare.
You
5-10

9. How to Organize a One on One
What information do you need follow-up with?
What Information do you need to share?
What is coming up?
Before each One on One, take a few minutes and prepare.
Ask yourself:
What information do you need follow-up with?
Review notes from previous One on One and see if anything stands out to you.
Think about any Project, deadlines, changes within your team.
What Information do you need to share?
Behavior
Projects
Feedback or appraisal
Decisions being made
What is coming up?
Upcoming projects
Organizational changes coming up
TRANSITION: Take some time to jot down the information you want to cover for the upcoming meeting. You will also want to review notes from your past One on Ones. It is really important that you understand your last notes and know where to find them.

10. How to monitor the One on One
Take notes
File notes
Keep each employee’s notes in a separate file
The key to Monitoring Your One on Ones is good notes!
During your One on One it is important to take notes. We have a lot going on in our lives and it is impossible to remember the details of every conversation we have. Listen to what your employee is saying and take notes (include specifics of what they are saying) then review your notes before every One on One. This way you are ensuring you are hearing and remembering what they are saying.
(insert template info here)
It is also important to keep track of your notes:
Use a separate notebook for each employee
Allow employees to look at their own notebook
TRANSITION: Here is an example of what a notes page can look like. If you are interested in getting a copy, me.

11. Example of Notes
You will want to put a name and date on each set of notes.
Personal-anything about the spouse, children pets, hobbies, friends, history, etc. Be sure to be specific when taking notes…include names, places and dates.
Team Member update-notes that you take from their 5-10 minutes.
Manager Update-Notes that you create and prepare for your minutes
Future/Follow-up-Where are they headed? And items you will review at the next One on One
Remember to file them and review before each session. Each employee should have their own folder or notebook

12. How Will These Practices Impact CARE?
So with all of this information, lets take a moment to look at how will the One on One impact CARE….

13. Improve Talent Management Practices
AOP Goal: To show an increase in managers’ communication effectiveness
CARE’s Annual Operating Plan (AOP) for fiscal year 2010 contains a goal for managers to improve their communications effectiveness. This is part of the key priority#6 talent management. By holding One on One you will be not only strengthening your relationships with your direct reports but help to improve management effectiveness.
Recently we created a baseline communication survey for all of CARE. Let’s take a look at what areas the One on One will influence.

14. How Will These Objectives Impact CARE?
Why is this so important?
Recently 1,000 CARE employees responded to a communications survey that went out in November. The topics included…
How managers:
Share information
Give timely information about the organization
Inform direct reports about change and discusses how change will affect my work
Creates opportunities to exchange information
Acknowledges and respects work
Provides the appropriate amount of information
Communicate views to higher levels
Asks for and listens to ideas and perspectives
A good one on One can result in improved satisfaction with communications. Lets take a moment to look at some of the areas the One on One will have an affect on….

15. Here are the results broken down by regions
Here are the results broken down by regions. The ranking systems starts with 1 (strongly disagree) and goes to 5 (strongly agree).
The One on One allows managers a regularly schedule meeting with each direct report to regularly update and inform employees.

16. As a learning organization, CARE will continue to adapt and grow in the changing world. By having One on Ones, you can consistently work with your employees to help the adapt their roles to change as well. During a One on One, you can take time to talk about what influence certain changes may have. This is also a good opportunity to talk about how the employee is handling the changes.

17. The One on One provides a great opportunity to acknowledge accomplishments and work that the employee is doing. Sometimes it is easy to move on to the next project or focus on what need to get done without properly acknowledging the work that is getting done or has been completed. By using your notes and preparing before

18. A One on One allows time for managers to hear what their employees are accomplishing and to recognize strong performance.

19. If you are properly preparing and monitoring you One on Ones, you will find it helps with communication flow. Remember to take notes and follow-up with any actions that result out of the One on One.

20. By holding One on Ones, you are allowing for the relationship between you and your direct reports to grow. By listening and responding to your One on One, you are showing respect and acknowledgement to your employees and increasing the flow of communication. I know we talked about it before but it is truly so important to listen. This is not always easy. In order to listen, you need to let you employees speak their minds without jumping in and interrupting or thinking about what you are going to say next. This is not always easy, but with time you will find how effective listening is for your relationship with your employee.
TRANSITION: Knowing the why, how, when and where is only the first step to conducting the One on One. The next step is to knowing how to introduce the concept to your team.

21. Steps to Implement the One on One
Practice
Announce and Schedule
Review in Staff Meeting
When Implementing your One on Ones with your team you will want to explain the purpose of the One on One and the benefits it will have with your team. You do not want to just start having them. This may cause anxiety amongst your team…they may worry they are doing something wrong, the meetings wont be taken seriously… etc. So, the first thing you will want to do is let your staff know that you are going to start One on Ones and why you are going to do them.
Announce and Schedule.
Send out an announcing you will be doing One on Ones and ask employees to sign up for time slots.
Make sure your clearly explain the purpose of the One on One which is to strengthen communication amongst your team.
Schedule One on Ones to start three weeks after the announcement goes out so that employees have a clear schedule.
Send out invites to your directs as time slots are taken
If you have non-responders, either send them an or schedule them yourself.
Allow for possible changes to come up just make sure to not cancel but reschedule.
Review
Review intent, ground rules and agenda in a staff meeting
Answer any questions people may have
Practice
Remember the first couple of meetings may feel uncomfortable or not go as smoothly as you expect. Be prepared to guide the employees along the first few times.

22. Potential Challenges Starting the meeting Keeping a Schedule
Hesitation from Employees
You will come across challenges. If you are prepared, then you will not have a problem overcoming the challenges.
Some things to prepare for include:
Starting the Meeting
If you need help initiating the meeting try asking open ended questions. Then, wait for the answer. Examples include "How's it going?" or "What's been on your mind?" If you get a nonspecific answer like "ok" or "not much," then ask about a specific project the person is working on and attempt to draw out the specifics. If the person still does not open up, gently let them know that it is important that you both open and share information to ensure proper communication.
Additional questions to help start off the meetings include:
Tell me what you have been working on, Tell me about your week-what has it been like?, Where are you on _____project? Are you on track to meet the deadline? What questions do you have about the deadline? Is there anything I need to know and if so by when? How are you going to approach this? What do you think you should do? What can we do differently? Any ideas suggestions on improvements?
Keeping a Schedule
If your employee is constantly rescheduling the meeting. Remind them of the importance of the One on One and how it helps you both stay current on information and project progress. Let them know this is a really important meeting for both of you and that it should have priority. It also helps to make sure schedule meeting during convenient times for both of you.
Hesitation from Employees
Be patient and wait. It may take the employee some time getting use to the meetings and remember to keep it about them.
TRANSITION: Challenges are inevitable but if you practice and prepare, you will get through them. It is always helpful to call on a fellow manager’s experience for suggestions as well.

23. Quick Review What When Where How Why
A meeting between the manager and his or her direct report used to touch base
What
When
Where
How
Why
Once a week for 30 minutes
A quiet place where you will not be interrupted
The schedule, prepare and take notes
So lets do a Quick Review
There are many benefits to the One on One however they are not the magic pill; they take time and commitment from you and your team and are only as effective as is the conversation and it will take some time before they become open and candid. The One on One should not become substitutions for daily business conversations. When one-on-ones are put off and rescheduled, they lose effectiveness. One on ones need to be high on the list of priorities. One on Ones are not for every issue, some issues and opportunities should be discussed with the entire team.
Strengthens relationships, improves communication and productivity