I trust your week is going well. How many meetings do you have in a week? Do you find meetings productive or a distraction to getting work done?
It is critical that you have the right structure to enable you have an effective meeting and I will like to share a template I use to conduct more effective 1:1 meetings. This meeting template was developed by Harvard College. If you do not know -1:1 meetings are regular meetings you have individually with your direct reports. It’s a fundamental rule of management that to lead others you need to practice frequent and open communication.
I find that my meetings are always time well spent when I use the right format. Typically meetings that are not adequately prepared for or unstructured is really wasting your valuable time. Click here to download the template.
Some other tips on conducting effective 1:1 meetings include:
- Have a schedule and stick with it – Make it a recurring appointment in your calendar. By making a commitment to a schedule, whether once a week or once a month, both parties will better prepare and take the meeting more seriously.
- Share the time allotted – Structure your meetings so it’s partly about what you need to discuss, and also about what your direct report needs to raise. It shouldn’t be just a one-way delegation of tasks.
- Be present – As my former coach will say – “Nneka be in the present”. This is where you give the person you are meeting your undivided attention, without any distractions. It is not easy and so you have to be intentional about it. I recently had a first 1:1 meeting with one of my direct reports – and he said this was the best meeting he had had with a manager in six years!
- Share Accountabilities – A good meeting should wrap up with accountabilities, follow up and timelines. Ideally, this should also be followed up with an email from your direct report to you, restating what’s supposed to happen.
Click here to download the meeting template.
Let me know what you think of this template. You can leave a comment on my blog post by clicking here or send me an email
How much time do you spend in meetings and how do you think you can be more effective?