1:1 Meetings

Since before I had direct reports, I've strongly believed in the power of the regularly-scheduled 1:1 meeting between an employee and their manager. I first experienced this when I was a Project Manager for "Manufacturing Integration Projects", which was the team assigned to close one factory, open two more, and expand a third. My boss Mike put a standing half-hour meeting on my calendar where we'd chat about what I'd done that week, what I was planning to do, and any obstacles in my way. Sometimes the meetings ran short, sometimes they ran long, but they were extremely helpful in ensuring that I knew what was expected of me, keeping Mike informed, and coaching me past the various issues.

While still in that role, I followed Mike's example and set up regular meetings with select internal customers and team members. All of my assigned projects were able to start production at their new sites without significant issue.

Once I moved into Program Management / Value Stream Leadership, I still didn't have any direct reports, but had weekly touchpoints with my lead Project Engineers, Contract Managers, and Supply Chain Managers. Because I was juggling up to 10 proposals and new product introductions at a time, I often had more than one of each, but the regular contact meant that I was aware of the diverse concerns around the organization and was able to mitigate risks as they came up. I'd hear about interpersonal conflict or a function not getting enough support, and could act as the intermediary to get the team working together again.

When I got a direct-report team of up to 7 people as part of Supply Chain / Work Transfer, I maintained those 1:1 calls (half-hour per report, per week) and was able to use them for status updates (both directions) and coaching. Without those frequent calls (we also were geographically diverse; only one of my direct reports was even in the same state!) I would never have kept track of the 1000+ part numbers we were transferring per year.

If you have any comments, please reach out to me at blog@saprobst.com or this page is cross-posted at LinkedIn and you can leave a comment there.