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One Surprisingly Simple Shift to Unlock Uncommonly Effective One-on-One Meetings
You don't have to own the meeting. The key is realizing you shouldn't.
Dave Kline
January 18, 2023
Cancel Culture
Getty
It's 15 minutes before your one-on-one check-in with one of your reports, and you get an urgent call from your boss.
"I'll cancel just this one time," you tell yourself.
But when you zoom out, you realize that one time has actually been a couple of times this past month. And this month is really no different than any month.
Even worse? The easiest ones to cancel on are your best people. You tell yourself, "They've got it all handled. They didn't need me anyway."
And you're right in a way. Because they won't need you for long. In fact, they won't be with you for long.
Because the easiest way to erode the trust you worked so hard to build is to cancel the one meeting exclusively devoted to supporting them.
And what you do (vs. what you say) is your culture.
So if you do nothing else: Stop canceling.
You can check out some other common meeting mistakes I wrote about recently.
And if any of those are tripping you up, I have one more for you:
Thinking it's your meeting.
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Make It Their Meeting
With one simple change, you reset the entire operating system of your team.
Instead of them feeling like a pawn in your game, they're now the Chessmaster.
Phil Bray/Netflix
And you're a powerful piece for them to use to achieve their goals.
The first objection I get usually sounds like, "No way. I need to know what they're working on." I promise you can make it their meeting and still get this intel.
In fact, by giving this responsibility to them, you're likely to get better information than before.
Because there is no way to own this meeting without fully owning their job.
How did I get my directs to take ownership?
Good Questions >> Great Answers
While it can be unnerving to let go, relinquishing ownership of this meeting is really no different than delegating any other work.
I found the easiest way to align on expectations with my team was to preview the questions I wanted them to be able to answer.
If they could answer these well, I could have confidence that they were managing their area (even as an individual contributor) excellently.