One on One Scheduling Guidance (Part 2 of 2)
December 23rd, 2007Today, we finish our discussion on the fine art of Scheduling One-on-Ones.
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December 23rd, 2007 at 8:31 pm
[…] Manager Tools - Tools for Leaders and Managers put an intriguing blog post on One on One Scheduling Guidance (Part 2 of 2)Here’s a quick excerpt […]
December 24th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
I love the shownotes! Just a quick error correction: This one and last week’s both have the title of the prior week’s podcast as its title. Happy holidays and a happy new year!
…Jake
December 24th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Actually, let me amend my prior comment. This week’s shownotes are actually last week’s! No one wonder they share the same title!
December 24th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
Jake,
Yes, you’re correct … for multi-part shows, we publish the complete shownotes with the first cast (for those of you who like to read ahead
)
Mike
December 26th, 2007 at 12:29 am
Gentleman,
I may have missed it. Can you provide us some feedback when you get pushback from your boss? At the end Mark spoke of saying, “NO.”
P.S. Your podcast are great and have helped me grow as a manager. OUTSTANDING JOB!
December 26th, 2007 at 4:42 am
Mveney-
I don’t understand “pushback”. Some managers say that and mean that their boss makes a sour face. Some managers say that when their boss just repeatedly tries to schedule things when you have one on ones. What specifically do you mean?
Mark
December 26th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
By pushback I mean when you say, No boss can’t meet on that day because I have one-on-one’s scheduled with my staff. What I am asking is what do you recommend for that boss that does not believe in the practice of one-on-one’s, feedback, coaching and delegation? I ask this because my boss does the opposite of mostly everything you say to do.
December 26th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
What is your boss doing? Don’t tell me what your boss believes. Tell me what he does, specifically.
Mark
December 26th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
I found the podcast where these issues are addressed. It is the right person for the job. I am in a political environment. She does not want me. The answer is feedback and that is what I must work on with her. You did I podcast where you spoke of respecting the agenda. An example is she frequently want’s to change the meeting agenda after the meeting has started because she is the boss. This is for any meeting that I conduct. I do not have the opportunity to pre-wire because she will cancel our one-on-ones at the last minute or any other meeting for that matter. And, when we do meet, it all about her and when she has finished speaking, I am dismissed. My boss believe is, “my way or the highway.”
Nevertheless, your cast are very helpful. Keep up the GREAT WORK……
December 26th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
I sat down to schedule my 2008 1:1s (I have been doing them with weekly regularity since June 07 and re-occurrences ends with the year) and thought I’d check Manager Tools to see if there were any updates on 1:1 scheduling and ta-da, two recent casts on the topic!
I have eight 1:1s scheduled back to back on Mondays and it works really well for me. Puts me in a good state of “flow” where I’m very focused on the team development. It was hard to “spare” most of my Monday on this, but it IS a priority and if you make it a priority it stops being a problem.
One comment about giving the team a lot of options with time - I followed MT’s advice when I started and it worked well - we were able to find a time that worked for everyone - some people asked to reschedule at times for various reasons (other meetings, personal reasons, etc) and we did that as it came up (I needed it too).
Some asked for a permanent time change and I’m accommodating to that now that I’m scheduling 2008. This time I’m not trying to give each person 3 possible slots, but instead I sent a note to the team that read:
“I’m sending out new invites for 1:1s for 2008 (since existing scheduled time re-occurrence ends with the year). Some people have requested time changes so I tried to re-juggle the schedule so I can continue to talk to everyone and accommodate to the various schedule commitments with projects and such. If my invite is at a time that doesn’t work for you, let me know and we’ll find a better slot - I would like to keep the 1:1s on Mondays as much as possible.”
I can see everyone’s calendar blocks so I know I didn’t pick conflicts but they still have an opportunity to switch slots if they want and I’m hoping this reinforces the idea that it’s a time for THEM without costing me hours of running around trying to figure out what time works best for everyone before I reschedule.
I also only scheduled re-occurrence through the middle of the year and set myself a reminder that we should review slots then and reschedule or extend re-occurrence as needed. Goes well with my mid-year review timing too.
I have one question for MT guys though: My boss ALWAYS blows me off. I was the one that requested we had weekly 1:1s. My relationship with him is not the best in my mind (I don’t feel like the values me or cares about what my department does - we get stuff done and don’t cause trouble so he’s always rescuing the other departments that are problematic).
How do I get him to become interested in my development? How do I get him to have 1:1s? He’s a VP managing 5 other departments in addition to mine and if he misses our 1:1 time slot it is rarely possible to find another time in his calendar that same week - which means the things that are important to me can drag on for months if we don’t meet for a couple of weeks.
Thanks!
December 26th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
MVeney-
Well, okay, but there is NO CAST where we recommend giving feedback to your boss, and I urge you NOT to do it.
Further, I still don’t understand how your boss is involved in your one on ones with your directs,
Mark
December 26th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
I understand. I was referring to the Managing your Boss Podcast. When I see you in Chicago I can go into greater detail. Again, thanks.
December 26th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
Hi,
I have a problem with scheduling One on Ones with those of my directs that work in shifts (editors in online media with 24/7 news coverage) as there are no fixed times the people are at the office.
My solution right now is to agree with them that “We meet at 3pm on the first day in a week you have a morning shift”. This works quite well because all of them have at least one morning shift each week and the days are known in advance.
However my problem is that when there is no fixed time each week there is a temptation to slack and miss some of the One on Ones.
I am very interested what other methods are used when there are no fixed working hours.
best regards and thank you for your great podcast series,
Michal
December 26th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
Michal,
Thanks for the 24/7 comment. I was about to get on my soapbox about that, too. This is not a M-F, 9-5 world any more. With people on all shifts, working all days, it is difficult to say “not Monday morning”, etc. Some managers don’t see their directs but for a couple of hours, a few days per week. We need to find the time that works best.
Mike and Mark were careful to say that these are guidelines, not rules. They need to be considered and the manager needs to make his own decisions.
Let’s not forget the shift-workers, folks.
December 27th, 2007 at 4:40 am
Just a little history here:
The first client I implemented one on ones with was a shift-work based call center. I hear more comments about “this is harder for shift workers” and “this won’t work in a busy call center”…but the fact is, it does. Sure, there are subtleties to be considered, but all too often for every manager who says it’s harder, I can find one who is doing them without any fanfare.
Mark
December 27th, 2007 at 5:06 am
Livlab-
GREAT job on one on ones! But stop trying to manage your boss into doing them. Don’t try to change your boss. Practice meditation, or something, but leave your boss alone.
Mark
December 27th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
Apropos of nothing…I work in a human services department of a state government. There is little accountablity, little professionalism. I have no direct reports, but have much “staff authority.” I am responsible for authorizing Medicaid funding for services to adults with developmental disabilities and consult with case manager, their supervisors, vendor agency CFO’s and Executive Directors. I am trying to improve our meetings and the actual accomplishment of something! I’m also working my way through your entire archive of podcasts. Do you recommend any, in particular?
Thank you, much, for all your information. I feel hope that one day we may have a more business-like entity that will provide excellent services to ourselves (internal customers) as well as continuing the excellent services to our clients.
December 28th, 2007 at 2:18 am
MLowen-
The meetings casts are pretty good!
Mark
January 7th, 2008 at 11:30 am
I’ve found your 03 advice to be great and shared it with my old boss, their boss and some peers. They are all technical people (high C’s) and thought you were a little wordy :^) but I got them to go past that and they liked the content. I’ve always done 03’s but not as effectively as I’m hoping your guidelines will help me do.
I have a logistical question. Do you put buffers around 03’s so that you can always start on time and collect your thoughts between them? I’ve noticed people react badly coming to 03’s at the office next to mine and finding that boss still in the previous 03. I also want to be prepared and not thinking about the previous discussion. I’m just taking on a team of 17 and want to put them all into 2 days. I thought I’d schedule them to have a 15 minute buffer. Otherwise, it would really end up being 25 minutes not 30 and I’m afraid that’s tight.
Thanks…Julia
January 7th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Julia-
High C’s always have to be right. Bless those that also choose to be effective.
I have been doing O3s so long I don’t need buffers, and I think many would agree with me. These aren’t big meetings…one meeting won’t make a relationship. It is the investment, the recurrence, the commitment, the total amount of time, that make the difference. At 30 minutes, you say, “sorry, gotta go”, and welcome the next person in. Some people can’t switch gears that fast…fine, have a buffer.
But if someone shows up and we’re wrapping up at 30 minutes, and they get miffed…well, how they feel is their fault.
Mark
January 9th, 2008 at 12:29 am
Hum. Hadn’t thought about that. It probably is also that you are more effective at running meetings - a goal I’m working on. It’s almost a joke here that meetings start and end late. I’m determined not to let that happen with this new start. So, it’s effectively parking things for later meetings, watching the time, wrapping up with 5 minutes, etc. You have them respect that this doesn’t run over either. I can always schedule getting back together later - but don’t wait until it runs over. I get it.
Having to do 17 in 2 days, I’ll probably schedule some longer breaks just to give the ability to have some time to handle spontaneous things and catch my breath! I did intro “get to know you” 30 minutes for the last two days for my directs and peers and was exhausted at the end of each day.