OK, I can imagine how this will be responded to, but I thought I would go ahead and solicit the advice anyway. (I have a sneaking suspicion I will be considered a Manager-Tools blasphemer ;-))
I am a 3 year listener and fan of Manager-Tools and I have learned a tremendous amount from being a subscriber. HOWEVER, I have a dirty little secret...
I can't seem to make my weekly one-on-ones work consistently anymore. I work in an environment where I have 11 directs, and 7 non-directs (managed by other people or one of my directs is their manager). I purposed to only do the O3's with my actual directs so I would not get overwhelmed, but even that has been a real struggle for me.
I know the rules/recommendations about "1/2 spent w/ each employee during an O3 will save hours of work elsewhere in the week", but it still seems like I cannot find the time to make this work. Some weeks we get to them, some weeks we do not.
1.) I work for a large national financial company in a retail setting where I am interrupted constantly by my directs. We can be very busy.
2.) Furthermore I am expected to spend a significant amount of time on the floor observing and coaching my directs (feedback) on their sales approach.
3.) We are in sales. If there are customers needing helped, I feel compelled to cut-short an O3 for the sake of helping my direct make $ through seeing a customer needing their help.
Summary: I am thinking very seriously about going to monthly O3's for the sake of maintaining consistency. For those directs that need more hands-on guidance from me, I may continue the weekly O3's, but for the others...I AM FRUSTRATED!
I welcome your thoughts...
Maestro
Ask your directs for input
Could you use your O3s to ask your directs for input? Maybe they have suggestions on how this could be solved. I sure know that my directs do not like it when we have to skip one week....
Your problem (1) is not an argument to have no weekly O3s. It actually is an argument to have them. Why do they need to interrupt you? How do they do on a day that you are out of the office? Can they take some decisions themselves? Regular O3s (including appropriate feedback and coaching on this issue) should reduce the need for interruptions, liberating your time for more O3s and other work.
Re (2): So? 40-11*0.5=34.5 hours left.... Do not confuse coaching and feedback. Do you give positive feedback?
Re (3): How often is it impossible to have a customer wait another 15 minutes? Is it possible to let another direct answer the call?
Your glass is more than half-full..
Maestro: To repeat the phrase often used on the podcasts and on these discussion boards:
"Don't let the perfect become the enemy of the good."
You're not a blasphemer; you're a real-life manager trying to institute change in the real world. Good for you!
I suspect that what you're doing now is having a positive impact (even though it's not textbook "perfect"). And making a blanket ruling - changing to monthly - may reduce some of the frustration you're feeling, but also reduce the good impact you're having.
What I'm getting at is that maybe you need to work on the source of your FRUSTRATION rather than change your efforts at managing. To the extent that your frustration is because you're not "living up" to the model, try to let that go.
"The road is better than the inn." - Cervantes
Take some pride that you're on the path - and that you'll get better at it the longer you do it.
-Hugh
Some Suggestions
My company practices O3's for over 10 years, so most of us have found a way to make this work.
Half and hour once a week is still ideal. However, based on your situation, once (or may be twice) a month should be sufficient as you do have interaction with them on the floor anyway.
Before answering this, I talked to two of our call center supervisors to ask how they manage their team (They have about 15 directs each.)
Both of them have monthly O3's. One of them staggered the meetings throughout the month, with each meeting taking up to 45 mins some time. This works out well for her as she can still maintain her regular walk-the-floor schedule.
The other blocked out a chunk of time each week for some of the meetings. This also works for her.
I want to also throw in a couple of general suggestions:
- Not everyone needs the same frequency: - Usually when people are new, they may need more direction, so they may need weekly. As the skills and trust develop, it can be stretched out to bi-weekly or monthly. I prefer bi-weekly as it allows some flexibility with travel schedule.
- Build interruptions or cancellation into the expectations and planning: - I report to an executive VP, which means that he travels a lot, and there are always urgent and important meetings that took priority over my O3. We dealt with it by my scheduling weekly 1-hour O3 with him. I would be very lucky if I get two consecutive weeks when the meeting actually happens. But having it on schedule means that we get to meet at least once a month.
Stick with It
It looks like your directs' buckets should be sufficiently full to have healthy weekly O3s. I wish I had enough fuel for my O3s as you do!!
Maybe your directs don't feel empowered enough to make their own decisions. Maybe they should store their intended interrupts into their weekly bucket. If your directs keep interrupting you, this might be a time for some quick adjusting feedback. Give them the smaller balls on your plate to juggle. And then help them if they drop any.
You can quickly give feedback while on the floor. As for coaching - yes, they are different - you can take notes of what you see and use the last five minutes of your O3 to coach. I don't imagine you need to spend THAT much time walking around to prepare yourself to deliver some quality coaching.
I agree with having someone else field the customers while you're in your O3. Interrupting it for a customer might be likened to giving your direct a fish, while doing the O3 (and the feedback and coaching) is like teaching him to fish.
You mentioned that one of your directs is manager of some of the non-directs with whom you are conducting O3s. Is your manager-direct doing O3s with his/her directs? That would free you up from doing the skip-levels.
You're on the right path - keep it going!
BJ
Thanks for the Advice
Thank you for the suggestions. It helps to have someone reaffirming your thoughts, or contradicting them as it may be. In this particular case, I already felt like some of my directs required more direction than others, so I plan to approach my O3 with that in mind. It is good to hear that this particular setup works well for your call center managers.
Once again, thank you for the suggestions. It truly helps!
Maestro
My advice: * Do the O3's
My advice:
* Do the O3's weekly - 7 is not that many to do.
* Do them while the two of you are stocking shelves together if you have to.
* O3's are about them - not about giving direction
* Skip level meetings have nothing to do with O3's and you are not off the hook for those
-Rob Redmond
http://www.strugglingmanager.com