Submitted by Brent on
in
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First off, thanks to M&M for the podcast. It's been revelatory for me.
I've been starting up a small animation company, and most of the company's employees (out of about ten) are just finishing college. We don't have regular office space yet, so we're meeting once a week to collaborate for a few hours, then we work from home the rest of the time.
How would you all recommend that I conduct my one-on-ones? If I held one-on-ones during the meeting, I'd have no time to direct the work. I can't ask everyone to hang around for another couple of hours as I go through one-on-ones. I don't think I have time to drive around to each person's house each week.
I've been thinking about holding one-on-ones over the phone during the week, as a "least bad" solution. But I'm open to any and all suggestions.
View from the coal-face
You're getting these guys to provide their own premises, and they don't have the benefit of rubbing shoulders with each other or with you on a regular basis. Keeping them motivated and on-track is going to be a real challenge. If you don't make house calls, both scheduled and unscheduled, I don't think you're going to get their best performance.
One-on-Ones when not physically co-located?
Brent-
Over the phone is fine for one on ones. It's normal, routine, and done in hundreds of places... no sweat. Tell them what you're doing and why, and make the phone time sacred: be dead on time. When I did them, I did the calling, so THEY didn't lose THEIR time with me because THEY were delayed for some reason.
I agree with Garth that visits are good, but I wouldn't do them but once a month.
Mark
Feedback when co-located
Do you have any recommendations for how to observe behavior by and give feedback to directs that are co-located? With co-location my observation of their behavior is limited to reading their emails, to their behavior in my weekly telcon 1-1s or through their behavior that I can observe in joint telcons or meetings (very occasional). Also, what is the best format to give that feedback. Do I wait until the weekly 1-1 or do I call them 1x per day and use that to give feedback? Txs for your advise.
One-on-Ones when not physically co-located?
Thanks for the replies, folks!
Fortunately, I've had no problems keeping them motivated. Communication and feedback have been challenges, though.
I'll look into doing one-on-ones via the phone. Thanks again!
An additional twist on this conversation....
I would really like folks to chime in with suggestions on how to "one-on-one" with a team of 11 direct reports who are located across the Western US. My team consists of 9 Account Execs and 2 Sales Support Product Specialists. I have memebers from Michigan to Hawaii and Washington to Texas.
The greatest challenge is that these team members are on the road, traveling about 4 days a week and usually have a very tight schedule with appointments and meetings.....trying to sell.
At this point, I am thinking....If I could get them to sculpt 30 minutes to "one-on-one", many times it would be on their Cell Phone, driving down the road. Also, it was suggested that these meeting be conducted on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Well, my reps are usually, only in the office on Mondays or 1/2 a day on Friday. Their schedules are constantly changing and I think scheduling a weekly could be a huge challenge.
But....I really want to start "one-on-ones"....So, please give me some help here.
Thanks,
One-on-Ones when not physically co-located?
I'd offload it to them.
To start the ball rolling, tell them, "Okay, I want to talk to you, one-on-one, next week. When's a good time?" Let them figure out a good time.
Then, at some point during that first One-on-One, say, "I want to do this again next week. When would be a good time?" Repeat each week.
I suspect that, within a few weeks, most of your direct reports will settle on a particular day and time.
Of course, that's just my opinion. Others?
One-on-Ones when not physically co-located?
John-
Glad you're thinking one on ones can help. Having been a manager of a team across 3 states, and done virtually all my O3s there over the phone, I can assure you it works, and it's worth every bit of initial stumbling in the first month.
I've tried letting them decide initially and then scheduling a week at a time, and it failed. The changing every week caused us to miss them, [i]because we weren't thinking about it as we built our schedules in advance, and we ended up having no time "next week" when we finished "this week's" O3[/i]. It just fell apart. I wished it hadn't, but it did.
Later, one of my directs said this about that approach. "I thought that would work too and I appreciated your sensitivity to us. But I think the reason it didn't work [see paragraph above] is that by definition with that approach, you were saying everything else and anything else was more important than the O3. And, even if we had something scheduled that we could move, moving it had domino effects that were unpalatable."
So, what did we do? We looked at the last couple of weeks, and we picked a time that was rigid save for airplane flights. And we put it on the calendar first, and virtually inviolable.
We discovered that THAT was what made the difference. Yes, there were potential calls that were moved, and suggested appointments from clients were answered with, "I'm busy then." But the client didn't know that it wasn't another sales call... and at least it wasn't a call on their competitor. Did a really important unmovable meeting get in the way once a quarter? Yes, and I was okay with that.
Did I miss more of them in this role than in a co-located role? Yes. But not a lot more...and the staff loved it. One guy didn't, because he loved selling and being in front of a client was all he wanted to do. He griped about anything other than client time. And he was my top producer. But a year after I left, he was last on the team, because he hadn't changed, and everyone else had switched models and blown past him.
Look, your folks ARE taking time during their days to do other stuff. It's only a question of priority. I've been a sales guy, and was very good at it (National #1). But it's not just reasonable for the boss to spend time with us, it's necessary. It's not too much to ask, and if you believe in something, it's worth accepting some pain for what will be a big (if not immediately apparent dollar) gain.
And one more thing: throw out our guidance about Monday and Friday. That's for co-located teams. If that's when they're NOT in front of clients, DO IT THEN!!!!
Let us know how it goes.
Mark