Last week, a senior executive in my company did a session on Having Effective One-To-Ones. It sounds like a really simple topic, but I walked away from it feeling like I learnt a bunch of new things. Here are my key takeaways:
Shitty One-To-Ones
Tell me if any of these scenarios sound familiar to you:
The Ramble: You have a lot on your mind. Your manager asks, “So how’s work going?” and you launch into a tirade of different problems, wins, and your frustrations that John from Legal is being such a pain in the ass. Your manager’s questions only serve to bring the conversation down another rabbit hole. You walk away from the one-to-one feeling even more confused than ever.
The Status Update: You spend an hour preparing updates about your work, and go through it in painstaking detail with your manager. Your manager’s eyes start glazing over. She fiddles...