Are you happy with your work? What are your career goals? What problems have you encountered in the past week that need solving?
These are the regular questions that managers should be asking each of their direct reports. But doing so in a group setting is inappropriate, and doing so over email is impersonal. The best medium? A good old-fashioned one-on-one meeting.
Whenever there’s a problem, a challenge, or simply a time to talk about things outside of work, nothing is as effective as a one-on-one meeting between a manager and an individual contributor to catch up and stay on the same page.
At Milyli, Senior Automation Engineer Lissa Errea meets with her manager once a week.
“One-on-one meetings have been crucial to my growth,” Errea said. “My manager and I usually take some time for some lighthearted socializing and to connect as people. This was true before we started working remotely, but it is especially important now that we’re remote.”
One-on-one meetings can take many different forms. That’s why Built In Chicago sat down with Errea to learn more about what her one-on-one meetings are like at Milyli, and how they’ve helped her build a stronger relationship with her manager.
What they do: Milyli builds secure, intuitive software that makes managing sensitive information tasks easier.
1. Agenda, optional. Communication? Necessary.
Usually, my manager will start the meeting by asking how things are going and anything urgent on my mind. After that, we review department priorities or dive into a planned topic. Ahead of the meeting, we'll connect over Slack about topics to jump into during our meeting but not necessarily build a formal agenda around them.
Once the pandemic hit and we went remote, we switched to a once-a-week cadence to ensure that we were communicating more often. My manager made a conscious effort to stay connected to my work and projects and keep communication flowing during such challenging times.
2. Dig deep, then strategize.
One-on-one meetings have been crucial to my growth. My manager often asks if I am happy with my position, how my goals are shaping and progressing, and what I want to do in the future at Milyli with my career. It requires honesty and clarity about what I need and where I want to go with my career growth. We then strategize ways to reach those goals and take actionable steps to realize those ideas.
We usually take some time for some lighthearted socializing and to connect as people.’’
3. Be human first.
My manager and I have a good rapport, and it's important to note that the one-on-ones are not all business. We usually take some time for some lighthearted socializing and to connect as people. This was true before we started working remotely, but it is especially important now. Remote workplaces have special challenges communicating and interacting with team members, and we do our best to mitigate that.
Also, shared respect for our work and peers allows us to engage professionally, strategically and casually. We want the whole team to succeed, and when working with each other, we talk about how to do that frequently and candidly. That transparency at Milyli ultimately builds a lot of mutual respect and, in having those conversations, brings up a lot of goals and ambitions that drive a career — or just your average, everyday project — forward.
