Underestimation of the 1-on-1 meetings
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Most people have enough meetings schedules throughout the week, however for team managers 1-on-1 meetings with your team members should be top priority.
To my knowledge these are the most underestimated meetings, yet so powerful. We all know the team meetings in which for the bigger part information is a one way stream from the presenter, in most cases information from the management to its employees. The goal for these team meetings is usually providing information, which of course is or could be important. In most cases this information has no immediate effect or impact on the work that employees need to do right away. Of course there are the exceptional cases, for example the ad hoc team meeting where there is a crisis and action is needed right away from the team and all need to know who is doing what.
The periodic 1-on-1 meetings can be very helpful in the productivity of the team. In stead of employees entering the managers office when they have a question or when they are stuck and interrupt their manager and themselves, setting a time in their agenda and discuss what has been done, what needs to be done and scheduling a follow up meeting is one of the most effective meetings and will increase productivity immensely. In short setting goals and prioritize. Agreeing to a start and end time for this 1-on-1 meeting is important.
Of course don't wait until the next meeting with your manager to discuss how to get unstuck when you cannot move on. For sure these kind of interruptions are necessary in order to maintain productivity, but all of course in moderation and which makes sense.
Yet to my experience you see these kind of 1-on-1 meetings in bigger (corporate) kind of companies and less in smaller companies. Another area is in Sales where these kind of meetings are planned, but less at customer service departments, finance, production or purchasing. There you will see team meetings but less 1-on-1's. Day to day business takes over and all is done on autopilot in the third gear. Levelling up to the next gear, these kind of 1-on-1 meetings could be the way to the success of the company, as well as for the individual team member and of course the manager.
Start getting more productive and more efficient with your manager or team and start planning those 1-on-1's
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