Mark and Mike discuss the single most effective management tool - the one-on-one.

Mark and Mike continue their discussion on the single most effective management tool available today - the weekly one-on-one.

In the podcast, we refer to both a written summary of the key points for conducting one-on-ones, as well as a form useful for documenting your one-on-ones.

In today’s show we continue our conversation on one-on-ones. In addition to a brief review (very brief — not a substitute for listening to the previous two shows!), we review a number of questions and finer points:

1. I did one, and it was extremely awkward. How long will it take to get used to them?
2. In the first one, some of my folks were scared - why?
   In my first one, they didn’t seem too open to share personal info - what can I do about that?
3. My folks didn’t like me taking notes. What do I do?
4. I don’t like taking notes - can I just chat with them?
5. How do I follow up on old items?
6. What do I do if someone keeps reporting that they haven’t done something? I’ve got a forum to talk to them, but what do I say?
7. How can I reduce my folks coming to me between O3s with stuff that is best covered in the O3?
8. What if someone doesn’t show?
9. What if my team is spread across the entire continent, or one of my folks is travelling that week … Can I do these over the phone? And if so, what should I do differently?

One of the most challenging aspects of being a manager is leading people who are remote to you. Sometimes it’s one team member being offsite; sometimes entire teams are spread across the country or even the globe, or even just across a corporate campus. All these situations are examples of “virtual” teams…and managing a virtual team is notably harder than managing a group that are co-located. And, these suggestions work well for project teams that may be in the same location but are matrixed together.

This cast addresses the special difficulties virtual teams present. First, we briefly discuss teams in general, and then we outline the three specific steps a ‘virtual’ manager can take to turn her workgroup into a team:

1. Pay special attention to hiring and interviewing,
2. Spend money to have a face to face meeting, and
3. Special rigor about team communications.

This cast describes how to schedule your One on Ones.

We get lots of questions on One on Ones (O3s). And, we’re happy that we do, because O3s are the heart of the Management Trinity. We find a lot of managers struggle with when to have their one on ones, whose calendar takes precedence, what days of the week are best, etc.

In this cast, we talk about ALL those factors, as well as the benefits of varying techniques that we’ve seen different managers use to schedule their O3s.

We finish with the single most important guidance regarding O3 scheduling you’ll ever hear, so stay tuned.

Today, we finish our discussion on the fine art of Scheduling One-on-Ones.

How can you have a great One on One with your boss?

How can you get the the most out of the most valuable recurring communication investment you make? This is an important question … and it seems that a lot of managers DO NOT ask it. Some of the managers who are quite good at running their OWN O3s aren’t very good at getting the most out of their time with their boss. Frankly, we think that if they reported to themselves, they’d be disappointed in their direct.

We’ve been watching managers for years, and we have some recommendations for how you can be most effective when you’re the direct.

(But to be clear: We never recommend managing your boss. Never.)

One additional note here: If you are NEW to Manager Tools, the concept of the One on One may not be completely familiar. If so, we recommend you go back and listen to those casts first. While you’re at it, you may want to reference the Manager Tools “Basics” series for the core podcasts outlining our basic thoughts and fundamental practices of effective management.

This cast begins our series on the the Management Trinity, and our reasons for each of its three (four) components: One on Ones, Feedback, Coaching and Delegation.

We’ve talked about the Management Trinity for nearly three years, but we’ve never really laid out specifically how and why it works. The best managers we know use these basic principles all the time to make themselves, their teams, and their organizations more effective.

All of the behaviors and habits in the Management Trinity are simple to understand, relatively easy to do, and give exceptional returns on a manager’s investment.

And that’s why we recommend them.