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I lead a team of 11 commission employees and have been using 1/1 for the last 6 months. In order to guarantee these meeting are kept I spend all day Tues, Wed & Thrs driving from branch to branch to meet with them.

While I am seeing great results and don’t necessarily want to change things I am wondering how much I would lose if I changed these to on the phone rather than in person.

I frequently refer to myself as a Manager Tools Manager and have turned many of my co-workers on to your site! Thank you, for the first time I am actually making headway in leading the troops.

juliahhavener's picture
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They're going to be much more effective in person. You may consider one by phone, one in person, alternating weeks, but I'd (personally) be hesitant to do it because I'd become to 'comfortable' and end up doing them all by phone because it's 'easier'.

Hopefully you're doing all of one branch one day, another on a second day, and the third on the third day, that should at least minimize your travel time.

trandell's picture

You need to weigh the value you are seeing today versus the three days you are spending on the road. Three days of travel and O3s sounds like you have very little time to get the rest of your job done, so your personal well being may be suffering.

Balance is the key. You certainly need to give your people the time they need, but you can't suffer for it.

Here are some suggestions
1. Have your people work from different offices each week so you could maybe get them all spread over three offices one or two days a week so you could cut out one full day of travel.

2. Do one phone O3 per person per month and schedule it so you travel 2 days instead of three.

3. Have your people drive to meet with you one day a month and schedule it so you travel 2 days a week or even 1.

4. Use the 80/20 rule and meet in person with the top 20% of your people every week and every other week in person with the bottom 80%. It's uncanny how the 80/20 rule applies to so many situations, so use it to your advantage if it works here.

In person will certainly be more effective, but if your work is suffering to make that happen every week you need to take a hard look at the return on investment.

Sean McGinnis's picture

I agree with Julia on this one. In my previous life, I managed 12 or more commissioned sales people across 4 or 5 states, necessitating phone one on ones. Today, I manage 19 directs in an office environment, and find my in person one on ones to be much more effective than the "remote" O3s I was forced to conduct previously.

I would encourage you to continue to conduct them in person if possible.

Have you considered moving them to every other week once a strong base has been established?

Dani Martin's picture
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My previous DR's were spread out over 3 states. I did weekly O3's over the phone for 3 years. I am now doing the majority of my O3's in person and am really not seeing any difference. If anything, I sometimes notice that my phone O3's are more focused... or at least I feel like I am more focused. Still trying to figure that one out.

I also utilized the coaching model with all of my DR's over the phone with great success.

aspiringceo's picture

I am in agreement with Dani, I had cause to do some of my O3's on the phone last week and ALL of them on the phone this week and each of them were much more focused then face to face meetings.

Mark's picture
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I'm sorry this has taken me so long. I regret my absence.

Different folks handle different kinds of interactions differently. I wont' tell you what the patterns are regarding DiSC, but they're there.

Find what works for you. Don't go to every other week. A mix of phone and in-person is fine. I prefer face to face, but I'm pretty rigorous about time, and have done THOUSANDS over the phone and they do the job well also.

Again, my apologies.

Mark