Maximizing one-on-ones with your team helps you develop employee relationships, set expectations, and improve productivity. You can talk about each employee’s successes, priorities, challenges, professional development, and other relevant issues.

Using a template for one-on-ones with your team helps maintain consistency. This list helps ensure you discuss essential topics and can review your notes before leading the next one-on-one.

Choose any of these questions to add to your template to maximize one-on-ones with your team.

How Is Life Outside of Work?

Developing positive relationships with your team is essential for engagement and productivity:

• Asking how your team members are doing shows you care about them as people.
• These discussions support a foundation of value and respect.
• You can bond with your team over common interests.
• You can demonstrate empathy when your team members go through difficult times.

What Are Your Top Priorities for This Week?

Your team must know which projects to focus on each week to best impact your bottom line. Working on these projects enhances productivity and team performance. As a result, you should help your team members enhance their decision-making skills in these areas:

• Which projects are most important
• Which tasks should be prioritized
• The order in which the tasks should be scheduled

Can You Share a Recent Success?

Talking about your team members’ wins helps celebrate their successes:

• You can help your team analyze why their efforts were successful and what they learned from their experiences.
• You can determine what matters most to your team members and which tasks they enjoy.
• You can work with your team to assign similar projects and responsibilities that align with each team member’s strengths and interests.
• Offering new challenges supports employee motivation, job satisfaction, and professional growth.

Can You Share a Recent Situation You Wish You Handled Differently?

Discussing your team members’ situations that could have been handled differently helps uncover employee weaknesses:

• You might encourage opportunities for professional development in these areas.
• You could discover ineffective processes, internal issues, or other organizational issues that need improvement.
• Resolving these issues can help elevate your team’s performance.

Would You Like More or Less Direction from Me?

You want to spend adequate time setting team goals and expectations. Therefore, you should focus on how well your team members feel about the direction you provide:

• If you tend to micromanage, offer additional opportunities to implement ideas and lead projects.
• If you tend to promote independent work, encourage your team to request additional direction and support from you.
• Find a balance between not focusing on every detail and not letting your team members feel isolated.

Which Skills Do You Want to Develop in the Next Few Months?

Part of effective management involves seeing your team develop professionally:

• You should help your team find opportunities for skill development in their desired areas.
• Work with your team to set specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound (SMART) goals for skill development.
• Watching your team members add to their skill sets and improve their work performance helps them advance in their career paths.
• Team members with broader skill sets add more value to your organization.

Do You Need to Add Members to Your Accounting and Finance Team?

Partner with Mercer Bradley to add experienced accounting and finance members to your Manitoba team. Find out more today!

Be sure to look for Part 2: How to Maximize One-on-Ones with Your Leader in November 2023!