<aside> 👉 1:1s are the most powerful tool in your belt to build relationships, detect looming problems early and get honest insights into your company. Making them valuable is important!
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I usually ask people what makes a 1:1 most valuable to them. You’ll likely get mixed answers, depending strongly on the character. Often people share more about themselves with these answers than expected. Based on outcomes, I would vaguely group it in three types:
The “I want to talk about my work” type
In this case people often prefer to really separate work and personal life as much as possible. It’s very hard to learn anything about them and build a deeper relationship. Often they are also very driven from work, and identify them selves a lot with the productivity they bring to work.
The “Let’s talk about me” type
Some people tend to open up really fast and want to share a lot about them selves. It’s not meant in a negative way of the people being egoistic or anything, but they maybe care for how they are perceived, how they can grow their career, how they can get better at what they do, or happy to share successes they had.
The “I don’t know” type
Yes, you’ll also get these people who might say that they don’t know what to talk about. Expect that these people will also likely not bring much to the 1:1 meeting itself. Sometimes it’s people who are just very self sufficient. Sometimes it’s people who just really don’t like to talk to their manager if they don’t need to.
Regardless of the type, it’s important to build relationships to all of them. It’s important for you to understand them and find the right angle. Maybe the initial meetings are very short and brief, but as you make progress you likely find entry points to talk. Eventually, every worker is worth it to spend time with and you’re main role is to support everyone.
Something I started to really like is the Personal RAG Status
It’s something inspired from product management. RAG stands for
🟥 R: Red
🟧 A: Amber (Orange, but does not sound so nice in the abbreviation)
đźź© G: Green