29th Jan 2011
Sandton, Johannesburg

“People are Key to success”, everyone says this and to some extent do follows the required paradigms to ensure people are motivated and their interests are taken care. However I feel there has to be a program in place to execute initiatives such as Talent engagement and development of people.

One of the best ways to understand people and their aspirations is to meet them in person and conduct 1-on-1 meetings. The traditional approach of conducting Annual Appraisals and limiting it to only monitory corrections doest really help anymore. People are keen to know where the organization is heading. What is the management plan for next 3 years? What is the career plan for each individual and how their growth is aligned in organization? There are thousands of such questions every ambitious employees has. The need today is to create a forum for such employees to come together and raise this. Finally it’s question of theirs & organizations ‘Survival-Growth-Success-Significance’

I think ‘1-on-1 meeting’ is very essential tool and first step towards knowing your people. It is an attempt to create opportunity for one to come up with new ideas and contribute to the final goal. Following 1-on-1 route, you boost confidence in people. They open up and give honest feedback on what is right and what is wrong. This shouldn’t be limited to one sided approach, it is to be aimed to collect feedback from individuals, and also communicate and clarify organizational goal.

1-on-1 can be also conducted as ground for ‘Performance Review’ and then focus on certain key areas like:

Role and Responsibilities

• Communicate role and responsibilities of individual aligned to Management Objectives
• Provide clear direction and quarterly objectives with measures
• Conduct 1-on-1 at the end of every quarter to carry out performance review and revisit next quarter plan
• This has to be mutually agreed and accepted plan

Road ahead

• Show clear picture and organizations vision for next 3 years
• Individuals to commit for the contribution and continuity
• Design your ‘Road Map’ and paint your milestones

Environment and initiatives

• Create and live in healthy environment, make others smiling with your presence of persona
• Take initiative; be proactive to be part of the game than criticizing behind the board.
• Create forums for people to come together and share experiences, help others when are stuck

Performance feedback and Expectations

• Communicate performance feedback as is, and make people understand the gap
• Give opportunity to review and revert with feedback
• Clarify expectations and align future objectives

Corrective measures

• Suggest corrective actions and plan for grooming
• Revisit grooming plan, have assessments in place and review mechanism
• Track progress and communicate

‘1-on-1’ gives opportunity to establish due dates, timelines and significant events to determine ‘go’ and ‘no go’ decisions. These conversations go a long way in helping us to learn about each other. They are essential to team-building and creating meaningful long-term business as well as personal relationships. Every single manager must follow this at team level and there by at organizational level to make people happy, to take organization towards healthy growth.

This is the heart and soul of development towards a larger goal. If you don’t have 1-on-1’s with your people, you are missing the primary tool for moving your people from good to great.