One Meeting Minute Thought for Your Week
If you’re like me, you’re constantly trying to find the best one on one meeting questions.
Because you know the positive impact you can have when you meet individually with your direct reports.
But I recently heard some interesting data that got my attention and caused me to find a way to make my individual meetings with my team members even better.
I’m trying out some new one on one meeting questions and have already had positive feedback from my team.
Here’s what’s working for us.
7 one on one meeting questions that are working for my team
Before our regularly scheduled weekly meetings I send an email to my direct reports asking them to be thinking about these 7 questions:
Keep reading to find out what led me to these particular questions.
Here’s what I asked my team.
When you think back over the past week:
- On a scale of 1 (least) to 5 (most), how would you rate your joy, energy, and fulfillment over the past week?
- What aspects of your work (tasks, relationships, etc.) have brought you the most joy, energy, and fulfillment?
- On a scale of 1 (least) to 5 (most), how would you rate your frustration level over the past week?
- What aspects of your work (tasks, relationships, etc.) have brought you the most frustration?
- From your perspective, what’s your most meaningful contribution over the past week?
- What’s one thing I can do over the next week to help you increase your joy, energy, and fulfillment, decrease your frustration, and contribute more?
- What’s one thing you would like to do over the next week to help you increase your joy, energy, and fulfillment, decrease your frustration, and contribute more?
My team’s appreciating the conversations we’re having based on the input they give me.
And I’m not surprised!
Here are my thoughts about why these questions are so powerful.
The power in these 7 one on one meeting questions
I’ve found during my 30+ year career that every person wants these things:
- They want to know how they’re doing.
- They want to experience a positive connection with their manager.
- They want to know they’re contributing in a meaningful way to the business.
- They want to experience joy, energy, and fulfillment.
- They want to reduce their level of frustration.
These 7 one on one meeting questions facilitate a discussion between an employee and a manager to support all these outcomes.
Employees can see progress in the most important areas
Tracking their levels of joy, energy, and fulfillment each week along with their level of frustration helps them (and me) keep score of these metrics.
They know if they’re making consistent progress on maintaining and improving their emotional state and mindset at work.
Talking about the positive and negative feelings invites, but doesn’t force, discussion of their full range of emotions.
This depth of conversation deepens the connection between the employee and their manager.
Both people are given the opportunity to build trust and increase the openness and vulnerability in their relationship – at a pace that’s appropriate for both parties.
Employees can have confidence in knowing they’re contributing to the business
Increased joy, energy, and fulfillment and decreased frustration won’t last long if you’re not adding value to the business.
No one feels good about themselves when they don’t think they’re contributing.
And, no good business keeps employees in roles where they don’t add value.
If you and your manager aren’t careful, your positivity and your jobs may go away!
Employees who can’t consistently identify how they’re contributing to the business in a meaningful way every week need to make changes.
Through open discussion with their manager, they need to find ways to change their assignments, so their level of contribution is increased.
These one on one meeting questions create the opportunity for this discussion.
Employees can experience the satisfaction of influencing their circumstances
The best coworkers I’ve had want to influence their circumstances.
They don’t just let things happen to them and act like they’re victims.
Leaders who make the biggest impact look for ways to act – before external forces act on them!
And they experience satisfaction when they see the people and things around them change for the better because of the steps they take.
One on one meeting questions 6 and 7 produce an action-oriented mindset in the supervisor and the employee.
The manager learn how they can take action to support their employee.
But that’s not enough.
And it’s not the most important step.
The employee must have an owner’s mindset and embrace accountability for their own work and career.
The origin of these 7 one on one meeting questions
When I introduced these one on one meeting questions to my team, I explained where I got the idea.
I was listening to an episode of the Coaching for Leaders podcast hosted by Dave Stachowiak while I was walking Zoey and Maewyn (my fabulous girl dogs).
As you probably know by reading my content, that’s a common occurrence.
I walk those furry girls every morning and evening and Dave’s podcast is always on my playlist.
In the episode in my ears for this walk around my neighborhood, Dave and his guest, Jim Harter – Chief Scientist for the Workplace at Gallup, were talking about hybrid and remote work and the current data on the topic.
But that wasn’t what caught my attention.
This statistic is what made me pause:
- Managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement.
Then I really started listening when I heard Dave read this quote from Jim’s book:
“When our chief scientist was asked to define as specifically as possible the most important habit of a great manager, the answer is this: one meaningful conversation per week with each team member.”
Culture Shock by Jim Clifton and Jim Harter
Clearly having regular one on one meetings between employees and their managers is the key factor in building and maintaining team engagement.
And this second quote from the book Culture Shock was even more alarming:
“Globally, nearly eight in 10 employees are not engaged or are actively disengaged at work. In the U.S., itʼs almost seven in 10. These people are spending their workday watching the clock, intentionally working against their employer or planning their escape — a symptom of an unhappy workplace.”
Culture Shock by Jim Clifton and Jim Harter
I’ve maintained a consistent habit of having a weekly meeting (25 minutes) with each of my direct reports.
But after hearing this data I knew I needed to improve our process.
We needed a bit more structure to get the most benefit from our time together.
That’s what sparked me to create these 7 one on one meeting questions.
And I built them based on another productivity tool that’s working great for our team.
The influence of the 6 Types of Working Genius
My team members and I each took the 6 Types of Working Genius assessment, and I created our team map using the assessment results.
I do this for my clients through my coaching and consulting business and in my day job with my direct reports and project teams.
The insight my immediate team’s gained about the type of work we’re each designed to do has significantly impacted our productivity (in a positive way!)
We’ve allocated tasks so people are doing things that bring them Joy, Energy, and Fulfillment.
In other words, we’ve assigned them work so they’re using their 2 Working Geniuses.
And, we’ve tried our best to limit the work team members must do using their Working Frustrations.
So it was natural for me to combine the terminology we use regularly from the 6 Types of Working Genius framework into these 7 one on one meeting questions.
This excerpt from the Working Genius website makes the connection obvious.
“The 6 types of Working Genius is a new model that helps people discover their natural gifts and thrive in their work and life. When people are able to better understand the types of work that bring them more energy and fulfillment and avoid work that leads to frustration and failure, they can be more self-aware, more productive and more successful.”
WorkingGenius.com
Before I start the one on one meeting with a member of my team, I review their 6 Types of Working Genius Assessment.
And I think about it as I’m listening to them answer the 7 one on one meeting questions.
When they’re done, I share my screen so we can both see their Geniuses and Frustrations and we compare their comments with their current work assignments.
We talk about whether their frustration level is the result of external forces, which we generally can’t control and must still deal with or caused by the type of work they’re responsible for, which we do have the power to influence.
So far, we’ve confirmed that their assignments match their Working Geniuses and levels of joy, energy, and fulfillment are generally high.
This supports what I’ve said so many times before.
The 6 Types of Working Genius model works!
If you’re curious about what’s in a 6 Types of Working Genius Assessment Report, here’s the summary page from my assessment.
More Resources to Help You Build Your Career and Your Business
Listen to the full Coaching for Leaders podcast episode:
✅ “The Questions to Help Figure Out Hybrid and Remote Work, with Jim Harter” (click here)
The entire episode is worth listening to but jump to 21 minutes into the episode to hear Dave and Jim discuss the importance of managers and one on one meetings with their team members.
Learn more about the 6 Types of Working Genius productivity tool and framework (including how you can use it to improve your meetings!) in this M4 issue:
✅ “How To Reduce Frustration In Your Meetings Using The 3 Stages Of Work” (click here)
And Now a Word from Our Sponsors
I’m going to give an unfunded advertisement for Dave Stachowiak and his Coaching for Leaders podcast.
It only seems right since Dave and his guests have made such a big impact on my leadership development.
If you’re a faithful reader of M4 – the Monday Morning Meeting Minute you know today’s reference to a Coaching for Leaders podcast episode isn’t the first.
I’ve included content from Dave’s podcast many times before.
And you can be sure I’ll be sharing more from the Coaching for Leaders podcast in future M4 issues.
Check out the Coaching for Leaders website (click here) and listen to the podcast often to continually improve as a leader.
That’s All for this Issue
If you found these 7 one on one meeting questions helpful, please try them out you’re your teams.
They’ve worked exceptionally well for me and my direct reports.
I’m confident you and your employees will find them valuable too.
Let’s lead with kindness and confidence!
Greg
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