Where and when do you delegate to your employees? The more often and sooner, the better so there's no need to wait to create a barrier to delegating.

But while you are developing your management skills and while your employees are getting more used to delegation, you will find it easier and more successful to delegate in your One on One meetings with your employees as I explain in this article.

Tip: Improve your delegation manager skills. Is your delegation working for you? Take the Work Delegation Checkup to find out.

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One on One Meetings With Employees: The Heart of your Management Practice:

Firstly I want to make a special mention of your one on one meetings with employees because this meeting is more important than delegating to your employees. That's because you can take care of almost all of your management duties in this single meeting, which minimizes interruptions and saves you time. Whether you need to give performance communication, build relationships, delegate to your employees, develop your employees, follow up deliverables or anything else - this meeting is the perfect place to do it in. And setting up regular meetings is the best guarantee to keep things moving forward.

Just like delegation is an essential management skill that they don't teach you in school, the ability to run a One on One Meeting with Your Employees is another essential manager skill. Managers who don't think that One on One employee meetings are an effective and efficient way to manage employees are usually the managers who haven't been shown how to get the most out of these meetings. I know because no-one ever taught me how to have great one on one meetings, what to do, what to say, what agenda to follow, what forms to use etc. I had to research best practice and test to find the best way to have one on one meetings.

That's why I give managers a quick and easy way to start One on One meetings with their employees in this short course. And you can access it for free over here:

Why One on One Meetings are a Good Place to Delegate:

  • Safe Place: While you are practicing your delegation skills, this is a safe, controlled environment. You're not going to be interrupted and you have your employees undivided attention

  • Reminder: When you have regular One on One Meetings, they are a great reminder to delegate something, in this way you get to keep practicing your management skills while allocating more of your responsibilities to your employees

  • Follow up: Sometimes the best intentions fail purely to a lack of follow up. Schedule regular One on Ones and you won't just have a regular reminder for yourself. Your employees will also know that they better have some results to show you in the next meeting

  • Time Efficient: Some managers think One on One meetings are just another meeting that takes up time on an already busy schedule. Managers who know how to run One on One meetings know that they save them time because it's an efficient time slot to group communications. And One on One meetings minimise those annoying interruptions that make being a manager such a hard job.

Helpful Resource: Plan and keep track of your delegations with a One on One Meeting Template. Get this and more in the free, online course: 3 Steps 2 Easy 1 on 1s

Next Steps

A regular, high quality One-on-One Meeting practice makes managing easy by combining all of your responsibilities into one efficient time slot. One-on-one meetings are also a good place to delegate. Find out how to improve your own delegation skills with delegation training. Delegation Essentials is a free, online management training course.

Tip: Doing the course will enable you to get a certificate for your resume.

Comments:

Do you have any delegation comments, questions or tips? Perhaps you've had experience delegating to employees in weekly one-on-one meetings. Please help the rest of us out by sharing in the comments below...