Note: This article is part of the series on Management Problems You Can Fix With One on Ones. If you’ve never formally learnt one on one best practices before then 3 Steps 2 Easy 1 on 1’s will show you how. (Includes a free one on one meeting template)

Are you battling with employees who:

  • Don’t take ownership for their work?
  • Miss deadlines?
  • Produce poor quality work?
  • Don’t meet your expectations?

Well you’re not alone. There are two types of managers: those that have had a poor performer on their team and those that are lying about it. And it doesn’t matter what sector you work in – Sales, Customer Service, Finance or IT. Or if you’re in government or private sector. Underperformance, bad quality work and missed deadlines are three basic performance issues.

What I’m going to share with you is this high quality Employee One-on-One practice is going to improve employee performance with particular focus on keeping work on time and moving forward.

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You see all poor performers started off as an exciting new hire. So where does it go wrong?

Managing People is Hard

What I usually hear managers complaining about is a lack of skills, bad attitude, low diligence and poor motivation. And if you leave them alone, they’re not going to get better on their own. You can start with a shiny new employee but neglect your One-on-One meetings with them and eventually you’ll be left with an employee whose performance stresses you out. And the only things preventing you from firing them is the pain of:

  • Going through the performance dismissal process, paperwork and distress. And then,
  • Recruiting and training a replacement.  

But it’s  not all doom and gloom. As the old saying goes, “If you can’t be with the one you love - love the one you’re with.” And there’s a surprisingly simple management technique that you can use to get better employee performance from the staff you already have.

Weekly One on One Meetings With Staff Improve Employee Performance and Productivity

Regular, high quality one on one meetings with staff are the “Heartbeat of Managing” because they keep things moving forward. It’s too easy for things to fall behind. Something urgent comes up, we get distracted and something else get’s shifted to the back-burner. This happens to you and your employees.

But when you have weekly one on one meetings these keep work on time and on track. This works for your employees and for you too.

Weekly One on Ones Keep Your Employees on Track

Let’s face it - even the best employees perform better with a little follow up and positive reinforcement. Weekly one on one meetings with staff create a forum for your employees to give you status updates:

  • What they’re working on,
  • What they’re struggling with,
  • What’s running behind and,
  • Any potential problems.

That’s how you can use weekly One on One meetings to help your employees stay on track. Instead of finding out afterwards when it’s too late.

Weekly One on Ones Keep You on Track

Performance and productivity is a team effort. It’s not just about keeping your employees on track. It’s about keeping bosses on track too. For me personally, weekly one on one meetings with staff are the drumbeat that keep me moving forward.

As a boss it’s so easy to shift deadlines when things get a little hectic. But when you know that your employees are relying on input and guidance from you to get their job done then there’s no room for slacking off.

Secret Ninja Manager Skill - Making Employees Even More Productive

Here’s my Secret Ninja Manager Skill to make your employees even more productive in their One-on-Ones:

You see the thing is that there is a good way and a bad way to run a One-on-One. This applies as much for you the manager as it does your employees. Take it from me - I never used to know what I had to do and what was expected of me in my One-on-Ones. How you show your employees to be productive in the One-on-One meetings is share this free, online video course with them. What will happen then is that they will arrive motivated and prepared.

Wrapping Up

There you have it - quick and easy performance management for you and your staff through one on ones. It’s really so simple it seems obvious. Stick to your weekly One-on-One meetings  and they will free up more of your time to focus on other priorities. It’s tough to quantify the benefits. But anything that results in better people performance is a worthwhile investment.

P.S Are your employee one on ones working? If not it may be an indication that you need to try investing time running awesome One-on-Ones. The complementary course 3 Steps 2 Easy 1 on 1’s will show you a quick and easy way to have high quality one on ones. (Includes a free one on one meeting template). Doing them right is the easiest way to get better employee performance and productivity.

Comments:

Do you have any comments, questions or advice about the value of using weekly one-on-one meetings to Improve employee performance and productivity? Please help the rest of us out by sharing in the comments below.