With so much uncertainty in the world right now turning up the heat and pressure, employees are having a tough time.
So if you’ve noticed your teammates being stressed or disengaged—now more than ever is a time for patience and understanding!
As leaders, we face the same challenges that our teammates do. But we also have the responsibility to try to make connections and understand their struggles—and one of the best ways to do that is through one-on-one meetings.
When done well, one-on-ones create a safe space for your team members to open up about their challenges.
But there’s a fine line here… because you don’t want the meeting to turn into a venting session. Does this sound familiar??
If you have a sensitive or struggling teammate, you might sit down prepared for a productive conversation, only to end up feeling like the dumping ground for their stress and frustration.
So how do you create balance?
How do you make a safe space for teammates to share their struggles, while helping them regain a positive outlook?
From Negative to Positive: Learning to Reframe Struggles In The One-On-One
When a meeting takes a negative downturn, it’s helpful to reinforce the purpose of the meeting.
You might say something like, “I want our one-on-ones to be a time where you feel supported and can make progress, even when things are tough.”
There are a few specific ways you can make space for struggles without letting those challenges dominate the time:
- Invite your team member to share about the difficult situation, but don’t get stuck just talking about how bad it is. Instead, turn the focus to possible solutions by asking what they want to do next and how you can support them through it.
- Invite them to recognize something positive from the past week by asking, “What’s a small win we can celebrate together?” If they struggle to answer, share your recollection of how they handled something well or produced a good result.
- Reframe struggles as growth opportunities, and acknowledge your teammate for making progress in the face of the challenges.
- Ask your teammate what they would be enthusiastic to learn or get better at, and help them incorporate that goal into their workload so they have something to be excited about.
- Wrap up the meeting with forward momentum, inviting them to establish at least one positive, actionable goal for the week ahead.
If you test these strategies and they don’t produce immediate results, don’t be discouraged! It takes some practice to use these approaches with grace. With each one-on-one, you have a chance to try again, learning how to ask the right questions and better support your team.
Has this been helpful for you?
These tips are just a tiny peek at what I will be sharing in my upcoming March 20th workshop, “More Than a Meeting.” If you feel like you aren’t making progress with one-on-one meetings, this workshop may provide the breakthrough you need.
What’s Included in the Workshop?
“More Than a Meeting” is a three-hour, interactive workshop where you will discover a new approach to one-on-ones, create a tailored agenda, and gain live feedback from other leaders in the workshop.
The tips I shared above are part of the Troubleshooting Guide, which is just one of five core resources for leading one-on-ones that drive impact:
- A Personalized One-on-One Meeting Structure. I will share my base framework for productive one-on-ones along with tips for how to tailor it to your leadership style and team dynamics. Through the workshop exercises and discussions you will fine tune your personalized meeting structure that you can try out right away.
- An Action Plan for Implementation. Filling your hands with resources won’t help unless you know how to apply it! So we will spend time establishing clear next steps for improving your one-on-ones. You’ll come out of the session knowing exactly what to do next.
- Conversation Starters & Question Prompts. The most impactful one-on-ones are meaningful discussions, not just status updates or one-sided monologues. This guide will help you use a coach approach to ask the right questions and engage your teammate, turning a potentially boring meeting into a productive discussion.
- One-On-One Troubleshooting Guide. This is a brand new guide that breaks down some of the biggest challenges you’ll face when leading one-on-one meetings and provides tips for how to handle them. These killer prompts will help keep your meetings focused and positive, while still making space for your teammates’ struggles.
- Workshop Summary & Key Insights.There will be loads of insightful content delivered in this three hour workshop, and it will be a lot to take in. As a special bonus, all participants will get a condensed summary and insights document with the best practices covered in the session. You’ll be able to reference this document along with the workshop replay later when you start implementing your action plan.
Early Bird pricing ends soon, so don’t delay signing up!
Why Join “More Than a Meeting”?
After working with hundreds of clients and reaching nearly 1000 hours of one-on-one coaching, there is one thing I have found to be true across industries:
➡️ One-on-one meetings lay the foundation for productive communication with your direct reports.
But most leaders aren’t taught how to hold effective one-on-one meetings.
As a result, most one-on-ones end up being poorly-structured discussions that waste time by focusing on status updates or meandering through whatever topics come up in the moment..
I created “More Than a Meeting” to show you how to turn one-on-ones into your most powerful leadership tool—not the least favorite item on your to-do list.
“After working with Wendy, my approach to one-on-ones has changed entirely. I now focus on being present to the conversation so I can understand their strengths, gain their input about how to reach our goals, and provide better support and guidance to my team.” — Brenda Briggs, VP of Sales & Marketing at Rice Fruit Company
The workshop starts on Thursday, March 20th, at 1pm ET/10am PT. Afterwards, you’ll have full access to the resources and replay. Sign up now!
You’ll want to jump in right away, before the Early Bird pricing expires.
P.S. You can get an additional workshop discount when three or more leaders from your company register. Please reply to this email so I can apply the group discount for you… on top of the special Early Bird price!