Kent Blumberg, an American life coach, mandates individual conversations with his employees. He claims that this effectively tracks the execution of monthly results, makes it easier to handle criticism, and provides feedback.
Written by: Mr. Ratka Jurković
www.svanconsulting.com
In an era of overstated team influence, the individual and their contribution to the company’s work, as well as the development of their career, have been pushed into the background. However, every employee wants to know whether and how important a factor they are in the company, which is why personal communication, or one-on-one conversations between managers and employees, is a very important factor in so-called individual career development. The one-on-one conversation or so-called one-on-one session is a form of communication that allows for more open and focused discussions. Many managers use it as one of the auxiliary tools in the personal development of their team members.
Such structured conversations, usually once a month, allow for a more relaxed tone and a range of topics from business to personal. They are an ideal opportunity for constructive criticism, which should not be a one-way street, i.e., the boss criticizing the employee, but rather a conversation in which the employee can also express their opinion about the manager. Additionally, such conversations are an excellent opportunity to monitor the execution of monthly tasks for each employee. Employees can be more clearly informed about what is exactly expected of them and how their tasks fit into the fulfillment of the overall team goals. Capable managers can create what every company desires, but very few have – a loyal employee. Kent Blumberg, an American life coach, mandates conversations with each employee. To avoid unpleasant surprises at the end of the year and to better know his employees, he holds one-on-one conversations with each of them once a month. In this way, according to Blumberg’s claim, the monthly fulfillment of set goals is ensured.
Checking Teamwork
Blumberg’s first rule is that both parties prepare before the conversation. The employee prepares a brief summary of the agreed tasks from the last conversation. They gather data on how much of what was planned has actually been executed and what potential problems they are facing. He, as the superior, also reviews the list of goals set for each employee, as well as data about other team members with whom he has already held individual or team meetings. Although he allocates one hour for each employee’s conversation, past experiences show that in most cases, the conversations do not last that long. The conversation begins with the employee presenting a report on completed tasks and any problems encountered during execution. Together they try to find a solution to the problem, but Blumberg usually accepts the solution provided by the employee.
What the employee gains in this part of the meeting is feedback on their monthly performance. Blumberg emphasizes that feedback is one of the key elements of both monthly and daily goal execution. It is not something that is given once a month (just like criticism) but immediately after a job well done. In this way, employees know exactly what is expected of them, but they also feel that their work and efforts are primarily noticed and then appreciated. In this part of the meeting, he will also discuss the work of individual employees in the team, i.e., what was good and what was bad in the team environment in which the employee works. After that, comes what most superiors do not like to hear, which is feedback about their work. Blumberg does this by asking questions, for example: ‘What do you think about my management style in your specific example? Does it suit you, or could I change something?’
Minutes from the Conversation with the Boss
Every three months, Blumberg dedicates additional time to check the career development plan that has been formally established with the human resources department and agrees with the employees on a development plan for the next three months (e.g., seminars the employee wishes to attend, etc.). After the meeting, the employee writes a sort of minutes of everything agreed upon and sends it to Blumberg. This way, nothing agreed upon is forgotten, and a written record of the conversation is left. Blumberg’s experiences show that employees are mostly satisfied with this way of conversing with their superiors. They are more open in communication, and many of them have found such sessions helpful in actively participating in teamwork.
