How to Improve Frustrating Meetings with Direct Reports

If you are like most business leaders, you are spending 20% or more of your time in one-on-one meetings. And you are probably frustrated.

In a recent survey of 4,000 people, Steven Rogelberg, director of organizational science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, found that nearly half the respondents report that such meetings have little value. There are ways you can improve the quality of meetings.

Meeting Cadence

The worst way to structure one-on-one meetings is “as needed.” Of surveyed managers, 49% meet employees weekly for 30 minutes; 22% meet every other week for 45 to 60 minutes.

The preferred cadence is weekly.

Meeting Venue

Of the 4,000 employees surveyed, 51% preferred meetings in the boss’ office. A slightly higher number (52%) preferred neutral conference rooms. Only 29% like meeting with bosses at their own space.

If the meeting is virtual, have proper lighting to remove shadows from your face. On many computers, the camera is higher than the eyes of the person on the screen. The result is that when you look at the screen image, it appears to the person that you are looking down at them with eyes half-closed. When you look directly into the camera, however, you loose visible eye contact.

We recommend that you add a camera to your computer that positions itself at eye level with the person you are communicating with. (Look into devices at icontactcamera.com, plexicam.com, and centercam.com.)

Use Your Mobile Device to Symbolize that Your Employee Is Important

At the beginning of a meeting, take out your mobile device and show the employee that you are turning it off. This sends a powerful signal that the time is important to you.

Too many leaders move their eyes toward their mobile devices with every text message. The eye movement conveys the powerful message “you are not important to me.”

Starting the Meeting

It is natural to begin the meeting by focusing on the most urgent problem. However, starting the meeting this way skews the interaction tactically and negatively. We recommend starting every meeting by asking, “What’s going well?” We recommend your last question be, “What have we not discussed that we should be discussing?”

Another question to consider asking: “What do I need to know or better understand about your work?”

Who Writes the Agenda?

Your direct reports like meetings with clear agendas.

The best agendas are the ones created by subordinates. The worst-rated agendas are the ones created by the boss. Why spend your time creating an agenda when you can outsource that responsibility?

An Hour Has 45 Minutes; Half an Hour Has 20 Minutes

If you set half-hour meetings as 30 minutes and schedule employees back-to-back, you will eventually start meetings late and burn yourself out.

Think of an hour as having 45 minutes. Use the 15 minutes at the end to stretch, use the restroom, get coffee, or read your email. This will help you get refreshed and focused for the next meeting.

Managing Risks

We recommend you use the speech-to-text tool on your mobile device or computer to immediately dictate a meeting summary in an email you send to yourself. Place the text of the email in the employee's files. In this way, you always have a written record of what was discussed in case things blow up.

When meeting with someone of the other sex at your office or conference room, we recommend you keep the door open.

Summary and Conclusions

One-on-one meetings are time-consuming and frustrating. The above ways can help you structure them for more productivity and less risk.