33 mins: Have better one-on-one meetings

What you'll learn:

One of our most underrated people tools: one-on-one meetings. The biggest issue? Most treat them as a status update, missing the chance to build genuine engagement and uncover issues early.

As an executive people leader at Emerging Engines, Rachael Fitzjohn navigates complex workplaces on a daily basis. She has been on both sides of countless one-on-ones and knows the difference between meetings that energise vs drain. She shares five ways you can quickly fix yours:

1️⃣ Support, not status: Ask ‘How’s your week feeling?’ instead of ‘How’s that project going?’ You want to catch problems when they’re small. Meet weekly, fortnightly or monthly – less and you’ll miss warning signs.

2️⃣ Keep feedback separate: Save tough conversations for their own time. Use one-on-ones for quick checks: ‘Is anything I’m doing making your job harder?’

3️⃣ Show up prepared: Come with two things to discuss. Be present and follow through. If you’re always distracted, people stop sharing the important stuff.

4️⃣ Share the agenda: Start with ‘What do you want to talk about?’ Both people should get value, not just whoever’s running it.

5️⃣ Mix it up: Walking chats when energy is low, reset chats when tension is rising, career talks when they’re ready to grow.

Busy team? Don’t let one-on-ones become another project meeting. You have other meetings for work updates. This one is for the human stuff – how people are doing, what they need, and where they want to go.

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