How does a small business owner who is extraordinarily busy at the best of times become a great manager? How do you go about managing your people to be their best?

There is one system that is the best training and learning ground for both managers and their direct reports. This system is extremely powerful and effective, and the more often you do it, the faster you’ll move toward your strategic intent.

This system might sound counterintuitive. Some of you are going to say, “But that’s just going to give me more work.” Believe me, if you do this the right way, it will free you up in ways you could never imagine, and at the same time, help your employees on the way to being the best they can be.

Whenever I ask my long-time clients what’s the best system that they’ve ever introduced, and if they had to let go of every system except one, which is the one system they would keep, and they tell me every time this one-on-one employee, or direct report, meeting.

Don’t dismiss the idea out of hand. If you hear yourself saying, “That’s not possible. There’s no time. I’m so busy.” I want you to think, “What if it was possible? What then?”

The way to become a great manager, or supervisor, and have great people who want what you want for themselves, and your business, is to hold regular weekly, or fortnightly, one-on-one meetings with your direct reports. And for them to do the same with their direct reports. (Note on this: make sure that you have this system down pat and you’re comfortable with it before you ask them to work this with their direct reports.)

If you just heard that voice come into your head and say, “How on earth am I going to do that? When will I find the time? I want you to ask that voice to stand back for a moment. Focus on the end result. These meetings are a system.

These meetings go by a number of names. They’re called personal progress meetings, personal development meetings, employee development meetings, respect meetings, one-on-one meetings. The name is totally up to you. The principle is the same.

In this article, I’m going to refer to these meetings as personal progress meetings, or PPMs, because that’s how I think of them. I’m going to give you lots of help here and I’m going to give you my very own personal progress meeting system for you to use and adapt.

What is a Personal Progress Meeting?

A private, one-on-one meeting between a manager and a direct report for the purpose of mentoring them and developing them. Although in good working relationships, the manager or supervisor experiences as much learning and development as the direct report.

Scheduled weekly or fortnightly. Monthly is too far apart. The faster you want your business to move forward, the more frequently you do these meetings.

Scheduled at a regular time so your direct report knows when they will occur. It might be at 4:00 on a Wednesday afternoon, or at 10:30 on a Friday. Whatever it is, keep it regular because this is respecting their space, as well as yours.

Should last around 30 – 40 minutes. Sometimes an hour. But they infrequently reach an hour.

Meeting content – These meetings are there for you to take note of key points, decisions, agreements, commitments covered in the meeting, as well as the tasks and target dates for anything that needs to be completed, and the agreements that have taken place in the discussion.

What a PPM isn’t

It is not a time to go through everything involved with their job, although it can touch on work in progress.

It is not the manager’s criticism-fest. It’s not the time for the manager to talk and tell. It’s about listening.

It is not something to be dreaded or feared. This is something that they look forward to. This is their space.

As I said, it’s not to go over the details of your direct report’s job. But that is sometimes appropriate. It’s intended for their development, and as a way for their manager to learn what’s on their mind, and for them to learn what’s on their manager’s mind as a feedback and evaluation session. It’s a way to encourage them to think about and make suggestions for improvements or opportunities. It’s a time for the supervisor to be a mentor and a coach and it’s a way to put special focus on each direct report to get them more involved in the business, and developing themselves. Ultimately, to help them become more productive which works for everybody’s benefit. It’s to help their thinking so that they know they have permission to think and they learn how to make the right decisions. This goes back to bring me solutions, not problems.

Join me next week for Part II when I discuss the topics you can cover in your Personal Progress Meeting.

Until then…

P.S. Learn more about working ON your business–talk to the coach! Click here to connect with me!