Not All Management Tools are Created Equal

Scan the leadership industrial complex landscape, and it feels like Groundhog Day. The same 10 buzzwords. The same 5 voices. The same-style listicles and “quotable” quotes.

If you think an inspiring meme and a hack recommended by Harvard Business Review in a posted article that turns out to be from 2010 will pull you through and get results, you’ll wake up tomorrow disappointed. Again.

As a CEO, you have buck-stops-here responsibility and never-ending demands on your time. You’ve got to have a practical, cohesive, trainable approach to managing in order to carve out the brain space and time to really lead. And your executive team: same deal. A shared management approach, with high-end mutually supporting tools, makes all the difference.

You saw, in a meme or in the latest cookie-cutter book, that 1+1s with your direct reports are the way to go. You put a meeting on the calendar and give it a try. “Seemed to go OK,” you think to yourself, and then you get caught up in other things and only remember months later to schedule a follow-up. Maybe after a few 1+1s, you find yourself wondering, “What’s the point?”

That’s how it goes with one-off tools unconnected to a broader system or management approach, and for which you've received no training.

“C’mon, how to do a 1+1 is obvious!” Oh yeah?

Honestly answer these questions about your last 1+1:

• Who talked most during your 1+1 meeting, you or your team member?

• Was there an agenda?

• Who created the agenda?

• Who facilitated the conversation?

• What specific next action assignments did you agree on?

• With what deadlines?

• Did anyone take notes and share them?

• Are your 1+1s scheduled as a calendar series into the future?

Yakety-yak

Leaders untrained in professional 1+1s tend to fill the time with their own words. The team member gets talked at and dismissed, or the two of you have a nice social conversation with no real-world actionable import.

An effective 1+1 is one of the high-quality, mutually supporting management tools in the Core4 management approach that empowers you to grow and support your leaders.

An Effective 1+1 is:

1.   Regularly scheduled

2. In an appropriately private space

3. With an agenda the team member brings and leads.

4. Followed up with shared meeting notes for future reference

If you’re doing it right, you listen 80% of the time. You coach. You redirect towards shared goals and accountability. Together you identify next actions with deadlines and follow-up check-ins.

All non-emergency questions or commentary should be banked for the next 1+1: no more stopping by the office every 30 minutes for “a quick question” or pinging or emailing and expecting rapid turnaround.

With BIG Results

Effective Core4 1+1s:

  Develop a team member's leadership skills

  Reduce distractions: the team member knows there’s a designated time coming up when s/he will have the leader’s full attention

  Discipline the leader to listen, coach, encourage, and correct timely and on an ongoing basis (not only at annual eval time)

  Create regular, healthy connection that pays dividends, especially in times of conflict or high stress

You can do a version of a 1+1 that accomplishes none of these things, and it likely falls off the calendar as quickly as it appeared. A Core4 1+1, done consistently, will become a centerpiece of your team’s success. You’ll wonder how you ever managed without it.

Not all management tools are created equal.

Want to know what other practical, transformative tools are in the Core4 management approach? Reach out to Jean or stay engaged here to learn more. Or if you'd simply like to chat about the challenges you're facing, Jean would love to connect.

Our world needs healthy leaders and healthy teams. You got this!

(Image credit: Canva)