MAJOR MISTAKES DURING 1-TO-1 INTERVIEW

Employers can provide their employees with the single most valued benefit: managers. In fact, according to a Gallup poll, one or two employees quit the job at some time in their career to get away from their boss and improve their lives. One-on-one meetings, when done correctly, strengthen your team and help you to create better relationships with your colleagues. Managers, on the other hand, are likely to make common errors, especially when they are new to the field.

So, as leaders, how can we ensure that we are the boss that people want to work for rather than the boss that they want to avoid? By devoting time and effort to your most effective method of engaging employees and providing feedback: one-on-one sessions.

Conducting a job interview appears to be much easier than it actually is. Many hiring managers overlook this step in the hiring process and fail to devote the time, effort, and concentration that effective job interviews require. Most importantly, they do not properly prepare and end up winging it.

Even if you think you know how to handle a job interview, this is the stage where you're most likely to make a mistake. Interviewing errors, such as falling to interviewer prejudice or failing to follow a standardized set of questions, can result in poor recruiting judgments, which can be costly to your business.

Here are seven of the most common hiring manager job interview blunders, along with advice on how to prevent them:

1.  No agenda, No preparation

No meeting can be constructive if none of the participants have anything to talk about. Do not expect your team members to arrive with a list of 100 questions or problems. As a manager, it is your responsibility to prepare and be prepared to lead the discussion by asking the appropriate questions and encouraging your team members to open up.

Meetings without an agenda tend to degenerate into awkward silences or useless 20-minute discussions on the weather. Worse, you might start talking about the latest office gossip.

Before any meeting, you should always collaborate on an agenda with the other person in the shared document and you should spend 10 minutes before the meeting reviewing your prior notes and be prepared at all times.

2.   Introducing an interviewer's bias

The outcome of an experiment can be influenced by a scientist's expectations in the world of scientific study. Similarly, during an interview, a hiring manager may create a prejudice based on expectations about a candidate. A manager, for example, may assume that a prospective employee who comes highly recommended by a coworker is prequalified and better suited to the role than someone who is unknown. Interviewer bias can sometimes be indirect, for example when an employer inadvertently prefers a candidate with the same first name as her generous, hardworking uncle.

3. No notes no follow-ups

It's difficult to maintain track of an employee's progress without meeting notes, it's difficult to prepare for a meeting and you risk missing important information.

Taking notes can help you prepare for the next session and ensure that you don't forget to follow up on important issues. It will allow you to go back on earlier conversations with that person and see how they have changed over time.

Notes can also be used to record and follow the action steps that were agreed upon during the meeting.

Keeping track of your notes and sharing them with your participants promotes accountability on both sides. It also demonstrates a public commitment to the meetings and their value.

4. Scheduling a reschedule, or worse, canceling the meeting

Except for sick days, vacations, and emergencies, never miss a one-on-one meeting. Things can become extremely challenging as a people leader. Rescheduling one-on-ones to allow yourself a bit more time to check things off your to-do list can be tempting when you're balancing your team with other duties.

While you may gain an extra 30 minutes, you will actually be doing yourself and your team a disservice. In fact, according to a Harvard Business Review research, a 15-30 minute conversation with a direct report:

• It communicates to your direct report that they are not a top priority.

• It is more difficult for your staff to increase the quality of their job as a result of this.

• Encourages your employees to communicate with you in less effective methods, such as crowding your inbox or lingering around your desk.

• Maintain accountability for yourself and your team by showing up to your one-on-one meetings prepared and ready to discuss every time. This will save you time and effort while also preventing you from delivering the wrong message to your employees.

Set up a recurring calendar invite for all of your one-on-one meetings, that includes those with your boss.

5. Excessive talking

Regular one-on-one employee meetings have the important purpose of getting to know your team members better and identifying any difficulties early on. You won't be able to do that if you do most of the talking.

The most important thing for you to do is ask a few good questions, keep quiet, and listen closely. You'll miss out on a great opportunity to learn more about your coworkers if you don't. Always put your direct report's talking points at the top of the agenda so that they can take the lead.

A decent rule of thumb is that you should not speak more than 50% of the time.

6. No regular meetings

Let's face it: the greatest error you can make with one-on-ones is not scheduling them at all. Or by scheduling too infrequently. Two or three meetings a year will not help you get to know each other better or settle difficulties on time. When too many things happen over a lengthy period of time, tiny problems can quickly escalate into major concerns.

It's also difficult for employees to remember and recollect events that occurred 30+ days ago. Such sessions tend to produce "talk and forget" outcomes for the team, rather than actual development.

Another undesirable habit to avoid is scheduling frequent meetings but missing or canceling the majority of them due to being "too busy" or "overloaded." It devalues your one-on-one meetings and conveys the wrong impression. As much as possible, avoid canceling your 1-on-1s.

Schedule shorter but more frequent meetings in your calendar, usually weekly or monthly. And don't forget about them.

7. Not maintaining a conversational tone

It's tempting for the managers that are new to one-on-ones to download a template agenda and walk through it step by step during the meeting. It's a good idea to have a template and a list of subjects in mind. However, going through all of the questions as if they were an exam is not a good idea.

When you're casually discussing what's going on in your team, you'll get the best insights. Allow the employee to begin with the final item on your agenda if that is what she or he wants to do. It's probably the most important for her/him, therefore it's worth tackling first. To keep the tone of the talk casual, try altering locations (the office, the cafe, a walking meeting).

Summary

One-on-one meetings are an effective technique to increase team productivity and engagement while also supporting you in developing stronger and more trusted relationships with your staff. Your team will thank you if you understand and avoid the most common mistakes made during one-on-one meetings.