What We're Reading Now

15 Minutes to a Better Boss

12 February 2019

Allison prepared to teach The Art of Being a Great Boss and reflected on the most important thing supervisors can do each week for themselves and their employees.

Tags: allison read, bruce tulgan, management and supervision

At Allison Partners, we think bosses matter. A lot. Sadly, very few organizations teach people how to supervise fellow employees. Whether you’ve been a boss a long time or have just been promoted, I recommend Bruce Tulgan’s books. (I’ve blogged about three of them here.)

In It’s Okay to Be the Boss, Tulgan does a great job of introducing what I describe as the single most important thing a boss can do…schedule weekly, 15-minute meetings with each direct report. If you’re like most people I recommend this to, you may be thinking, “Are you kidding? I don’t have time for that!”

I know it may sound like more than you can add to your week, but I think you’ll find that this practice will save you time in the end. It’s important to schedule the meetings in advance so that your team members come prepared. If you suddenly have some free time, do not go into your direct report’s office and say, “Hey. Can we do our 15-minute meeting now?” She will almost always say yes, but she most likely won’t be prepared to answer the questions I recommend you ask every week:

1. How are things going?
2. What’s working well?
3. What’s not working?
4. What else do I need to know about?
5. How can I help? What do you need from me? Is there anything I’m doing that’s getting in the way?

At first, your employees may not have answers for these questions and may be afraid to answer the last one, but if you keep meeting every week and ask the same questions, they will eventually start to open up. You can also bring a list of things you’d like to talk about, projects you want to check on, and especially any specific thank yous and compliments for work well done, but always let your team member go first.

Don’t be surprised if your employees tell you they don’t need this meeting because they feel they get time with you in team meetings or can interrupt you when needed. One-on-one time is essential to building strong relationships and 15 minutes a week is plenty of time if you and your direct reports come prepared. During the week, if an employee brings an issue to your attention, you might answer the question in the moment, but you could also ask her if it could wait until your 15-minute meeting.

If your schedule allows you to do these meetings at a set time every week, that’s even better, but it’s also not necessary. Just make sure you schedule with your direct report at least 24 hours in advance. If you do pick a set time for your meetings, don’t stack them back-to-back. Give yourself a break between each meeting to process what you heard and work on your own tasks.

Also, don’t let the meetings go longer than 15 minutes. You and your team member should work together to see how many topics you can cover in this shorter period of time. If a topic needs more time, then you can schedule a follow-up meeting.

If you have too many direct reports to meet with everyone each week, you can start with scheduling your conversations every other week, but you’ll get the most benefit out of this practice if you can figure out a way to talk with your team members individually each week.

Finally, these meetings won’t replace conversations that need to take place throughout the week as issues arise nor will you always be able to tackle the task of delivering difficult feedback in such a short period of time. But I think you’ll find that once you and your team members are getting this kind of regular time together, all of your other conversations and corrective feedback moments will be easier to navigate. If you're wondering how to introduce this concept to your team, share this blog post and schedule your first meetings!

I have a lot of clients who will tell you they put off doing these meetings longer than they should have and that once they got started, it got a lot easier to help employees get things done and be engaged.

p.s. If you’re curious about our course on this topic, you can read a description of The Art of Being a Great Boss here and learn about the seven things we teach in that course here.

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