Question

Case study:

You are a manager of three direct reports overseeing a lab for telecommunication, computer science, and engineering management. There is a new project of creating an open lab that will allow the employees to use this lab when the other labs are being used.

Joe – is new and is skilled in computer science. He has worked in a computer science lab. He is decisive but can ignore advice.

Sally – has been working with you for 2 years in the engineering lab and is capable of additional responsibilities. She enjoys new challenges and likes to work alone.

Sam – has been working with you for a year in the telecommunication lab and asks for feedback. He is intentional in his work (a perfectionist), but sometimes gets frustrated with others which results in micromanaging.

Questions:

Describe your process for 1 on 1 meetings with each direct report.

Clearly address question with a minimum of 15 sentences.

Answer 1

The key purpose of conducting 1 on 1 meeting is to establish relationship between the manager and sub-ordinate. The meetings are mostly informal and free-flowing, wherein there is a 2-way communication. They are means the two persons can express views, present ideas, voice objections and disturbing notions freely. They are more spontaneous in nature. In order for a positive outcome of 1 on 1 meeting with sub-ordinates, the manager has to devise different tactics to communicate with different employees, i.e. the areas of discussion and focus may remain same but the means change.

While conducting 1 on 1 meeting with Joe, the manager must focus on topics such as what are his expectations from the company and how far have they been met with. Being a new entrant, he may have innovative ideas to share and views may be more energetic than the highly experienced professionals. This enthusiasm must be tapped and nurtured for increasing productivity. Also, Joe can suggest the areas in which he requires training.On the other hand, the manager can informally communicate the goals and objectives of the organizations and suggest areas of improvement.

During 1 on 1 meeting with an experienced and skilled professional such as Sally, the manager must be able to tap the inner voice of the employee. The disturbing issues, if any may be exposed. Also, the manager may be able to convince Sally to improve on inter-personal skills and relations with other team members.

Sam is a one year experienced employee who welcomes feedback. Communicating with him in 1 on 1 meeting is less complicated. The manager can understand Sam's basic work-related concerns and help him imbibe the values of doing work right the very first time into other employees. Also, he can be explained that doing tasks himself is not sufficing the organizational need , and that he must be mentoring others to do their tasks with perfection.