When you start a new job, one of the first things you should determine is if there is a precedent in place to set up a 1:1 meeting with your boss. If you are lucky enough to have a boss that wants a 1:1, great! If not, find a time to approach your boss about the utility of a 1:1 meeting. When your manager says 'This is your time' - it really is, so prepare so that it will go smoothly.
Prep for the meeting:
Some tips for scheduling
If you are scheduling it - name it 1:1 Your name:Their name so they know who they are meeting with and why
Have a defined day (same day of the week, same day of the month)
Have a defined duration (30 minutes! Don’t try to solve everything in one meeting - if you need more time, meet more often)
Have a defined frequency (every week, every two weeks, once a month)
Start off with something, anything and then reassess it later. Your job here is to convince your boss that you are consistent and reliable. It’s more important to show up and do it regularly than to meet haphazardly. You are learning how to deal with each other - and if you have this in place before something awful happens, you’ll know how to approach your boss.
Tips for your agenda
Determine your agenda format and goals beforehand, write down issues, prioritize your topics, and use the agenda to drive the meeting effectively.
Being prepared will go a long way to having a successful meeting. Don’t waste your boss’s time and don’t waste yours, either.
When thinking of topics, try to jot down any thoughts you have throughout the week so that you’re not cramming for subjects immediately prior to the meeting. If this is happening often, you should reassess how often you are meeting and adjust the frequency.
Potential Agenda types:
Your goal here is to talk about topics that are directly relevant to you, ones that are not discussed as part of a team meeting, and where you might need some direction. When I was the Quality Manager, I had a standard format for what I wanted to cover during my meetings - I used this format as a check-in with my team as well as the 1:1 with my boss:
Old business: lingering projects and what we did last week to move those things forward
New business: the ever-present new issues, reasons we need to address the topic and how we plan to tackle it
Roadblocks and obstacles: competing priorities, workload within the lab and do you have a call to action for me
Other Business: anything else we need to discuss - your work/life balance, essentially, such as a family emergency or planned holiday
Your agenda may look a little different if you want your boss to be your advocate or you want direction
Problems you cannot solve in your team and you want advice.
Actionable items that your manager can fix or bring to the attention of leadership.
Anything you need to move a project forward, such as an introduction to someone within the institution who can provide assistance.
Your agenda may be more driven towards career development depending on your role, especially if you are a graduate student or post-doc in a lab.
Research goals
Career planning and development
Leadership training
Financial aspects of the lab: Costing and Budgeting, grant writing
Preparing and implementing research protocols
Writing and publication
Presentation at conferences
During the meeting:
Cover your agenda items, thoroughly. If there’s been no progress, acknowledge it and move on or provide a deadline for progress. Your manager will have their own tolerance level for incomplete projects and you will need to determine this through your meetings. Don’t try to obfuscate your activities and progress or lack thereof.
If you’re not making progress, maybe your problem is too big – try to break it down into smaller components that may be more easily solved (for example, I don’t try to manage all of the regulations at once - I pick a topic and ensure that I’ve addressed the GTP, GMP and accreditation requirements for that topic. Chop your problems into smaller pieces!)
If you have action items, write them down - if you are using an electronic document, make sure that you have your list of action items clearly laid out in that shared document. This is a great way to keep track of your progress throughout the year and have it documented for your annual performance review.
Talk about whatever you feel is relevant, but if you've already raised all of your topics, don't try to fill the time if you don’t need to - bow out gracefully and reclaim your own time.
One comment about the way you discuss your topics - try to come at things with a positive attitude, one that acknowledges that there are problems but that those problems also have potential solutions. If you come to your manager with a constant negative attitude, your manager will dread that meeting at worst, or be dismissive of your complaints at best. You and your boss should be working together towards a common goal. Having a few potential solutions is great, but as a boss, I wouldn’t expect you to solve everything on your own. There may be additional aspects of that problem that you are unaware of - especially if it involves the politics within the institution.
With a well-structured and documented 1:1, you are well on your way to actual progress in your projects. If you need a little help developing an agenda style, feel free to reach out to me at deborah@chimeratqm.com. If you have an agenda format or a communication trick that has worked for you, let us know in the comments!
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