Is This the Most Important Thing You Do?

One of the things that Jack Daly (pictured above) suggested at last week's NY Report event was to create a "contract with one's self" of things you will commit to doing. On the top of my list was regular one-to-one (1:1) meetings with everyone that reports to me (at NY Report that is almost everyone in the company). I have been doing 1:1s with my sales team but they have been sporadic as they are the first thing that gets blown off once something urgent comes up.

Of the three 1:1s with the sales team this week, two of them went for about two hours each (we planned on about an hour). I really felt that we both (me and each of the salespeople) got a lot out of them. We spoke about opportunities and getting past the obstacles in the way. We spoke about what activities need to get done. We spoke about goals, etc. As I thought about these meetings I realized that this is one of the only times that an employee and I have to really focus on figuring out what makes them happy and productive. And the end result is usually a few good ideas that will help drive the value of the business.

Because I don't want to be the one at my company doing all of the work and coming up with all of the ideas, I think these 1:1s are the most important thing I do.