So you have an employee engagement problem but you don’t have the time to build and maintain strong relationships with your people.

First of all, yes you do.

Second of all, even if you didn’t, you need to make time.

Today, I’m going to walk you through how to build and maintain relationships effectively without taking much time at all.

The key is One-on-One chats. I’ll give you a step-by-step guide to creating a low-maintenance system for keeping your most important people engaged.

Why One-on-Ones?

The quality of the relationship you have with your direct boss is a main predictor of satisfaction at work - and whether you stay in a job or not.

If you stop reading here, that’s the main thing I’d like you to remember from this article. For engagement and retention, you don’t need benefits, progression, great culture, a cool and an exciting company, or any other fancy stuff.

If you only had the time and resources to pick one engagement initiative, invest in building quality relationships.

Setting-up Your One-on-ones.

1. Identify your most important people

You will not be able to build great relationships with everyone. Pick 5.

Identify 5 people who work under you - 5 people who if they quit tomorrow, you’re screwed.

2. Schedule 30-minutes A Week To Meet

Find 30-minutes each week to talk to these 5 people.

Here’s where most people start to get skeptical about whether or not they can do it. It’s only 30 minutes each day for 5 days a week.

If you’re adamant you don’t have 30 minutes each work day, here’s where to find it:

• Never have a coffee alone

• Never have lunch alone

• Leave the office together, chat while you’re walking to the train or the car

• Call them on their commute home

• Split up the 30-minutes. Chat for 10-minutes 3 times a week, or 5-minutes 6 times in a week, or 1-minutes 30 times… You get the point.

• While you’re walking to a meeting together

• 15 minutes at the start and end of every call/meeting

• Block out a joint recurring event on your calendar

You see? “Busy” is just an excuse.

I know how busy you are. And you know what? Your people do too.

Do you know how much more meaningful it becomes that you carve out 30-minutes of your time every week to talk to them?

I promise you, it’s powerful stuff.

3. Get To Know The Human Being

One-on-ones aren’t weekly performance reviews. You want a relationship that is more than just a boss - so start acting like it. Approach each one-on-one with empathy and curiousity.

Ask them about everything under the sun, everything but work. You have plenty of time to talk about work - when you’re working.

Ask them about their aspirations, fears, what makes them happy, and what they hate. How they view success, and failure. How your company is helping them achieve their aims. Not just them, but talk about yourself too.

The deeper stuff.

I get it, this part doesn’t come naturally to most. You’re used to strictly professional conversations, but remember, the very purpose of these chats is to take relationships deeper.

Stay curious, and non-judgmental.

4. Keep It Consistent

Keep going. Don’t have one chat and think that it’s all done. How long did you take to grow your closest relationships? How long have you taken to maintain them?

Most people think that building relationships is the hardest step, that they take care of themselves after that. The hardest part is maintaining them - and often what we need to do for maintenance is different from the actions needed to build.

You can’t just buy a car and not maintain it. Relationships are the same.

Conclusion

All that’s left really is to go out there and do it. Nothing is going to get you more engagement than actually getting to know another human being, and becoming an important person in their life. I’m sure most of you have that one person in your career who made a huge difference. If you don’t, I’m sure you wish you did.

This is your opportunity to be that person for 5 people who are vital to your success right now.

Whenever you’re ready, here’s how I can help you:

Explore My Relationship Accelerator program for leaders:

→ If you’re still struggling to unlock the potential of your people and would like to make some meaningful change - our relationship accelerator program helps your leaders learn all they need to know about building effective relationships to drive success - in one day. Check it out here.

Or reach out at [email protected]

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