Making the Most of Check-In Meetings With Employees

The very best managers and team leaders are those who check in with their team members on a regular basis. Yet even experienced leaders can miss opportunities for employee engagement and success without a great game plan for these conversations. Here’s how managers in the interiorscape business can make the most of their check-in meetings with employees.

Establishing Consistency in Check-Ins

Managers often launch team member check-ins with an announcement of a “new way of doing things,” which rarely sticks long term. For both managers and employees, this experience will feel awkward for a while. Unfortunately, many quit check-ins before they become consistent.

In order to have successful check-in meetings with plant technicians, designers, installation crews, and so on, consistency needs to happen first. Developing a habit of regular conversations will allow the clumsiness of new check-ins to give way to trust and the excitement required for growth and improvement in the interiorscaping business. Leaders starting (or restarting) check-ins should worry less about what results they are getting from this exercise and more about how often they are completing it. Just like physical exercise, results come from consistent effort over sustained periods rather than extreme effort on occasion. 

Enhancing Performance Through Frequent Meetings

Team member check-ins also need to happen regularly in order to help job performance. Unfortunately, 74 percent of employees report that their performance is formally reviewed by their manager once a year or less, according to Gallup. Deep down, we all know that a one-hour conversation couldn’t possibly increase performance for an entire year.  

I like to have weekly check-ins with those whom I’m coaching. With one-hour weekly conversations, there is ample time and space to discuss all the things we need to cover (more on that in a minute) and frequent enough to responsively adjust to changes as they arise. Instead of a boss reviewing last year’s performance, I’m a coach helping performance for the next play of the game.

Focusing on Future Goals

Nobody is perfect. So when we check in with the people we lead, we should not aim to dissect past mistakes because we can’t do anything to solve them. In the same way, reviewing accomplishments since the last check-in isn’t helpful either. That’s because the goal is to increase future performance. To do so requires focusing on the future rather than the past.

I prefer to discuss what the team will accomplish in the coming weeks, months, and years. On a weekly basis, asking about when and how work will be completed is key to realizing performance. By anticipating obstacles, team leaders can identify opportunities to provide materials, equipment, information, or support to plant technicians and other staff to prevent issues from occurring. And by forecasting months and years into the future, employees can feel that they’re working towards a significant goal and growing their career in a direction that will bring them fulfillment. This is where we can explore and encourage personal and professional development.

Supporting Holistic Development

For too long, team member check-ins have focused solely on work. Employees today want to be valued for more than just their contribution, and team leaders can build successful teams by caring for people holistically. We all know that big issues in our personal lives can hinder our performance at work, so creating a place to discuss them in our check-ins is how we can help people as people.

I love Gallup’s model of well-being, which identifies five interconnected and inseparable areas in our lives—career, financial, social, community, and physical. You should discuss all five areas of well-being with team members of your interiorscape business to ensure they can be their best selves, both at work and in life. When team leaders help people find success in all five areas, they become trusted mentors who care and receive the best possible performance from their people.

Conducting check-in meetings with employees the right way might be difficult and awkward sometimes, but it is the only way to provide the support and encouragement that people need to be their best.