Why 1-to-1 meetings matter, and our tips to make them effective!

Having regular, scheduled 1-to-1 meeting with your team members can significantly impact employee engagement and retention. Yet many managers don't prioritize 1-to-1's, or if they do have them, do them badly! 

In this episode Steve Vaughan, Pru Layton and Pascal Le Floch discuss why 1-to-1's matter, where they go wrong, and give their tips and recommendations to make them effective, enjoyable and motivationa for both manager and team member. 

Steve Vaughan, Jonathan Cooper, Pru Layton, Christian Walter, Pascal le Floche and Jayne Green are Sales Trainers from george james ltd. You can email the show at: Podcast@georgejames-training.com

The trainers on LinkedIn:

Steve Vaughan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-vaughan-salestrainer/
Jonathan Cooper https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-cooper-18716b1/
Pru Layton https://www.linkedin.com/in/pru-layton-b46a3528/
Christian Walter https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-walter-a1857b1/
Jayne Green https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayne-green-salestrainer/
Pascal Le Floch-Riche https://www.linkedin.com/in/pascal-le-floch-220ba46/


george james training website https://georgejames-training.com/

Transcript

Steve: [00:00:00] Hello again, and welcome to the luxury choice, a B2B sales and business podcast brought to you by the training team of George James limited. My name is Steve Vaughan. I'm a senior sales trainer at George James, and I'm also the host and producer of this podcast. Today's topic is all about one to one meetings, having one to one meetings.

Steve: So what we're going to do today is explore. All around what a one to one meeting is what it isn't for that matter and who's it for and i've got two really good Experts within the team of here at george james to talk on that particular topic you are guys are looking at me to say who us no, but you definitely are so i've got Pru layton and pascal love flock here So I should say that both Pru and pascal do an awful lot of coaching.

Steve: So having one to our discipline that's very close to their heart. So I'm sure we're going to have a very interesting and lively conversation. So Pru, Pascal, how are you both? Pru, how are you? 

Pru: I'm good, actually. Thank you. I want to be very British here because we have one of our French colleagues with us and [00:01:00] to say the sun is shining and it's not raining.

Pru: So what they say about the UK is not true. 

Steve: For about half an hour every year. Yeah Pascal I think you've been away for a few days. Are you back at your home now, or are you still in travels? 

Pascal: Yeah I've been away a couple of days just to have some break and I enjoyed also the Brittany weather.

Pascal: So very close to What prove described? But today Sun is shining. So that's great 

Steve: Just the other side of the English channel, La Manche in French. Okay, let's get on with the topic. So we're going to talk today about one to one meetings, having a one to one meeting. When I look at it from both the perspective of a manager, but also of the.

Steve: Of the team member as well, but I think we should really, first of all, start off with defining what do we mean by a one to one meeting? It might be obvious, it might not, but let's really get into that to start with. So Priya, I'm going to start with you. So I know you've done lots and lots of one to one meetings in your time.

Steve: What [00:02:00] is a one to one meeting? 

Pru: Yeah, I have actually done lots of one to one meetings and I'm sure that some have been better than others. So to state the obvious, they're a meeting between two people in a business setting. I think typically if we think about our listeners here, it's that classic meeting between the salesperson or someone in the commercial role and their manager.

Pru: But I think also to consider that I used to have one to one meetings as a sales leader with my manager as well. Not as often as I would have liked, but clearly clearly there are other parts of the business. But I think really for the listeners, for our listeners, we should focus on those one to one meetings between the commercial person and the sales leader.

Pru: Okay. So there's something that takes place ideally. in person, but I understand with travel, at least on a teams or zoom format where you can see people. And there were [00:03:00] a regular meeting that takes place where there's discussions between both sides about how things are going fundamentally.

Pru: That's what they're about. 

Steve: Okay, great. Great. So what's the purpose of the one to one and Pascal? Why do we bother? Time's always a challenge in business, particularly if you're managing a large team, what's the purpose of having the one to one, why do we bother? Why do we need to have it?

Pascal: Yeah, that's an excellent question, Steve, because quite often, and I fall into this trap as well as a manager. Quite often we think about, okay there is a, Key aspect to go on and to tap onto like emergency like the big deal, 

Pru: that 

Pascal: I know my team member is working on so I could be tempted as a manager to have this conversation during the one to one session and the same could take place from the other side, the sales manager, the sales let's say specialist could also be interested to have this conversation with [00:04:00] his manager or her manager.

Pascal: However, the purpose of the one to one meeting, to me, is not this one. It's more about taking some time, quality time, the two of us, to discuss about mid term, long term strategic aspects. So it could be about the self development. It could be about the strategy approach on the business. But not the daily things, it should be treated separately.

Steve: Interesting. Yeah. Okay. Who would set the agenda then for the one to one meeting typically, or who should, in your experience, Pru? What would you think on that? I see you smiling. I can read your mind from here. I know, that's really worrying, 

Pru: Steve.

Pru: So I think it should be a shared agenda, in all honesty. I think If you're a manager listening to this and you have a relatively new salesperson you have to give them some guidance about the sort of things that [00:05:00] will be discussed and shared at these meetings. They won't know, but they will actually change with time depending on, what that person does, where the business is.

Pru: So initially probably you need to give some guidance but as. As the relationship develops between the manager and the person in their team, I think you have a shared agenda that works for both sides. It is a thing that should change. I think also there has to be as much input from the salesperson or the commercial person to be able to discuss things that are important for them in terms of their motivation, in terms of their enjoyment of the job and that sort of thing.

Pru: So I don't think we should be too rigid. But I also think they have to be, as you said earlier, Steve, time is the one thing that many of our listeners don't have enough of. So we have to [00:06:00] make them incredibly worthwhile as well. 

Steve: So it's not just how you're feeling, how are things, tell me everything that's going on.

Steve: That's part of it, but there is a little bit more formality to it than that perhaps in what you're saying. Yeah, absolutely. 

Pru: It's business time in a business setting and actually we're both there to make the business successful because if the business is successful, guess what? We do our jobs more.

Pru: That's how to, that's how to enjoy your job is to be working somewhere where it's successful. So we do have to be aware of the fact that this meeting. Is around that aspect that we have a business working business relationship. And it's an opportunity to discuss things exactly as Pascal said, that's not the day to day discussions that you have it's planned and it's about a more, it's about a more of a.

Pru: A more strategic or more helicopter view than the minutiae of the business. So I guess in case we don't say it, the one [00:07:00] thing that a one to one meeting is not is a forecasting meeting. You've 

Steve: just taken my next question away.

Steve: So it's absolutely not a forecast review call. I think we'd all agree with that but why isn't it a forecast review, Pascal? Why isn't it that we sit and look at the numbers in a one to one? 

Pascal: Let's say that there is a time for everything, and as Proof said earlier, everyone should come prepared to this meeting.

Pascal: So you should come with an agenda, an agreed agenda. So if there is an agreed agenda, it should not be able to forecast, because I would suspect and I would hope that there is a forecast call, or at least an opportunities review call, whatever. That's a separate process. You name it. But it should be different and the reason for it is that this one to one session is for sharing, is for support, is for growth, is not for, the forecast.

Pascal: [00:08:00] No, that's an important process, 

Steve: but it's a different process, I think, isn't it really? It's not something that we do. I always used to think of it as it's like quality airtime with my boss. Or, all my team member when I was the boss really. And something that really I used to look forward to both ways is you can take a step out of the day to day.

Steve: I don't mean, it's not completely, as we said, abstracted as a business conversation, but we can take a step out of the day to day and just take a little bit of step, look more, as you say, longer term. And also what's going on in the world of that particular person you're having the one to one with really, what are they finding difficult right now or what are they needing a bit of help with really is a key part of the process.

Steve: How often should we have a one to one do you think Pascal? 

Pascal: Very good question again. It varies, I would say first it depends if you have, number of people. You have in your team as a manager. However, you should have a sort of a tempo. And it should be scheduled on a regular basis so that everyone from both [00:09:00] sides considers it as a sacred time.

Pascal: So you should not escape from this and you should come prepared and you should not cancel it. Maybe we can come back on this later on because there are always, some issues at some point, but back to your points, probably once a week, once every two weeks should be fine.

Pascal: And again it depends how experienced the other is the core, a beginner it would be great as a manager that you support him or her more than others in the sense that. Regular check is key. So once a week is fine For very experienced people, you know applying the situational leadership approach First of all, you ask him or her when they want to have This one to one how frequently and then you can define it but again, it should be anyway, scheduled on a regular basis.

Pascal: Not yeah let's try when we have time that doesn't work. No, because there never is 

Steve: time. Is there, there's always [00:10:00] some things that are coming in the way. That's the important point. I think is that just because we've got somebody that's a top performer or experienced performer knows what they're doing.

Steve: It doesn't mean we don't still have a one to one with them. And there might be quite as regular as a new member of the team, but we still have to find some airtime for them. Give them that quality time with you as well, really, so I guess on what we're saying, Pruy, it's something that we shouldn't reschedule or rearrange unless it's absolutely mission critical.

Pru: No, I think it's, it's something that goes in your calendar. It's one of those things that's easy to plan ahead of time. We are the masters of our own destiny, to be honest, with our calendars. We should schedule it at an appropriate time and with a frequency that works for both sides. I agree, Pascal.

Pru: I think, if somebody's new into the business or new into the role, then we'll have more frequent touch points with them because it's valuable and then we move it out. And for somebody who is contributing at a high level. In terms of have something that's agreed, but don't ignore them [00:11:00] because I think we said earlier on that it's actually for both sides.

Pru: So while somebody new may have a lot of questions, need support and guidance somebody who's very experienced as a manager can bring you some valuable insight that you can quickly share amongst the team. One of the things with. remotely based teams that we have is this ability to share best practice quickly and as a manager, having one to ones with the range of skills and experience of a typical team.

Pru: If one of my Better salespeople gave me a little bit of a nugget of information. I was like, results, that's really working. So rather than waiting for the quarterly business review or however often you do it, I could quickly go, I think we really should, roll this out across the team. I used to have them monthly, actually.

Pru: I think monthly was what I settled down to, to have monthly one to ones, but, and if my sales. [00:12:00] Team change them on me. I always knew it was an issue for me. So a few times when I would get the call to say hey Can we move that? Because I've it's usually a customer. I've got a customer. It's the only time we'll they'll see me Which to be honest, I don't believe whenever I just say that when you 

Steve: say it's only you as a manager, is it because they don't see the value of the one to one?

Pru: Exactly. Okay. My first question when that happened to me was, why don't they want to come to the meeting? Am I not delivering value in this meeting? Why isn't it working? And so it was always a bit of a red flag to me. When that happened, particularly when it happened more than once, you're just going, there's something not good here.

Pru: Yeah. But yeah, everyone should have that opportunity. It's like a, we have these annual appraisal things. That we all have to do. I'm just thinking at the time that we're recording this, a lot of people will be coming up to doing annual appraisals in March. And, if that's [00:13:00] the only time you really sit down and have a good thorough overview of how things are going.

Pru: Honestly, it's, it should be like mini versions of those. So that when you come to the annual appraisal, it's a consolidation of this whole thing that you've been talking through the year. No surprises, nothing that you go. I had no idea 

Steve: that's a point. I really wanted to explore the surprises.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. So thank you for bringing that point up. So yeah, I agree it at an annual appraisal. You shouldn't have any surprises. There should be, nothing that comes from left field from both sides. But how would you handle Pascal? I don't know if you've ever had to deal with this, but how would you handle a one to one where perhaps, a team member might bring something or possibly something That's personal or something that's not going well in their own life or something.

Steve: How, is that something you would deal with in that one to one? Not deal with, sorry, you would address in that one to one. Or is it something you would perhaps put to another time or another day? 

Pascal: Yeah, definitely. That should be one of the points that as manager, I should take care of, so providing support to [00:14:00] my team member. And sometimes it could be something personal, it could be something professional, but which would impact the performance or the well being of the person. And then what can I do as a manager? So first of all, it would be a bit asking about the facts, the situation, just to remove the emotional part as, as far as possible.

Pascal: But then, asking, okay, what do you see as options? How could it how could things be improved? What could you do from your side? And after those questions if your team member is still struggling, then proposing your support, how can I help you? Because as a manager, that's also part of your role.

Pascal: Not doing things instead of the other, but showing him or her that you are close to him, her, and ready to provide support. 

Steve: Cause that's happened in in, one to ones I've had, team members of bring brought very personal things to, to, to them that were going on in their life, family issues, whatever.

Steve: And yeah, [00:15:00] and it's a thing that can happen from time to time for sure. Yeah. 

Pascal: And probably in addition to this, as a manager especially if you become aware of this type of situation and you have to trust. from your employee to to be informed about his or her personal situation, you should anticipate and proactively reorganize things or activities with him or her around this issue.

Pascal: Okay. Because if someone is has a lot of time to spend for his or her family during a period You have to stay realistic here, so you have to reorganize maybe the workload or the priority priorities to keep him or her performing, but not to be overloaded, and that's your role as a manager.

Steve: Great great points. So what can go wrong in a one to one, I'm not asking you to think of personal experiences, unless you want to share some, but but what kind of things can we do? Can go wrong. What would make a bad one to one meeting? 

Pru: I think a [00:16:00] bad one to one meeting is where I think most of the bad one to one meetings are where the manager doesn't manage the situation well.

Pru: It tends to always come from the manager's side. If you use them inappropriately for I don't know Piling up all of the criticisms, I'm glad we're having this meeting. I've got a number of issues here that I wanted to address with you. I've had a look at your CRM.

Pru: It's not up to date. I've also noticed that this hasn't, you can't use it as an opportunity as a manager when you've got the person's attention to actually address issues that you've not addressed at the time. So I think that can go wrong. I think. Probably, it can be very tempting to use that time, particularly if you're pressured and you have some frustration with the person in front of you.

Pru: But that really derails the value of the meeting. They do need to be addressed but don't hijack the meeting for things it's not meant for. If there, if you end up talking about one really big deal, [00:17:00] it's so tempting, isn't it? You're coming to quarter end or you're coming to year end and the person in front of you is holding the success or otherwise of your year in front of you.

Pru: It's so hard not to use that meeting time to go, I know we're not supposed to, but have we heard anything about While 

Steve: we're here, yeah. Yeah, it is difficult, isn't it, really? Yeah. 

Pru: I think if I think if, I was trying to think about it. If you have somebody who's not very engaged from their side in the meeting, and you feel that you're, really forcing the issue, but then that's telling you a lot about them.

Pru: So I'm saying that isn't where it's gone wrong. If I've had people who are not engaging with the process, and of course I have, and I've tried to uncover why they're don't find them valuable or don't think they should be there or think there's something better they could be getting on with.

Pru: And what's the point? All of which have been said to me, it's that it's frustrating for that time, but it's [00:18:00] telling me something about this person and their engagement with the business and with the team and with the organization. So I think it's. I think what mostly goes wrong with one to one meetings is people don't have them.

Pru: I think that's the biggest thing that goes wrong. I do the sales management and leadership training course. And when I talk to managers on that, they often ask me about one to one meetings. And when you, when I ask them why it's because they don't have them. I'm so busy. I, of course we speak all the time and it's yeah, but let's not talk.

Pru: Of course you speak all the time, but you need to carve this time out where you are really having this strategic discussion with your salesperson about. about how the business is going, where they've got challenges, what support they've looked at. And you were doing it just now and I was going to comment, Pascal, in your comments, it's your best [00:19:00] opportunity to do coaching.

Pru: Most of us know that we would love to better coach ourselves people, but we really. We're really short of time to do it. So when we do go on co visits with them, it's often business critical meetings. We can't really coach well on business critical meetings. We need to make sure we win the business, but those one to one meetings, you won't get a better opportunity to actually deliver some coaching and so it's very pertinent at this 

Steve: stage just to recap what we mean by coaching. I know we've talked about it at other. Podcast, both of you are both very experienced and competent coaches, but. It might be worth just, Pascal, just restating what we mean by giving somebody coaching because it isn't telling them what to do.

Pascal: Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for this. I'm sure that crew would also like to answer this. And the thing is that about coaching here is from a sales manager towards [00:20:00] his or team member first of all, is active listening. Giving the other the opportunity to share and to provide feedback and to bring topics which are key for them.

Pascal: So that's the first thing. The second aspect is to keep exploring, after you received the first information. Making sure that you understood correctly. No formulating differently. What the other say, and normally in sales, we are equipped, to do this normally the other aspect is of course, after this is providing or proposing to provide support after, we ask a number of questions so that the other one.

Pascal: should find himself or herself the solutions. And if that doesn't bring, or if that doesn't come so easily, this is where you can act as a mentor. Someone very experienced, sharing your experience, sharing some ideas to inspire the other. But the key [00:21:00] here as a manager coach attitude would be to let the other define and bring the solution.

Pascal: Not you telling the other what he has or she should better do you know This is not coaching. This is consulting and both are fine, but They are they have to be applied in different situations. Yeah, 

Steve: would you Identify before the one to one that this is going to be a coaching session would you make it would you flag it with the?

Steve: Team member beforehand leave review on that one. Yeah. 

Pru: No, I don't think so. I think that I'm If you have regular one to ones with the members of your team, they start to value them. If you've never done them before, and you start implementing them, they'll think you're being weird, and that's okay. Lots of my people in my team have thought I'm weird.

Steve: Perish the thought. 

Pru: If you get over that, this is a bit odd, are we not doing the forecast? No. Am I in trouble? [00:22:00] No. I just want to really find some quality time for us to sit and discuss how things are going and how we're going to make sure they keep going well.

Pru: So this is what I thought we could talk about. You can identify when someone has a challenge or has tried a few things that haven't worked. You can identify those coaching opportunities during one to ones because that's what the time is for. Whereas if you're on a forecast call and you can often spot things in forecast calls where people really could do with some coaching in order to achieve the business objective of getting the forecast done, you can't coach because it's like, it's not the right time.

Pru: Whereas one to ones are perfect. You can sometimes do it with Frequent calls you get, but most of the time I get it used to get a call going pro. I'm just gonna, I've got this meeting in 10 minutes and just before I go in I just want you to say, I just need a bit of kind of guidance here.

Pru: I can't [00:23:00] go. Thank you very much for calling Steve. So I think this is a great coaching opportunity. So what have you thought about so far, it's just like you get so much of that hasty interaction that these one to one meetings are perfect. If it occurs and you can go, Hey, this looks like a really good opportunity to spend a bit of time using a coaching approach to this.

Pru: How do you feel about that? And you just You acknowledge to people that you're, I always say no, no stealth coaching. 

Steve: No sneaky coaching. No 

Pru: sneaky coaching, but you've carved this time out and we haven't really spoken about how long they should be, but 

Steve: let's do that.

Steve: How long would they be, do you think? 

Pru: More than 30 minutes, less than an hour. 

Steve: You agree, Pascal? 

Pascal: Oh yeah. Between 30 to 45, that, that's fair enough. And it's also a question of managing your time and the time of the order. 

Steve: Of course. Yeah. Yeah. 

Pascal: Yeah. 

Steve: Would you do them over lunch?

Steve: Something like that? Or would they be something [00:24:00] separate from that? 


Steve: Thinking what I've done in the past, actually. Depends 

Pascal: whether they're nauseated, 

Pru: Steve. 

Pascal: It reminds me of some nice sushis and stuff. But the point is that sometimes you could invite, some of your team members to go outside, change the atmosphere.

Pascal: Yeah, that's what I was thinking, 

Steve: yeah. 

Pascal: You should be aware anyway that some people may consider this as a non respectful approach because it's still professional. Some would consider more appropriate to have a meeting in a meeting room, sit down, sitting down together and talk. That's a 

Steve: Great point.

Steve: Great 

Pascal: point. So you have to be very careful as a sales manager. I would leave to anyone to, to think about it and decide. Yeah. But the. Let's say you should keep some formal let's say environment. 

Steve: Yeah. 

Pascal: To make it very clear. 

Steve: And of course, cultural variations apply as well. And I should have known before asking a gentleman from France about having a meeting over lunch, because [00:25:00] lunch is obviously very important, rightly in France.

Pascal: Yeah, and as a Frenchman, I would even say that you should be careful, so 

Pru: Yeah, but I also think, don't tag them onto the end of a visit day, don't think Let's spend a day out and we'll just tag on a one to one meeting, you've planned them ahead of time. The nice thing about good one to one meetings is if there really is a great coaching opportunity.

Pru: You can actually dedicate the whole of that time to that thing. You don't have to get through the whole agenda. It's not like the forecast, which you have to get finished. Whatever. We're not leaving until we've gone through the whole agenda. It's like a real, it's a really, it's a really good time to say, actually in terms of personal development, building somebody's confidence.

Pru: Giving them the kind of motivation to reinforce that they have got great ideas and that there's all sorts of really positive strokes that you give when you coach and most managers, when you ask them, they go. Yeah. [00:26:00] Actually, my best manager was a great coach and it's I'd love to do more coaching, but I haven't got time.

Pru: These one to one meetings are a fabulous opportunity for you to develop your skills as a coach and for your sales person to see you as more than somebody who just goes, fill your CRM in and where's your forecast, which of course we also have to talk about, but yeah. But I think, the agenda is the topics that you cover are very focused on the person and not the business, 

Steve: right?

Pru: So they're about their personal development, their successes, their challenges. So it's about their focus. Functioning in their role as opposed to what they're doing. That's the principle difference for me. 

Steve: Great points. 

Pru: It's about how am I doing my job? How much am I enjoying my job? Where am I struggling with my job?

Pru: Or where do I want to tell you about something that's gone so well? I can't wait to tell you how great it was. And they've got your [00:27:00] undivided attention to actually listen to them. All coaches are great listeners and you can actually have that kind of personal congratulations or reinforcement that makes such a difference.

Steve: So 

Pru: that's why I think that's so important. 

Steve: We were actually going to do a confession day list and we were actually going to do a different topic for this podcast a couple of weeks ago. It was going to be help. Why are my team all leaving or do I, they keep leaving. And we will come back to that topic.

Steve: I'm sure, We decided to change it to this topic of one to ones as a result of our last podcast. But to answer that point, one of the reasons why your team members might be leaving is because you don't have one to ones. You don't have, you don't give them any air time that, they don't see you.

Steve: They don't hear from you. They don't, you don't give them any of their time really. So some single points. 

Pru: I can tell you a story about that and I shall remove all references to real people. So I was doing some training inside a business. And I was talking about why you should [00:28:00] have one to one meetings and why they were so important, particularly with your more experienced people.

Pru: And I said, imagine that if you didn't have regular contact with your most experienced person. And the first time you heard from them for ages was when you got their resignation. And you look, you got this resignation, and you went, Oh no! I can't, this is the worst news ever. And one of the people on the training looked at me and said, Has someone told you something?

Pru: And I went, no, sorry. And the person said to me, that's exactly what happened to me yesterday. 

Steve: Oh, no! 

Pru: And I was just, and I didn't know. And I said, but, this is one of the reasons why we need to as managers have that opportunity, that regular opportunity to really stay close. To the important people in our team, because, without them, we're nothing.

Steve: No. Yeah, absolutely. Great discussion, Pascal and Pru. Just a final [00:29:00] thought from both of you then. So if I'm a sales manager listening to this podcast. And I haven't been doing any one to ones apart from actually scheduling. So one to ones Can I get a recommendation from both of you starting with you pascal?

Steve: What would you recommend? How would you know? What thoughts would you give to a sales manager who wants to start doing one to ones apart from to actually get some scheduled? 

Pascal: Yeah. So yeah, first of all, he could contact us to get some trainings all mentoring or coaching how to become a manager, 

Steve: super idea.

Steve: And, 

Pascal: Additional idea would be to start doing it, start starting experiencing it. Being clear with the one or with the team member, I start with that, okay, let's experience that together, and let's co build this together and as a pilot and when it works, you diffuse it to the entire team, but you should be clear with the rest of the team members [00:30:00] that they don't feel excluded.

Pascal: So that, that's very important. Okay. So I would do this way. And as proof did, let's say. Told it so well that this is a forum for growth, for self development, for skills development, but both for the employee and the manager. Something we didn't talk about is the feedback we could receive about our way to manage from the team members.

Pascal: Maybe we can, take it. On the side for the moment but that's also important, getting information, the way you manage people. Yeah, absolutely. It's a two 

Steve: way process. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Great points. And, we, we all chuckled when you said about contact one of us, but we should point out as well as being trained as we all do one to one coaching ourselves with customers.

Steve: So if it's just something that's of interest to you, then of course, getting in contact with us. Pru, one, one, one thought from you, one final recommendation for somebody that isn't doing one to ones yet, but wants to start. 

Pru: I think, it will be weird. But I what we like when [00:31:00] you have good teams, it's about acting with transparency as a manager.

Pru: When we talk about great management, it's about having operating in that way. So if I'd never had a one to one meeting and I've been thinking about it and hopefully listening to this podcast goes I'm going to do this. Just be honest. Take one of the, Somebody in your team, somebody, don't take the hardest nut to crack.

Pru: That's not, don't do that. That's mad, just take somebody who, that's been very open to receive feedback and discussion and say. I was listening to this podcast the other day, and I know I've got to get on with it. So I'm going to start scheduling one to ones. I'd be delighted if I could start with you.

Pru: How do you feel about that? Tell them why you're doing it. You, we have honest relationships with our people in our team. And I think, just say, I've been meaning to do this for a long time. I haven't got around to it. I'd like us as Pascal very nicely put, I'd like us to learn together here.

Pru: Just be [00:32:00] honest while you're doing it don't dress it up because when you go into any training program, you go away and you're going to go back and start acting differently. And that's great. I, I remember my first management training and I went back to my sales team and they went, Oh, you're getting all managerial.

Pru: I went, good, apparently I'm supposed to be, but, if you are going to change something, explain why you're doing it. Don't let people try and gossip about why it's happening. 

Steve: Great points. Great points. Pru, Pascal, thank you ever so much for sharing your thoughts on one to ones. It's something that we've all.

Steve: Done in our careers and if you listen to this still listen and you're inspired to go and host some one to ones with Your team or go and ask your boss for some one to ones then we've achieved our objectives today I'd just like to say a few words about what's going to be coming up from us Next week.

Steve: So on the 8th of march, which is a saturday It's International Women's Day and around a particular topic, we're going to be putting together [00:33:00] some particular content around that. So on the Friday which is I guess the 6th 7th, I get the date, right? 7th of March, we'll be having a LinkedIn Live.

Steve: So I'll be hosting a LinkedIn Live, but I won't be doing most of the talking. Obviously, I'm not a woman. My colleague, Jane Green, and also some. Some customers are going to be joining us just to explore the whole topic around women in business and look at the particular focus on how that world has changed and how it could still change more moving forward.

Steve: And then we're also going to be putting together a special one off podcast where myself, again, Jane Green. And two female business leaders from within our industry are going to begin talking around this particular topic of women in business, the challenges women face, how we can make things work better for women in business generally and how things can improve looking forward into the next 10 to 15 years.

Steve: So look out for those particular podcasts and that LinkedIn live coming up. Otherwise, apart from that, we'll be back to our normal schedule every couple of weeks of releasing a [00:34:00] sales related podcast. Thanks for listening, dear listener. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast. It does help you get the latest episode into your inbox on time.

Steve: And also, if you do what we do, we'd love you to leave a review for us on Google, not Google, Spotify or Apple. It does help us in lots of weird and mysterious ways. We'll be back again soon. In the meantime, happy selling and enjoy those one to ones. Take care. Bye Pru. Bye Pascal. 

Pru: Bye. Bye