Meet one on one
Employees won’t immediately fall into line when you make an announcement, but individual meetings can help align them to the company goals and secure a role in its success.
“That’s a very effective way to manage an organization — is ensure that there’s regularly scheduled check-ins between a manager and his or her employees and between senior management and indirect employees,” Kupietzky says.
He meets with his direct reports weekly for half-hour to hour-long one-on-ones, and with employees two layers down every three or four weeks. He also opens his schedule for anyone else who wants to meet — usually setting up a time within 24 hours of the person’s request.
“As I manage my calendar, I ensure that there’s a priority for people that are looking for my time,” he says. “Obviously, I like that because i
t shows initiative from the employees to feel comfortable broaching an issue that might be two or three levels above their chain of command.”
However, it’s not an excuse for employees to override their direct managers and go straight to the top. Kupietzky makes sure meetings with him are in addition to — not instead of — meetings with managers. Unless it’s confidential, he shares the conversation with the manager later to fill in gaps where employees withhold opinions from their bosses.
Similarly, your direct reports may not tell you everything. Talk to others around them — their direct reports, for example — to get other perspectives.
“You have to talk to enough people about the issue to get a multibiased view,” he says. “Everybody’s biased, but at least you’ll get multibiases.”
Unless employees have something specific to discuss, Kupietzky questions them to see if they understand the company’s goals and the role they play in achieving them.
“When you get a, ‘No, I’m not sure. I’ve got issues with it,’ we have misalignment,” he says. “Every person should know what they’re working on, how that ties to the department goals and how that goal ties to the overall company mission. When we have people that are unsure about it, then it becomes an opportunity to talk through it.”
You want to make sure employees have the resources they need to be successful, so ask how you can help. It’s important that they know how they fit into the organization, but what matters most is that they simply know that they do fit in.
“That’s the most important thing for an employee to be satisfied, is that they feel like what they’re working on is important and it ties to some overall goal, that they can understand the line of sight from what they’re working on to what the company’s trying to achieve,” Kupietzky says.
Because you’re getting direct feedback in one-on-ones, you can make course corrections more quickly. Sometimes, all it takes is reinforcement.
“Sometimes, my job there is just to listen and give support and, frankly, cheerlead what that person’s individually working on — which is a way for them to feel connected to the overall mission of the company,” Kupietzky says. “It helps a lot, obviously, when there’s a view that the CEO took out a half-hour or an hour of what’s perceived to be the busiest schedule in the company. People appreciate that.”
