Dear Managers - If you found yourself completely unprepared or unequipped to discuss last month’s acute race crisis, it’s possible you haven't built strong enough interpersonal relationships with your employees./1

Let’s examine your 1:1s. The purpose of 1:1s is for employees to feel - and it to be true - that your job is to maximize their success. But odds are you’re using this touch point as a tactical meeting and missing a regular opportunity to connect with and empower your people./2

You can design 1:1s that build psychological safety, trust and camaraderie. Think of this foundation as crisis preparedness that will enable you to hone your intuition for how to respond during a " #DiversityandInclusion emergency."/3

Here’s a quick quiz to assess the health of your 1:1s.

Think of one of your direct reports and answer the following questions with "yes", "no", or "I don’t know":

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Do I use 1:1s as time for my employee to share what they’re thinking (vs. doing)?
Do they share half-baked ideas with me?
Do I listen more than I speak?
Do I avoid jumping straight to solutions?
Do I give them space to simply be heard and understood?

/5

Do they drive the meeting?
Do they leave 1:1s feeling energized?
Do they leave encouraged to take risks?
Do they leave knowing I’ve got their back?
Is our relationship stronger as a result of these meetings?

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If you answered “I don’t know” to any question, ask your employee! If the majority of your responses were "I don't know" or "no", it’s time to rethink your 1:1 structure. To be clear, employees of all identities deserve and will benefit from this intentional redesign./7

Why bother? Because leveling up your 1:1s benefits your employees, you, your team and your organization. When it feels good to come to work, employees are more committed./8

When you free up employees’ discretionary effort to engage with you fully, they’re more productive. When you systematically provoke the uniqueness of each individual, you surface the diverse perspectives and collective intelligence that fuel creativity and innovation./9

At the very least, the rapport you build during times of relative normalcy and calm will make it a whole lot less scary, awkward and harmful to talk explicitly about identity and difference when the world’s on fire. Who doesn't want that?/end