What are you listening for?
It’s 1:1 time. You’re sitting down with one of your direct reports and you’ve effectively got twenty minutes to work with. You’ve done the intros and niceties, shared updates from your end, and opened the conversation without more pointed an agenda than “do you have anything you’d like to discuss?”
Check yourself:
- Are you awaiting a particular piece of information?
- Are you attuning? And, most pointedly:
- Are you just waiting so you can say what’s on your mind?
Once something’s come up in conversation that’s cued something you want to say, it can be excruciating not to just blurt it out.
Don’t.
Write it down (you do have a notepad nearby for all calls, right?), shut up, and keep listening.