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Elevate Your One-On-Ones With Your Boss

If you’re lucky, working from home means you’re getting more one-on-one time with your boss. (And if you’re not having regular meetings, why not ask for them?) This is your chance to keep each other abreast of your work, to flesh out new ideas, and to ask important questions. The key is to go in with a strategy.

Plan ahead. Prepare what you want to talk about with notes or even an agenda, if that will help you both follow along. You may not end up driving the meeting, but you’ll be organized, well researched, and prepared to hit your talking points.
Get to the point. Your one-on-one is valuable business time, so hit your agenda running! That’s not to say personal talk isn’t valuable, too, but it’s best kept brief in these situations; save it for a more casual opportunity.
Lead with your project updates. Do this quickly and concisely. You want to maximize your time spent on other important matters, such as that awesome project idea you wanted to pitch. You don’t need to go in to your methodologies; try, “I’ve identified the reporting criteria and am running the reports tomorrow.”
Solicit feedback. Never be afraid to ask for feedback from your boss between performance reviews. Regular, constructive criticism can only help you achieve bigger and better goals! So get your boss thinking about your achievements and any ways you can improve.

While your one-on-one with your boss may not be the highlight of your week, you can certainly use it to highlight your week and your achievements, and to help yourself learn and grow professionally.

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