Let's Talk Teams

If you feel out of your depth when navigating conflict, consider turning to the experts: hostage negotiators. These professionals have mastered the art of defusing conflict when it’s literally life-or-death. In this episode Chris summarizes the topic and adds some insight as to how to use your one on ones to both mitigate conflict and deal with it as it happens.Related blog post: Conflict Management Skills Managers Can Learn From Hostage Negotiators by UptickBook referred to in this episode: Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss  Want to learn more about how to have great 1:1's? Check out our "Next Level 1:1s Course"And if your reviews are terrible, as they often are, check out our new course, "How to Give a Great Performance Review"You can follow Chris at @chriszaugg and Michael @jmichaelprobert--Let's Talk Teams is a podcast by Uptick the one-on-one tool that helps managers and their team members change vague meetings into meaningful conversations.

Performance reviews can suck, and one of the main reasons is that there hasn't been adequate preparation. As Chris shares in this episode, there are several things you can do that will make a performance review not only tolerable, but a great way to recognize the growth you've seen in your team member throughout the review cycle. This will help establish healthy relationships with your team members and build the great team you want to lead. Related blog post: How Managers Can Take the Dread Out of Year End Reviews by UptickWant to learn more about how to have great 1:1's? Check out our "Next Level 1:1s Course"And if your reviews are terrible, as they often are, check out our new course, "How to Give a Great Performance Review"You can follow Chris at @chriszaugg and Michael @jmichaelprobert--Let's Talk Teams is a podcast by Uptick the one-on-one tool that helps managers and their team members change vague meetings into meaningful conversations.

Sometimes performance reviews seem void of any meaningful purpose. Why do we do them? Compliance? Professional development? Performance improvement? And are they supposed to serve the company, the team member of the manager? In this episode Chris suggests that "all of the above" is a reasonable answer and can bring new purpose to performance reviews.Book mentioned in the podcast: Atomic Habits by James ClearWant to learn more about how to have great 1:1's? Check out our "Next Level 1:1s Course"And if your reviews are terrible, as they often are, check out our new course, "How to Give a Great Performance Review"You can follow Chris at @chriszaugg and Michael @jmichaelprobert--Let's Talk Teams is a podcast by Uptick the one-on-one tool that helps managers and their team members change vague meetings into meaningful conversations.

Rigid, "black and white" performance reviews are awful. Managers hate giving them, and team members are afraid of them. We've made them presentation instead of conversation, and we neglect to make the meeting a human experience. Chris shares some of his own failures while bringing to the conversation some ideas on how to make review a better experience for everyone.Related blog post: Let's Radically Rethink Year-end Reviews by UptickWant to learn more about how to have great 1:1's? Check out our "Next Level 1:1s Course"And if your reviews are terrible, as they often are, check out our new course, "How to Give a Great Performance Review"You can follow Chris at @chriszaugg and Michael @jmichaelprobert--Let's Talk Teams is a podcast by Uptick the one-on-one tool that helps managers and their team members change vague meetings into meaningful conversations.

For many of us, our experience with on-on-one meetings is less than stellar. Talking about the local sports teams, the weather, the weekend or  simply giving status updates feels like a waste of time for both managers and team members. In a business climate that is more competitive than ever, why should we spend more time in meetings? In this episode, Chris revisits his recent blog post that explores why one-on-ones may be the most important thing you can do to build great teams and keep your best people.Related blog post: Why one-on-ones? by UptickWant to learn more about how to have great 1:1's? Check out our "Next Level 1:1s Course"And if your reviews are terrible, as they often are, check out our new course, "How to Give a Great Performance Review"You can follow Chris at @chriszaugg and Michael @jmichaelprobert--Let's Talk Teams is a podcast by Uptick the one-on-one tool that helps managers and their team members change vague meetings into meaningful conversations.

Leaders are often overworked, and they can forget how their behavior can affect the morale of the team. When team members don't have a consistent workplace, they can become tentative, unproductive, confused and even a little scared. In this episode Chris flies solo and talks about 6 key elements to being a consistent leader and how if positively affects the team.Want to learn more about how to have great 1:1's? Check out our "Next Level 1:1s Course"You can follow Michael @jmichaelprobert and Chris at @chriszaugg.--Let's Talk Teams is a podcast by Uptick the one-on-one tool that helps managers and their team members change vague meetings into meaningful conversations.

Skip-level meetings can be fraught with land mines, and they can be scary to the team member. "How much should I share about myself? How much should I share about my manager? Or the company?" In this episode, Chris and Michael talk about how to honor the purpose of the meetings, how to make them relational and how to make sure both people have a dialogue that's mutually beneficial. Related blog post: What are Skip-Level Meetings and How Do You Make Them Worthwhile? by UptickQuestions for skip-level meetings that Michael mentioned: 15 Skip-Level Meeting Questions to Identify High Performers [Free Template] by Uptick Want to learn more about how to have great 1:1's? Check out our "Next Level 1:1s Course"You can follow Michael @jmichaelprobert and Chris at @chriszaugg.--Let's Talk Teams is a podcast by Uptick the one-on-one tool that helps managers and their team members change vague meetings into meaningful conversations.

Uptick is a small company, and when organizational changes happen they tend to affect people differently than when similar changes happen in larger organizations. Everyone knows each other well, and when a co-worker turns into a manager that can present some unique challenges. Michael and Chris are experiencing that real-time, and in this episode you'll hear more about how they're handling the process.Related blog post: Managing Change in the Workplace – How To and How Not To! by UptickRelated podcast mentioned in this episode: Authority is Earned, Not Bestowed by Uptick Want to learn more about how to have great 1:1's? Check out our "Next Level 1:1s Course"You can follow Michael @jmichaelprobert and Chris at @chriszaugg.--Let's Talk Teams is a podcast by Uptick the one-on-one tool that helps managers and their team members change vague meetings into meaningful conversations.

All too often goals are set up at the beginning of a quarter, (or a year!), and the next time they're discussed is when it's time to set up new goals. That makes the goals meaningless, and can even become a distraction for the team. We have been on that treadmill, too, and while working on the new goals module in Uptick, Michael and Chris thought more about how to get started building meaningful goals. They discuss their journey in this episode.  Blog post mentioned: 5 questions to answer when creating meaningful goals by UptickWant to learn more about how to have great 1:1's? Check out our "Next Level 1:1s Course"You can follow Michael @jmichaelprobert and Chris at @chriszaugg.--Let's Talk Teams is a podcast by Uptick the one-on-one tool that helps managers and their team members change vague meetings into meaningful conversations.

"Should I have to change my style for other people? Can't they accept that this is how I communicate?" Sure, they can. But if you want to influence people and have them understand what you're sharing with them, you'll probably need to understand something about how they take in certain styles of communication. In this episode Michael and Chris the importance of knowing the people you're talking with, and adjusting based on their needs – not yours.Want to learn more about how to have great 1:1's? Check out our "Next Level 1:1s Course"You can follow Michael @jmichaelprobert and Chris at @chriszaugg.--Let's Talk Teams is a podcast by Uptick the one-on-one tool that helps managers and their team members change vague meetings into meaningful conversations.

Does my team like me? Is there someone else here that could do a better job? How am I going to get all this done? These questions often pop into our heads when we're busy and a little stressed. Or a lot stressed. In this episode Michael and Chris discuss how focusing on the questions you CAN answer will help you remove stress instead of adding to it.Want to learn more about how to have great 1:1's? Check out our "Next Level 1:1s Course"You can follow Michael @jmichaelprobert and Chris at @chriszaugg.--Let's Talk Teams is a podcast by Uptick the one-on-one tool that helps managers and their team members change vague meetings into meaningful conversations.

Routines and habits are vitally important to making sure the important work gets done. But when those routines aren't evaluated, they can often become a time suck with little or no effectiveness. We'll tell ourselves it's our job, but is it?In this episode Michael and Chris discuss the importance of regularly evaluating your work so you aren't just "playing work", but actually moving the needle for your team.Want to learn more about how to have great 1:1's? Check out our "Next Level 1:1s Course"You can follow Michael @jmichaelprobert and Chris at @chriszaugg.--Let's Talk Teams is a podcast by Uptick the one-on-one tool that helps managers and their team members change vague meetings into meaningful conversations.

As a manager and a leader, there are always issues coming up with other leaders that matter to your team. When should you let them into the process? At the very beginning? When a decision has been made?In this episode Michael and Chris discuss the importance of letting people into the the process as soon as you can, and how that helps get great feedback and build trust with your team.Blog mentioned in the podcast: How to Cultivate Transparency in a Zoom World by UptickWant to learn more about how to have great 1:1's? Check out our "Next Level 1:1s Course"You can follow Michael @jmichaelprobert and Chris at @chriszaugg.--Let's Talk Teams is a podcast by Uptick the one-on-one tool that helps managers and their team members change vague meetings into meaningful conversations.

We tend to be drawn to people who are like us, but when hiring for a team, we need to find people who have gifts and abilities that compliment each other. That means looking for different types of personalities with different skills. But there is one important caveat – the things we care about and the way we relate to our teammates needs to be the consistent foundation of whatever we build on top of it. On that we need to have agreement.In this episode Michael and Chris talk through their current thoughts as they look to hire some new people for Uptick.Look for a future podcast mentioned in this episode: "Share what you can with who you can" by UptickWant to learn more about how to have great 1:1's? Check out our "Next Level 1:1s Course"You can follow Michael @jmichaelprobert and Chris at @chriszaugg.--Let's Talk Teams is a podcast by Uptick the one-on-one tool that helps managers and their team members change vague meetings into meaningful conversations.

The truth is sometimes uncomfortable – whether it's about issues going on if your organization or the direct feedback you need to share with your team members. But people are smart, and they'll get a sense when you're keeping something from them, and it will inhibit the trust you seek to create. In this short episode Michael and Chris talk about how courageously sharing the truth, where it's feasible, is better than having them figure it out on their own.Related blog post: Managing Change in the Workplace – How To and How Not To! by Uptick Want to learn more about how to have great 1:1's? Check out our "Next Level 1:1s Course"You can follow Michael @jmichaelprobert and Chris at @chriszaugg.--Let's Talk Teams is a podcast by Uptick the one-on-one tool that helps managers and their team members change vague meetings into meaningful conversations.