Attend a Manager Alignment Meeting

If one of your employees is a participant in a Torch Coaching Program, they may reach out to you to schedule a Manager Alignment Meeting. This is an opportunity for your direct report, their coach and you to have a conversation about your direct report’s professional growth.

As their manager, you play a crucial role by owning this opportunity to learn and support your employee before, during, and after the session. This article will walk you through the key actions you can take to prepare for the meeting along with the steps you can follow to join the meeting at the scheduled date and time.

Preparing for the Meeting

Complete these actions before the scheduled meeting.

Ahead of the session, take time to read even a short blog about why coaching is an effective tool for behavior change, how it’s a worthy use of time for an employee, and the importance of confidentiality in the coaching relationship. This will allow you to use the meeting as a time to focus on the participant’s goals and the opportunity to support and collaborate with them.

As an accountability partner, it will be important for you to understand how and when to provide feedback on a coaching participant’s progress. A best practice is to discuss how your direct report would like to receive feedback during the Manager Alignment Meeting. Additionally, keep the following tips in mind as you approach the meeting and beyond:

• For any positive changes you notice in your direct report, let them know what you’ve observed.

• Constructive feedback is best collected then filtered and focused before it’s shared. Once a month is generally a good cadence for constructive feedback if it’s more global in nature.

Joining the Meeting

You’ll receive an email invitation notifying you of the date and time of the scheduled Manager Alignment Meeting. Follow these steps to join the meeting.

From your calendar provider, open the meeting invite and click the meeting link. A new browser window will open automatically.

If this is the first Torch meeting you're joining, click Request permissions. In the top-left of your browser, you'll be prompted to give torch.whereby.com access to your microphone and camera. Click Allow.

If you want to test your equipment before joining the call, click Run test.

Follow the prompts to check your camera, speaker, microphone, and internet connection, then click Continue.

Before joining the meeting, you can use the dropdown menus if you want to change your selected camera, microphone, and speakers. You can also add a background effect and adjust your settings if desired.

When you’re ready, click Join meeting.

Upon joining the meeting, you'll have the ability to start or stop your video, mute or unmute yourself, share your screen, send reactions, and send chat messages.

From the Cam menu, you can switch your camera, change your background, and adjust your video settings if desired. From the Mic menu, you can switch your microphone and speakers, turn on noise reduction, and adjust your audio settings.