You are the manager of a large team, you're walking through the office as you see Ben. "Hey Ben, how did the meeting go with your customer this week? Did you present the alternate way of executing the engineering scope?". Ben had done what you asked, happy at his answer, you walk off thinking about how awesome it is to be the leader of such a team. You rush off to your next meeting as you only had 2 minutes anyway, important discussions to be had!
Ben watches you rush off into the distance; unfortunately he has 10 questions he's been waiting to ask you and he knows a 10 question email would be painful for such a busy leader. What to do?
If you are Ben, you are probably nodding your head right now as it is the daily struggle you endure. If you're the leader in this story, you're probably saying, "I talk to them all the time as I walk past their desk, also at the coffee machine...". Do not for a second think your direct reports find this satisfactory. As the boss you have the luxury of being able to bother anyone you want, whenever you want - your employees do not have that same luxury.
Set up REGULAR One on Ones with your direct reports, and maintain discipline around holding them!
You'll find that most employees will initially have a huge list of things to ask you. Some of them might seem trivial (they're not!) - but how do they know the boundaries if you haven't built that basic understanding with them? You are now working to empower your employees to make decisions, and the only way to empower them is to spend time with them, helping them to learn how you think, act, and do.
I find it most effective to let the employee take the floor for the first part of the meeting. Open the meeting with something non directional like "How are things?"; allowing for them to discuss anything that's on their mind. You might find that these meetings initially take up 30 minutes of just them talking, eventually you should see this time decrease to less than 10 minutes. This approach leaves you with 10 minutes to talk about items you want to talk about, ensuring to always touch on some developmental or feedback items that lead into growth discussions. Yes, only 20-30 minutes, that is all it takes!
The benefits are a happier, more engaged team, who feel that they can come to you and resolve their issues faster. Over time they will greatly multiply your impact, understanding the way you would want them to react to every day challenges and feeling empowered to solve problems without your consultation. It will astound you at how many roadblocks that used to hold people up for weeks, are now regularly being demolished!
Saying you "don't have time" is really saying "you don't have time to plan". One on ones are an investment that ultimately results in more free time for you to focus on what you want to, and less wasted time chasing your tail. Your team is an extension of yourself that you must nurture and grow into a high performing entity that moves as one. One on Ones are an essential part of the nurturing that you must do as a leader.