10 Easy Ways to Make Your 1-on-1 Meetings More Effective

Meetings at work can be a fairly divisive subject. Maybe as divisive as whether you put the peanut butter on the bread first or the jelly.

One-on-one meetings with employees keep communication lines between managers and staff open and help to increase employee engagement, both in individual roles and within the entire organization.

Research from Gallup has discovered that when it comes to variance in team engagement, the manager solely determines this by 70%. This suggests that the onus is on team leaders to keep employees engaged and motivated in their roles. So, hey, no pressure managers!

Ultimately, conducting effective one-on-one meetings is not optional for managers. If you want to ensure employees progress, there are certain things you should and shouldn’t do during these meetups. Our one-on-one meetings templates guide can also help you nail this form of communication every time.

10 Essential 1-on-1 Meeting Tips

Want to get the most out of your chats and avoid some common meeting mistakes? Here are 12 tips to make your one-on-one meetings with your team more effective:

1. Set a Time to Conduct Your 1-on-1 Meeting

Check in with team members and set up one-on-one meetings at a time that works for both of you. Once you’ve agreed on a time, schedule recurring meetings that can sit in both of your calendars long-term rather than booking new meetings every week, month, or quarter.

By doing this, you can make your one-on-one meetings a priority and plan to ensure they don’t disrupt other work. Plus, you won’t have to worry about forgetting to book the next meeting.

2. Establish a Loose Agenda Together

Meetings are typically most effective when an agenda has been set. This lets both parties know what to expect and what sorts of topics will be covered. However, try to make the agenda fairly loose so there’s room for your employee to make changes if there are other things they wish to talk about.

Work with your team member to set the agenda. We recommend setting up a shared document so you can both add items you wish to discuss before your one-on-one meeting. Remember, these meetings are for the benefit of the employee, so allow them to contribute instead of setting an agenda for them.

3. Create Effective 1-on-1 Questions

Effective one-on-one meetings shouldn’t be a one-way street. While they provide an opportunity for managers to give feedback to employees, the real goal is to create an open communication channel for employees and managers to align with their goals and expectations. Therefore, you want to make sure the questions you ask in one-on-one meetings are effective at helping the two of you achieve that outcome.

It's your job to guide the conversation and ensure your workers feel supported and empowered. Choose open questions that encourage conversation rather than closed-ended questions that receive a single-word answer.

Examples of open-ended one-on-one questions include:

• How can I support you?
• What problems did you solve this week?
• Are there any areas you would like specific feedback on?

4. Talk Less, Listen More

As a rule, if you, as the manager, are talking more than 50% of the time in a one-on-one meeting, you’re talking too much. Use active listening and take notes. This can help your employees feel that you value and understand what they’re saying. As we mentioned above, if your employee needs some guidance, open-ended questions can help reignite the conversation.

5. Share and Receive Feedback

A one-on-one meeting is also an opportunity to share feedback, but this shouldn’t be one-sided. These meetings are the ideal opportunity to ask for feedback from your employees.

As a manager, there are always opportunities for you to grow and develop in your role—and your line reports can provide the feedback you need to do better. McKinsey notes that companies that put people first and focus on the performance of their employees are 4.2 times more likely to outperform competitors.

By sharing feedback on a weekly basis as well as at quarterly reviews, you can address any concerns as they arise. Any issues, big or small, can be resolved more effectively if they’re shared regularly.

6. Build Rapport

Effective relationships are based on rapport, which means not being afraid to talk about personal issues. You don’t have to share your entire life story, but sharing relatable experiences can help build trust.

Take the time to get to know your direct report and establish a relationship with them. This is especially important if you have workers who you manage remotely or who you don’t see face-to-face regularly.

7. Stick to Scheduled Start and End Times

Try to start and end your meeting at the times scheduled. While occasionally allowing one-on-one meetings to run over if you are in the middle of a discussion is fine, you should usually try to practice good time management and wrap things up within the allotted time.

This ensures consistency and helps reduce the risk of employees resenting the time spent in one-on-one meetings. If there’s something important that requires further conversation, book another meeting to dedicate it to that issue rather than allowing the one you’re in to run over.

8. Assign Next Steps

Assigning the next steps helps hold both members of the meeting accountable. Be sure to outline who is responsible for each step, what needs to be done to achieve it, and when this should be completed.

9. Avoid Status Updates

Effective one-on-one meetings aren’t the best arena for sharing status updates. These can be shared in team meetings, or by using collaborative trackers. One-to-ones are for sharing everything except status updates—including feelings, feedback, challenges, and focus areas.

10. Monitor Feedback Regularly

Towards the end of your meeting, ask your employee whether their outlook has changed, and if so, whether this is for better or worse following your conversation. By creating this baseline for every one-on-one meeting, you make it easier for yourself to spot any red flags in their wellbeing, track employee engagement, and identify any blind spots you may have.

One to One Meeting with Your Manager? Here Are Some Tips

If you’re an employee looking for guidance, ready for your one-on-one meeting with your manager, consider these tips to make it a productive catch up:

1. Add to the agenda points. If your manager asks for your input on the agenda before the meeting make sure you add anything you need to discuss and your voice is heard. It also gives your manager time to prep if you have discussion points that require them to check on things to provide a knowledgeable answer.
2. Make a list of any issues you need to raise. Having these jotted down in a notepad means nothing is missed.
3. Leave your laptop behind. Unless absolutely necessary, leave your laptop at your desk to focus on your one-on-one meeting. Of course, this doesn’t apply to remote workers—that laptop is very necessary!
4. Review your goals. If you know your manager wants to chat through your development, take some time before the meeting to refresh yourself on the goals you set for the year ahead and check in on how you’ve progressed with these.
5. Engage. It’s easy to sit and listen but it’s so important to use your one-on-one meetings to engage and speak up about what you need from your manager.

Make Your 1-On-1 Meetings Count

Conducting one-on-one meetings is one of the key responsibilities of being a manager—so you want to ensure they’re done effectively. Not only will this benefit your employees, but it will also make your job a lot easier.

Use your one-on-one meetings to check in with your team and get the most out of your employees but the most important takeaway is to create actions after the meeting for you and your employee to follow up on. Set deadlines for these for your next check in to keep progress moving and to push their development along as needed.

Implementing our tips can help you make sure your staff are achieving their full potential and give you a means of helping them if they need additional support.