1-on-1 Meetings: Making Them Valuable
One-on-one meetings between managers and team members are among the highest-value meetings in an organisation — when done well. They are the primary mechanism for feedback, career development, problem-solving, and building trust. Most 1-on-1s are done poorly — they default to status updates and miss their primary purpose entirely.
What Good 1-on-1s Cover
- How is the person doing? Genuinely — mood, energy, wellbeing, workload, stress
- Blockers: What's in the way of their best work? What does the manager need to remove?
- Career and growth: What are they learning? What do they want to develop?
- Feedback: Bidirectional — manager gives feedback; manager asks for feedback on their own management
Practical Structure
- Weekly or fortnightly — monthly is too infrequent
- 30-45 minutes — enough depth without fatigue
- Shared agenda document — both parties add topics in advance; creates accountability
- Let the team member lead — their agenda first