Run a regular one-on-one as the employee's time for connection, development, and removing blockers — listening more than talking.
The 1:1 belongs to your report, not to you
What a one-on-one is actually for
A one-on-one (1:1) is a regular, recurring private meeting between a manager and each direct report. The most important thing to understand about it: it is the employee's meeting, not the manager's. Its primary purpose is not to get a status update. Status can be shared asynchronously in Slack, a ticket tracker, or a weekly email. The 1:1 is the place for things that cannot easily happen in group settings — surfacing blockers, discussing career growth, checking in on how the person is doing, and building genuine trust.
A useful 1:1 is driven by the employee's agenda. Good opening questions the manager can use include: "What's on your mind this week?", "What's getting in your way?", "What do you need from me right now?", and "How are you feeling about the team direction?" These questions invite the employee to lead. The manager's job is to listen actively — which means far more listening than talking. A rough rule: the employee should speak 70% of the time.
A bad 1:1 looks like the manager giving a monologue about company updates, or turning the meeting into a line-by-line status report. Both patterns waste a rare channel for real connection. Another trap: cancelling 1:1s when schedules get busy. To employees, a cancelled 1:1 signals that their development and blockers are less important than the manager's calendar.
The SBI model you learned in the previous lesson is one useful tool to bring into a 1:1. If you have specific feedback — positive or corrective — a 1:1 is a natural private setting to deliver it. The meeting can also be a place to co-create development goals and to follow up on commitments from the previous week.
Lesson notes
What a one-on-one is actually for
A one-on-one (1:1) is a regular, recurring private meeting between a manager and each direct report. The most important thing to understand about it: it is the employee's meeting, not the manager's. Its primary purpose is not to get a status update. Status can be shared asynchronously in Slack, a ticket tracker, or a weekly email. The 1:1 is the place for things that cannot easily happen in group settings — surfacing blockers, discussing career growth, checking in on how the person is doing, and building genuine trust.
A useful 1:1 is driven by the employee's agenda. Good opening questions the manager can use include: "What's on your mind this week?", "What's getting in your way?", "What do you need from me right now?", and "How are you feeling about the team direction?" These questions invite the employee to lead. The manager's job is to listen actively — which means far more listening than talking. A rough rule: the employee should speak 70% of the time.
A bad 1:1 looks like the manager giving a monologue about company updates, or turning the meeting into a line-by-line status report. Both patterns waste a rare channel for real connection. Another trap: cancelling 1:1s when schedules get busy. To employees, a cancelled 1:1 signals that their development and blockers are less important than the manager's calendar.
The SBI model you learned in the previous lesson is one useful tool to bring into a 1:1. If you have specific feedback — positive or corrective — a 1:1 is a natural private setting to deliver it. The meeting can also be a place to co-create development goals and to follow up on commitments from the previous week.