The essential one-to-one meetings guide for managers

Before the meeting, keep in mind what you’d like to get out of it - and how you can achieve this. You might be holding a meeting to:

While your approach should be slightly different depending on what you want to get out of the meeting, all of the tips below will help make it productive for you both.

When organising an irregular/unexpected meeting with one of the team, let them know ahead of time (if possible) the general theme of the meeting. A vague message about a meeting can cause someone to be anxious, which isn’t good for morale or productivity! If you can’t do this in advance, make sure to do it at the beginning of the meeting.

By giving the person you’re meeting with a heads-up about what you’ll be discussing, this will also give them a chance to collect their thoughts - meaning no ideas or concerns go unmentioned.

Questions such as ‘how are you getting on?’ aren’t always the most helpful if you want to check on specific aspects of the person’s work. It is also easy for them to respond to questions like this in a way that might not quite be the truth - they might be struggling, but feel as though they need to appear as though everything is okay. Instead, focus your questions on individual tasks, parts of the project, or the different facets of the work and ways of engaging with other colleagues they are experiencing.

Make room for intentional pauses after speaking so that the other person can take notes or ask questions about what you’ve said. They may also have their own perspective on what you’ve raised, so offering room to hear this means you’ll get extra insight into what works best for the team or even the customers/users.

Sometimes the person you’re meeting with might not have an immediate answer to one of your questions - or at least not one that sufficiently reflects the full scope of their ideas or feelings. This is especially true if the meeting is an impromptu one.

Know when to give other team members the grace to come back to you at a later point, either via a message, or in another short meeting, to let you know their full thoughts on something. Make sure that they know that this is fine to do, too!

For some team members, the (virtual) face-to-face experience of having a meeting is something they need to both be able to understand the work and to feel heard. For others - in certain situations - it might be the case that you shouldn’t be holding a one-to-one meeting at all!

Ask team members how they prefer to communicate. Some people might have better comprehension of a task when reading about it, for example. Others may find that the social energy required for a one-to-one meeting leaves them with less energy to get their work done. It’s all about what works for the individual, and what needs to be discussed.

Though note-taking isn’t necessary for every meeting, it can be extremely helpful when it comes to more in-depth discussions. And though taking notes individually is still a good practice, it leaves room for items and ideas to be missed. A collaborative notes space also means that either of you can flag anything that you forgot or weren’t able to bring up during the meeting. We recommend Confluence as a great platform for hosting meetings and sharing knowledge.

Learn more: The best collaboration tools for every team

Are you a Confluence user (or soon to be!) and want to get your one-to-meetings off to the smoothest start?

Our Confluence 1-2-1 Meeting Notes Template is all set up to be clear to read and use, while allowing for the customisation you need. It’s based on the 5-15 reporting technique, helping you easily track your team’s accomplishments and areas for improvement.