A one-on-one meeting is a dedicated, unrestricted conversation between a manager and an employee. This is conducted more casually with the purpose of creating and maintaining a rapport between the manager and their team members. One-on-ones are integral to team building and this meeting has become more important in the remote workplace where team building is done virtually.
A key difference between a one-on-one meeting and any other meeting is that one-on-ones do not include conversations about project status or job task updates instead, these meetings focus more on building rapport between the manager and the team member, and involve activities like charting out career growth goals with the team member, addressing concerns, gathering feedback, and other candid conversations. Additionally, one-on-ones are an opportunity for managers to understand the well-being of the employee and how they can best support their teams.
A highlight of the one-on-one meeting is that it is also a safe space to have difficult conversations regarding bottlenecks or concerns with tasks, teams, or processes that animate the work environment.
One-on-ones, like every other meeting, require diligent preparation and managers are encouraged to maintain a shared note of meetings that have actionable points that can be revisited in subsequent meetings.
It goes without saying that a carefully thought out agenda that’s prepared and shared with the team member is essential to give both the manager and the team member the clarity of what will be discussed and allow the required time to prepare talking points.
In this regard, here are the top questions to ask in a remote one-on-one meeting: