Managers one-on-ones meeting playbook

What is it?

1:1s are your (ideally) weekly catchups for 30 minutes (at least) with your direct reports.

Why is it important?

It goes back to the core purpose of being a manager - treating people as humans and not "resources" and helping them grow and flourish within the organisation. Your job, as a manager, is to be a multiplier by removing barriers, providing a new perspective, and enabling them to be successful.

Other benefits include:

• Getting to know your team better

• It's an opportunity to understand:

- what's going well and what's not going well

- what (if any) circumstances - personal or professional - have changed  and what impact it has had or will have on their work

- their motivation(s) and aspiration(s)

• It is also a great way to give and solicit feedback - both good and bad

What makes an effective 1:1?

Here are some strategies to get the most out of your 1:1s

• It's not a project status update - use stand-ups and other meetings/channels for project updates

• Don't skip 1:1s - it is tempting to de-prioritise these meetings over other "project meetings".  Frequently cancelling 1:1s undermines its effectiveness. If you must cancel, ask to reschedule.

• If you're in the not so enviable position of providing difficult feedback about their performance or behaviour - you should consider following the Radical Candour approach. Make your feedback direct, specific, and sincere - demonstrate that you personally care.

• Discuss career and growth goals at least once every 2 months, and confirm if their current trajectory is aligned with their expectations.

• Take notes aplenty.

Bonus tips

A few more pro-tips for taking the whole thing up a notch.

• Skip level 1:1s: If you're a manager of managers, then try and do ad-hoc 1:1s with your manager’s direct reports  (i.e. your indirect reports). This will help you gain a deeper insight into the organisation, find out how your managers are doing, identify and root out communication dysfunction, and finally demonstrate that you're engaged at all levels

• Consider doing the 1:1s outside the confines of the office meeting rooms to reduce the tension of the boss-employee dynamic - maybe go for a walk, or do it over lunch or coffee. It does not mean that you leave your professionalism at the door.

• Setup 1:1s with your peers - the agenda might be different but the idea is to improve interpersonal relationships, solicit feedback, discuss approaches to improve collaboration between teams/squads/departments

Thanks for taking the time to read this post, if you found it useful and if you have any comments or more tips, please hit me up on Twitter (@anup)