The Manager’s Guide to 1:1 Meetings

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Contents

1:1 Meetings—The Manager’s Most Important Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Part I Best Practices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Cardinal Rules for 1:1 Meetings 1:1 Agenda Laying the Groundwork for Great 1:1 Meetings The Employee-Needs Hierarchy

Part II Questions to Ask in 1:1 Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Catching-Up Questions Personal Well-Being Questions Work Alignment Questions Work Relations Questions Work Performance Questions Self-Development Questions Additional Insight Questions

Part III 1:1 Tips for Special Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Remote Workers Top Performers Underperformers

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1:1 Meetings—The Manager’s Most Important Tool

Since you downloaded this guide, you’re probably ready for practi-cal strategies for holding great 1:1 meetings with your employees. We won’t waste any time getting to them.

Just know that well-done, consistent 1:1s are arguably the most vital tool in the manager’s toolkit. They open up a space where you can understand what’s going on in the employee’s world—not only how their work is going, but their personal aspirations, insights, and observations about the business.

Here’s to keeping your employees engaged and productive through great 1:1s.

—The Khorus Team

Cover icon made by Freepik, from www.flaticon.com.

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Part I

Best Practices

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Cardinal Rules for 1:1 Meetings

The concept of a 1:1 meeting is simple: a recurring dedicated conversation where a manager catches up with his or her direct report. Before moving on, let’s cover some basic recommendations.

1. HOLD THEM WEEKLY OR BIWEEKLYIn most cases, 1:1s should be held weekly or biweekly. Consider the size of your team, your level of daily interaction with employees, and your sched-ule, all of which may affect your choice.

2. CANCEL AND RESCHEDULE SPARINGLYOnce you pick your cadence, stick to it. Strive to rarely cancel or resched-ule. It can be tempting in a busy week to kick your 1:1s down the road, but the whole point of these meetings is to carve out a break from the daily barrage of tasks and connect with your direct reports. Regularly canceled 1:1s often slide into nonexistent 1:1s.

3. LISTEN AND TAKE NOTESThe last thing you want is for your team to see 1:1s as pointless. To avoid this: Be curious. Be present. Ask questions (we’ll give you plenty of exam-ples in Part II). Then listen and take good notes. Well-taken notes establish continuity through 1:1s and show the employee you’re paying attention—and that you care.

4. BE HONESTAnother way to make your 1:1s valuable is to center them around honesty—don’t let them become fluffy sessions where you only talk about the good stuff. Few managers like giving negative feedback, but most employees want it from you. Even better, you set the right tone and encourage employ-ees to be candid too.

5. MAKE IT ABOUT THE EMPLOYEEFinally, it’s important to hold the 1:1 as a sacred space where you’re not just soliciting status updates or issuing directives. Your ultimate goal with the 1:1, as we’ll see, is to further the employee’s self-development. Take a step back and focus on the employee as a human being—moving beyond the tac-tical to understand the big picture.

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Good management is the ability to identify what’s unique about each person, capitalize on their strengths, and make sure the team works well together.—ALEX CHUANG, COFOUNDER, LAUNCH ACADEMY

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1:1 Agenda

Before the meeting 10 minutes

• Ask employee if there’s anything they’d like to add to the agenda.

• Review notes from previous 1:1.• Reflect on previous week (or two weeks), identifying any wins

or struggles you saw.• Select key questions to ask during this 1:1. Consult Part II of

this guide, choosing the best questions for your situation.

In the meeting 30–45 minutes

1. Kick it off with something personal: “How are things?” “What’s new?” etc.

2. Quick update on action items from previous meeting. Be sure to hold the employee accountable to their commitments.

3. Cover any agenda items requested by the employee.4. Give feedback: What did the employee do well? Where could

they improve?5. Ask questions. This is the meat of the 1:1. Remember to keep

your ears open and take good notes. 6. Decide on new action items.

Here’s a template agenda for your 1:1s. Adjust it to meet your needs—but these are the basic areas to cover.

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Laying the Groundwork for Great 1:1 Meetings You’ll want to begin your 1:1 practice with a baseline understanding of each employee’s personality and approach to work. Why? Because as a manager, the Golden Rule just isn’t good enough. You have to abide by the Platinum Rule—treating others as they want to be treated.

For example, one of your employees may bask in public recognition for good work, while a more introverted employee might cringe at the specta-cle. It’s up to you to uncover these preferences and treat each employee accordingly—especially in 1:1 meetings, where you’ll have some of your most significant interaction with each employee. Here are some tools we recommend using to understand each employee’s working style:

Write “user’s manuals.” Today, it’s not unusual for a manager to write a “user’s manual,” explaining their management style to employees. Take it a step further and have everyone on your team compose a one-page user’s manual to clarify their workplace quirks and prefer-ences. Find a good structure for a user’s manual here.

Take the Clifton StrengthsFinder. This assessment clarifies each em-ployees top five strengths, and allows you to work with the employee to maximize them. Access it here. Gallup has found that people who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged at work, 8% more productive and 15% less likely to quit their jobs.

Use Crystal. Crystal is a tool that allows you to communicate with anyone based on their unique personality. Have everyone on your team take the Crystal assessment; you will then have access to rela-tionship reports that will give you pointers on the best way to speak to, motivate, persuade, and work with each individual on your team. Get started at CrystalKnows.com.

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The Employee-Needs Hierarchy

PERSONAL WELL-BEING

SELF-DEVELOPMENT

WORK ALIGNMENT

WORK RELATIONS

WORK PERFORMANCE

Throughout the 1:1 meeting, keep in mind the hierarchy of needs that exist in any employee (see diagram below). In the following pages, we’ll cover key questions to ensure you’re covering each layer.

Before you can get to the top of the pyramid—the employee’s self- development—you must first cover the lower layers. For example, if you’re not addressing the employee’s personal well-being (if they’re struggling with high stress levels, a death in the family, etc.), the employee will strug-gle to contribute their best at work. You can’t solve personal problems for employees, of course, but as their manager, you need to understand the entirety of their world before you can support and coach them to full en-gagement and high performance.

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Part II

Questions to Ask in 1:1 Meetings

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Catching-Up Questions

Questions are a powerful device for engaging employees and uncovering gems of practical insight. The following pages offer a wide variety of ques-tions that we’ve found useful in 1:1 meetings.

We’ll (1) begin with questions to catch up at the beginning of the 1:1, (2) cover each area of the employee-needs hierarchy, and (3) finish with bonus questions that tap into the employee’s observations and ideas for your team and the company at large.

As you go into each 1:1, select a set of questions that fit the situation, and don’t forget to change them up from week to week!

These questions help you understand what happened in the week or two since the last 1:1 you had with the employee—and what the employee plans to focus on in the next period.

• What was your best moment / biggest achievement at work since we met last?

• What was your worst moment / biggest mistake at work since we met last?

• On a scale of 1–10, how stressed were you this week?

• Which of your goals are you most concerned about right now?

• What would someone else in your position focus on this week?

• What do you need from me this week?

The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge.—THOMAS BERGER“

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Personal Well-Being QuestionsWhile you never want to pry into your employee’s personal life, it’s a good idea to occasionally ask open-ended questions about their general well- being—particularly if you sense they may be facing a challenge.

• How are things going outside of work?

• What are your preferences when it comes to work-life balance?

• Are you feeling good about the level of work-life balance you have right now?

• Is there anything I can do as your manager to make your personal life easier?

Work Alignment QuestionsThe next level on the employee-needs hierarchy is work alignment: how well the employee is aligned with their role—how well it fits their strengths, abilities, and aspirations.

• What do you like most about working on this team / at this company?

• What do you like least about working on this team / at this company?

• What part of your role do you feel most confident in?

• What part of your role are you least confident about? What can we do to address that

issue?

• Are there any parts of your current responsibilities that you’d like to do more of?

• Do you feel challenged enough in your current role?

• Do you feel that you are able to use your strengths in this role? How so?

• Do you have questions about the scope of your role and what’s expected of you? Do

you feel that your role should change in any way?

• What part of work makes you feel like your job has meaning, if any?

Top 5 things to NOT say in a 1:1 meeting . . .

1. “Everyone complains about you.” 2. “Look, I’ll just do this myself.” 3. [In a gossipy tone] “So, what do people think of Chad?” 4. [To an underperformer] “You’re doing an awesome job!” 5. “No one else has a problem with this—why do you?”

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Work Relations QuestionsUse these questions to understand your employee’s take on the culture and interpersonal relations among your team. If there are issues in this area, the employee’s productivity and happiness can be significantly blocked.

• Is there anyone on the team you’d like to collaborate with more?

• Which of your colleagues has the most positive effect on morale?

• Is there anyone on the team you prefer not to work with? What’s going on there?

• Can you tell me about a colleague who recently made a significant positive impact on

our team?

• What do you think would help bring people together on this team?

• Which teammate has an attribute you’d like to grow in yourself?

• Do you feel like we live the core values of this company as a team? Do we have any

core values of our own? Which core value is most important to you?

• Do you feel good about how our team does its meetings? How would you improve

them?

• Do you see any problems on this team that I need to look in to?

• If you were in my shoes, what’s the first thing you’d change on this team?

• Do you see any opportunities for this team to be more effective?

• Are you getting what you need from other teams in the company?

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Work Performance QuestionsThese questions help you focus in on the employee’s actual work. Consider that your employee probably knows more about his or her job than you do, and use this time to get their perspective and remove whatever roadblocks you can for them.

• How likely are you to meet your goals for this quarter on time?

• What’s the biggest obstacle you’re facing on the path to meeting your goals? What

can I do to help?

• How do you feel about the quality of work you’ve been able to do toward your

goals so far?

• Are you clear on what your objectives for this quarter are?

• Do we need to adjust any of the goals we set at the beginning of this quarter?

• Do you have the resources and tools you need to do your best work?

• Does anything take up a needlessly large amount of your time?

• What can I do to help you excel in your job?

• How would you break up your time each week according to tasks or

responsibilities?

• What’s the most useless or annoying thing you have to do in your daily work?

• Is there anything holding you back from getting your most important work done?

• How do you feel about your workload?

• What’s your biggest distraction during a typical workday?

• What key decisions are you facing in your role? How will you handle them?

• Does any specific type of work put you in a “flow state”? Why do you think that is?

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Self-Development QuestionsAt the top of the employee-needs pyramid is the employee’s self- development, which extends beyond their role on your team. The best managers understand that the employee-manager relationship is a symbiotic one—and that it’s to everyone’s benefit to help the employee develop as a professional, even if they won’t be on your team forever.

• What skills or talents are you interested in developing?

• What is something you’d be interested in learning at work—a knowledge or skill?

Who’s the best person to learn that from?

• What’s something you learned recently?

• Is there another part of the company you’d be interested in contributing to or

learning more about?

• Is there anyone you’d like to meet who I could introduce you to?

• Is there anything you need from anyone else in the company?

• In your career path, what are one or two things you’re most proud of?

• Do you think this company/position makes enough room for your immediate

career growth?

• Have you created a plan for the next three years of your career?

Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.—BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

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Managerial Ignorance Is a Real Problem

In his famous “Iceberg of Ignorance” study, Sidney Yoshida found that: • Frontline managers were aware of 74% of the issues facing the business. • Middle managers were only aware of 9% of these issues. • Senior managers only knew about 4% of these issues. Use your 1:1s to uncover problems within the organization—so you and the rest of the leadership team aren’t in the dark!

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Additional Insight QuestionsThese are some additional questions to use in 1:1s that will encourage the employee to give you valuable observations and ideas on how the company can improve, how the team can improve—and how you can improve as a manager.

• What do you think our team/company’s greatest strength is? What about our biggest

weakness?

• What do you think the biggest threat to our team/company is?

• What bothers you most about the way this team/company operates?

• Do you feel like you hear from leadership enough at this company?

• Do you feel confident in this company’s overall strategy? Is that strategy clear to you?

• If you were CEO for a day, what’s the first thing you’d change?

• What is the biggest thing I’m missing about our team?

• What do you think is the most important success metric for our team?

• Am I giving you enough feedback?

• Do I set clear enough expectations for you? Are these expectations realistic?

• Is there anything about my management style that bothers you?

• How could I improve as a manager?

• If you were to leave this company, why do you think it would be?

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Part III

1:1 Tips forSpecial Cases

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Remote Workers• Remote workers tend to feel more shunned and left out, so it’s particularly import-

ant to do 1:1 meetings regularly.

• Bring them in for face time when possible; otherwise, use videoconferencing tools or, at the very least, the telephone. Emails and messaging don’t work well for 1:1s.

• Ask questions about their feelings toward remote work. What do they like and dislike about it? What could you do to improve things?

Tips for holding 1:1 meetings with . . .

Underperfomers• Let the employee know there’s a problem, and be specific about what it is.

• Acknowledge that you may have contributed to the problem, and that you’re here to help.

• Solicit their ideas on how to improve performance, and follow up week to week.

• If they don’t improve after a good-faith effort to coach them, it’s time to let them go. Keeping them on isn’t fair to the rest of your team.

Top Performers• You still need to do regular 1:1s with your A-players. Don’t assume

that their competence means they don’t need direction or want to give you input.

• Keep pressing them forward. Even the peak performers have room for growth and development. Don’t just say “Great job!” every time.

• Consider asking if they’d be willing to mentor/train new or struggling team members.

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Be a better manager with Khorus1:1 meetings are critical to your team’s success. Use Khorus to not only run better 1:1s—but also support all the key responsibilities of the manager role.

Gather weekly insight

Set and align team goals

Coach and develop employees

With goals recorded in Khorus, your team is on the same page— and everyone knows the results they’re accountable for.

Streamlined, value-focused reviews and ratings let you see your talent in depth. And 1:1 Notes allow you to keep your 1:1s focused and relevant.

Aggregated, predictive insight from your team shows you how goals are trending, and alerts you to developing issues.

Schedule your demo today!