One-on-one
A regular meeting format in which a manager and a direct report, or a mentor and a mentee, meet as a pair.
A one-on-one (1on1) is a regular meeting held one to one between a manager and a direct report, or between a mentor and a mentee. Its origin is said to be the management method whose importance former Intel CEO Andy Grove explained in his book “High Output Management” (1983), and it has been adopted mainly by IT companies.
The purpose and effects of one-on-ones
The main purposes of a one-on-one are supporting the direct report’s growth, building trust, and spotting issues early. A Gallup survey (State of the American Manager, 2015) reported that employees who have regular meetings with their manager are about 3 times as likely to be engaged at work as those who do not. What matters is that a one-on-one is “time for the direct report,” not a place for the manager to ask for progress reports.
Topics covered in one-on-ones
- Career direction and growth goals
- Problems and blockers at work
- The team’s atmosphere and relationships
- Feedback (in both directions)
Task progress reports fall outside the purpose of a one-on-one (handle them elsewhere, such as recurring meetings or daily reports)
Frequency and scheduling
Commonly cited guidelines for one-on-one frequency are 30 minutes once a week or 45-60 minutes once every two weeks. It is considered desirable to set it as a recurring meeting on a fixed day / time and not cancel it unless there is a very good reason. Especially in remote work environments, the one-on-one may be the only regular point of contact between a manager and a direct report.
Signs it has become an empty formality, and how to rebuild it
One reason a one-on-one turns into a progress-report meeting is that the manager, anxious that “it will be awkward if there is nothing to talk about,” pulls the topics toward work. The key to rebuilding it is to hand ownership of the agenda to the direct report. The direct report writes topics in a shared document in advance, and on the day the meeting follows them. In a week with no topics to write, small talk is fine. Maintaining “a relationship where anything can be discussed” is itself an output of the one-on-one, and it is not a reason to skip it.