One-on-Ones Are More Than Meetings

I’ve long had a 1-on-1 weekly meeting practice with all my direct reports, or anyone working directly with me on a project. These meetings were set on the calendar, at the same time/day each week – and were seldom canceled. While some leaders¹ consider this a sub-optimal use of time, I’ve always subscribed to Michael Lopp’s view² that one-on-ones are a chance to perform weekly preventive maintenance while also understanding the health of your team.

Of the many things I learned from Larry Hack was the importance of structure in the one-on-ones. While the meetings were “yours” as a report, a shared document established the agenda for each meeting.

I’d argue that the actual structure was less important than the consistency of keeping that structure each week. My iteration with my own team was done in a shared Excel document, with Wins/Issues/Blockers row sections, and with each week saved in a column. This gave continuity to items discussed and next actions. But above all, it was the one place where I expected my team to catch any remaining items on their minds either not captured in our normal interaction (Jira, emails, etc.), or lacking context to prioritize them correctly. However, the underlying goal of these meetings is still to drive performance, which is why I was methodical about only allowing items placed on the agenda to be discussed in most meetings. This discouraged the meeting from becoming a hallway conversation-type moment.

I say most meetings because, sometimes, one-on-ones can become the space where, upon asking “How are you? How’s the team?”, a pause, raised eyebrow, or slight shake of the head will be your signal that something is not right and you need to throw the agenda away. It could be because a rant needs to be heard to allow steam to blow off, or you’re about to hear about how something you considered a given as a manager is a barely working cluster-fudge.

I’d say expect a blow-out once a quarter. Anything more, and you may need a separate space to deal with these issues. Anything less, and you may have an artificially happy team – dig deeper.

A good one-on-one practice is fundamental for any manager. And if last week I was lamenting the lack of background noise of alerts, that is nothing compared to how I miss the pure signal of weekly meetings with my team.