One-on-One Meeting Template for Managers

Regularity comes first. Gallup reported in 2015 that employees who had regular meetings with their manager were almost three times as likely to be engaged¹ as those who didn't.

Steven Rogelberg, who studies meetings at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, surveyed 1,000 knowledge workers and 250 managers and employees about one-on-ones. Employees at every job level rated a weekly meeting of about 30 minutes the most desirable², and it was linked to the highest engagement. Every other week for 45 to 60 minutes came second, and monthly came last.

Then protect the slot. GitLab, the software company, puts it plainly in its public handbook: canceling a 1-1 should be a last resort³. Rogelberg warns that canceling can make people feel low on your priority list². If you must cancel, reschedule right away, ideally in the same week, even if that means meeting earlier. Or keep the meeting and shorten it. Some time together beats none.

Use one shared document per person and add to it before every meeting, so the history stays in one place. Rogelberg found that having an agenda strongly predicted a good meeting, and that both sides rated meetings highest when the report helped set it². Ben Horowitz, a co-founder of the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, goes further: it's the employee's meeting rather than the manager's⁴, so the employee sets the agenda.

Run it in the same order every time:

1. 1

   Open commitments

   Everything either of you promised that isn't done yet, oldest first. Read it before adding anything new.

2. 2

   Talking points

   Added by either of you during the week, not at the start of the meeting. Take theirs first.

3. 3

   Notes

   What you discussed and decided, short enough to write while you talk.

4. 4

   New commitments

   Each action, with one owner and a due date.

In Rogelberg's research, the biggest predictor of a successful one-on-one was how much the report talked: ideally 50% to 90% of the time². Listen before you advise. If their fix will work, he says, go with it, even if it's no better than yours.

When their list is thin, try one of these from the template's question bank:

• Current work: What is taking longer than it should right now, and why?
• Blockers: Is there a decision I have not made that is holding you up?
• Growth: What skill would make the next three months easier if you had it now?
• Feedback: What is one thing I did this month that made your work harder?
• Well-being: Is the pace sustainable, or is something building up?

Treat them as a backup, not a script, or every meeting starts to sound the same. Rogelberg also suggests giving one meeting in every three or four² to career and development, or 5 to 10 minutes of each one.

Don't hold feedback for the one-on-one, let alone the annual review. GitLab's handbook says to give it right away rather than waiting for the 1-1³, and to make sure feedback flows both ways at least as often as you meet. The meeting is still the place for points someone may be sensitive about, or feedback you're giving a second time.

Make every point specific. The Center for Creative Leadership, a nonprofit that trains leaders, teaches Situation-Behavior-Impact. Name the moment (not "last week"), describe the observable behavior without opinions or judgments⁵, then explain its effect. CCL adds a fourth step, asking what the person intended, which turns feedback into a conversation.

Ask for feedback on yourself too, with a question that's hard to brush off. "Any feedback for me?" usually gets a polite no. Horowitz suggests asking "If you were me, what changes would you make?"⁴ Feedback that calls for a change is a commitment, so log it like one.

If you've raised the same problem several times without change, a performance improvement plan puts expectations and a timeline in writing.

Close each meeting by reading back what each of you agreed to do. Rogelberg advises clarifying action items for both people². When both of you write them down, he says, they're more likely to get done. Give each one owner and a due date. "We should look into headcount" belongs to nobody, so ask who's taking it.

Track your own promises as closely as theirs. In research published in 2002, Tony Simons of Cornell and a colleague surveyed more than 6,500 employees at 76 Holiday Inn hotels. Hotels where staff strongly believed their managers followed through on promises⁶ and practiced what they preached were substantially more profitable than those whose managers scored average or lower.

Once a quarter, compare meetings scheduled with meetings held for each person, and note who canceled the rest. In the template's sample team, 26 of 30 meetings happened, about 87%. That average hid one person who got only four of six, because the manager canceled twice.

Your reports can tell you how the meetings are going. Rogelberg suggests asking each person directly, or running an anonymous survey with three questions²: what's going well, what isn't, and what would make the meetings better.

Kept up for a few months, these notes become the record you write performance reviews from. The meetings are also a natural place to check on team OKRs. For a faster start, open this template with Edit with AI: River logs each meeting from your notes and splits open commitments by who owes them.