Top Tips for People Leaders holding One to Ones

One-to-one meetings are one of the most powerful tools for people leaders to drive engagement, performance, and career growth. When done well, they create a space for open dialogue, meaningful feedback, and alignment on goals.

In this guide, we share our top tips to help you hold consistent, productive, and impactful one-to-ones with your team.

Prior to the One to One

Our tips for holding consistent One to Ones always starts with great planning.

• Make sure a time to meet is agreed and understood. When meeting via video, ensure good audio and encourage cameras on. With time, be respectful of it. On the day, check-in to see that the time still suits. Be aware of what else might be on your colleague’s plate especially as we continue working remotely and a lot of times juggling home priorities. Where you can meet safely in person, pick a venue that is suitable for a good conversation and respect privacy.

• Have a rolling agenda and stick to  a consistent schedule and focus around talking points.

• Ensure there’s an opportunity for you and your employee to share, collaborate and comment on talking points in advance of the meeting. This ensures the time you have is focused on what’s important to you both. Such an approach will make your people engage more in the discussion itself rather than wasting time trying to navigate an impromptu agenda at the time.

• Once the items to discuss are agreed, take the time to prepare for the One to One. There’s nothing worse than showing up unprepared. Your people will pick up on this immediately.

• Never cancel or re-schedule at the last minute. It is a big no-no. It’s critical to demonstrate that this time is important. When jumping between video calls, ensure you block time either side of your one-to-one’s to both be prepared & to document notes post-meeting.

During the One to One

• Once underway, always take a few minutes to get a sense of how things are going for your colleague before diving into the agenda. Ask about their general day-to-day experience in work and also don’t be afraid to ask about how things are outside of work. Such an approach helps build a deeper connection and a more meaningful relationship with your peers.

• Allow your colleague to take the lead on what priorities get discussed. Remember, the talking points are there as a guide. If something urgent needs to be discussed, take the time to do so. Other points of discussion can always get deferred to the next time you meet.

• If a discussion is centred around a concern or difficulty your colleague is having, ask for context. Ask them to give an example, to outline the impact and encourage them to look for possible solutions to the problem at hand. Show your support and where action and follow-up are needed from you, take note.

• When discussing progress on goals, always link the contribution back to the wider company mission & recognise wins. Show how their progress is directly impacting the companies. This will give them a greater sense of contribution.

• When setting goals during a 1:1 always try to frame it again around the company's goals and don’t be afraid to set a stretch goal for your people.

• Regardless of how the tone of a particular 1:1 goes, always look to finish on a positive. Look for good feedback, recognition or a company update that links directly to them.

• Always summarise items discussed, take private notes and create action items that need follow-up.

• Ask for feedback on venue choice (where appropriate) and time for meeting in terms of suitability. Such an approach allows you to iterate and improve before the next time you both meet.

Post the One to One

A big part of good meetings is how you document and follow up. Our tips for holding consistent One to Ones also involve events post-meeting.

• Always document a summary of the points discussed and share with your team member. Do so promptly and not weeks after the discussion.

• Where there are items for you to action, clearly outline what your colleague can expect from you and by when.

• Bring forward items that were not discussed in the previous 1:1, while allowing the opportunity to collaborate a new share agenda once again.

• Remember that the work you do post 1:1 is equally, if not more important.

Holding consistent One to Ones with people ensures items that need your attention and support get picked up and actioned regularly. It makes for richer conversations focused around ongoing performance and career growth. One to Ones are more than just meetings, they’re one of your most important productivity tools. It may feel like extra work initially upfront, but we encourage you to give it a go. Your people will thank you for it and hang around longer!

We hope you found our tips for holding consistent 1:1s useful. To learn how Frankli can help further and for next steps, contact us today.