Effective 1:1s and Development
Few managers and leaders are conducting useful 1:1s, and when they do, the time is often not being used in the most effective and productive way. There is real skill required to facilitate a 1:1 that makes each one genuinely worth the investment.
The Case for Effective 1:1s
Almost every manager and leader has the opportunity to get caught up in the repetitive and routine aspects of management. Being a leader comes with added complexity and connection with others, and as such there is an obligation to take it seriously. Too many leaders fulfil that obligation by taking shortcuts.
Doing this well begins with the 1:1. It is one of the most underused tools in a manager's arsenal, and yet it is entirely within their control to do well. That is an advantage. If used well and consistently, the 1:1 delivers an engagement rating of 79%, meaningful performance impact, and the ongoing development opportunities that the people in your care deserve.
Communication, clarity, context, expectation-setting, checking for understanding, and connection have repeatedly emerged as the foundations of effective leadership. The most consistent and effective way to address all of these is through a well-run 1:1 environment. There is real learning involved, and learning that can then be transferred to the relationship and development of each individual.
A strong 1:1 is not a status update. It is a conversation with purpose, intention, and feedback that creates trust, increases self-awareness, and leads to lasting and meaningful outcomes for both the leader and the individual.
Major Benefits of Effective 1:1s
Managers who lead regular, well-structured 1:1s consistently see better outcomes across every dimension of team performance. Here are six questions every leader should be able to answer yes to, and that effective 1:1s make possible.
Do Your Team Members Feel Appreciated?
The 1:1 is one of the most direct and consistent ways to demonstrate that you value your team members as individuals. Regular, genuine engagement signals that their contribution matters and that you are invested in their success.
Are They Engaged at Work?
Teams with regular 1:1s report significantly higher engagement levels. Engagement is not created by policy or perks. It is built through consistent, meaningful connection with a leader who genuinely cares about the person, not just the output.
Do They Know What Is Expected of Them?
The 1:1 creates the ideal space for establishing and revisiting expectations. When people are clear on what success looks like, anxiety reduces and performance improves. This is one of the most important functions of the meeting.
Have They Had Recent Recognition?
Recognition delivered in a 1:1 lands differently from public acknowledgement. It is personal, specific, and demonstrates that you have been paying attention. People remember it, and it builds loyalty and discretionary effort over time.
Have Their Goals Been Discussed?
People want to know that their manager is invested in their development beyond their current role. The 1:1 is the natural place to explore aspirations, strengths, and growth opportunities in a confidential and supportive setting.
Have You Identified Their Most Valued Work?
Understanding what energises your team members allows you to align their strengths with the right opportunities. That alignment drives both performance and retention more effectively than almost any other leadership lever available.
Components of an Effective 1:1
An effective 1:1 does not happen by accident. It is structured around eight key elements that together create a productive, trust-building conversation. Each element plays a specific and important role in the overall outcome.
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Purpose
To discuss and align on current progress, objectives, and strategies. To offer the opportunity for coaching and personal development.
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Preparation
Both parties review notes and actions from the previous meeting. The needs of both parties in terms of accommodation and progress tracking are established before the meeting begins.
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Agenda
Prepared by both parties in advance with topics of importance. An agreed agenda facilitates accountability against prior commitments and ensures the meeting has clear direction.
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Feedback Mechanism
The manager provides constructive feedback on performance and behaviour, beginning with the most recent content and working toward broader development themes over time.
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Goal Setting
Short, medium, and long term goal setting to understand aspirations. Review and update progress and accomplishments against previously agreed goals.
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Development Focus
Identify areas for professional and personal growth. Discuss opportunities for training or expanded roles, and map a practical pathway toward them together.
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Actions
Define priority actions to accomplish before the next meeting. Assign clear responsibility for each action so both parties leave with absolute clarity on next steps.
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Active Listening and Engagement
Both parties ask and answer relevant questions to build understanding. Open and honest dialogue is encouraged and consistently modelled by the leader throughout.
Success Factors That Keep Meetings Effective
- Preparation. Both parties come prepared to the meeting, having agreed on an agenda between sessions and reviewed prior notes and actions. Preparation signals respect for each other's time.
- Consistency. Regular and timely meetings maintain momentum and focus. Cancelling or constantly moving the 1:1 sends a very clear message about your real priorities, and your team will notice.
- Follow-up. Actions from each meeting are followed through and reviewed in subsequent meetings. Accountability is only real when follow-through is consistent and visible to both parties.
- Commitment. When you have scheduled the sessions, commit to them. Most employees have around 160 or more hours per month to accomplish their work. Focusing on their single greatest impact for 15 to 20 hours per month is a solid investment in your people and in your results.
- Presence. Being physically and mentally present in the meeting is non-negotiable. A distracted leader sends a powerful message about how much the team member matters. Put the phone away and close the laptop.
- Confidentiality. What is discussed in the 1:1 stays in the 1:1 unless both parties agree otherwise. This is fundamental to creating the psychological safety that makes the meeting genuinely useful.
Shift Accountability Over Time
- Start with structure. In early 1:1s, the leader typically drives the agenda and the conversation. This is appropriate while trust and expectations are being established.
- Transfer ownership gradually. Over time, shift the accountability for scheduling and agenda-setting to your employee. Regular conversations that contain clear actions and outcomes create the best chance of meaningful development.
- Use REOWM as your framework. The CoachStation REOWM Leadership Accountability model provides a solid, practical framework to assist in building this accountability structure into your 1:1 practice over time.
- Set the context early. Let your team know you want to have 1:1s to help them. If they have never had them before, share this page with them before the first one so they know what to expect and how to prepare.
- Use a consistent tracking tool. The CoachStation Status Report is a simple weekly template that works hand in hand with your 1:1 rhythm, keeping priorities visible and creating a running record of contribution, progress, and outcomes over time.
How to Design an Effective 1:1 Rhythm
Trust allows you to have open and honest dialogue and healthy debate that leads to better decision-making, and conflict gets resolved productively instead of people sandbagging issues or sabotaging the efforts of others.
But developing trust in your teammates does not happen by accident. It takes an intentional effort to proactively build trust. It is a very similar factor when considering the relationship between a leader and direct report, but more impactful in most cases.
Trust cannot be built from afar or in spite of the effort to develop effective relationships. Regular 1:1s provide that opportunity.
When you have scheduled the sessions, commit to them. Cancelling or constantly moving the 1:1 sends a very clear message about your priorities. Remember, most employees have around 160 or more hours per month to accomplish their work. Focusing on the single greatest impact on the success of that work, your team members, for 15 to 20 hours per month is a pretty solid investment.
Let your team know you want to have 1:1s to help them. If they have never had them before, they may not know what to expect, so it helps to give them a little background before the first one. We recommend that you share this page with them, as this makes it much easier for them to influence when you are speaking the same language and have a similar understanding of the context.
Over time, shift the accountability for scheduling and agenda-setting to your employee. Regular conversations that contain actions and outcomes create the best chance of meaningful development. The CoachStation REOWM Leadership Accountability model provides a solid framework to assist in your 1:1s.
It is important to spend a few minutes preparing for each 1:1.
Leadership expert Kevin Eikenberry correctly states that the best meetings have agendas, and while your 1:1 meetings likely will not have a formal agenda, both parties need to be clear on the expectations, goals, and outcomes for these meetings. Since you are likely having these meetings already without this clarity, make this a topic of conversation the next time you meet.
As a leader, do not just assume others know what you want from these meetings. Talk to them and share your needs and goals for your one-on-ones.
Sample 1:1 Agenda and Questions
Agenda
- What is on your mind?
- What would you like to discuss?
Progress
- How have you gone since we last met?
- What notes have you made about what went well and why, how, and what evidence of success or otherwise occurred?
- Did your actions work?
- What did you learn as a result?
- How do you know they worked?
Actions
- What do you need to do to reinforce and consolidate recent learning and actions?
- What have you taken away from today's 1:1?
- Are there any new potential actions?
- What is the single most important thing you will do before we next meet?
- What support do you need from me to achieve that?
- Is there anything that could get in the way of completing your actions?
As a Team Member, Ask:
- What do you need from me?
- How can I help you with these tasks?
- What do I need to learn about?
- Are there resources you can help me access?
- Are there any blockers I need to raise?
- What feedback do you have for me from the past fortnight?
- Am I focusing on the right priorities from your perspective?
Three Focus Areas for Every 1:1
Self-assessment and reflection is generally more useful than solely providing feedback. You will find that through asking the right questions and listening well, there is much to learn about each person. You can then provide your own thoughts and feedback throughout the discussion, in response to your employee. It may seem subtle but is actually a significant shift in accountability and ownership. It also makes the session easier for you as the leader as you learn that you do not have to have all the answers.
These details are important, but if you want to have more effective and valuable 1:1 meetings, think bigger picture.
As a team member, ask for what you need. If you are hoping for something from these meetings, such as more direction, ask for it. A consistent agenda containing three key elements works well in establishing a standard, expectations, and agreed outcomes.
The timing of 20 minutes for each segment is indicative and can obviously be altered depending on the conversation and flow. The critical aspect is that all three elements are covered during each session.
Without doubt the biggest challenge for most managers is to conduct a 1:1 at all.
Feedback I receive is that most managers do not conduct 1:1s and if they do, they are not that useful because they focus solely on segment 1, results, KPIs, and tasks. Greater improvement and objectivity is gained when the leader focuses on how the results are achieved. You cannot influence a number or historical result.
This information is important to identify insights and trends, leading to potential actions. But, in itself, it offers little direction or future action. Identifying why results are what they are has purpose and potential for establishing goals.
Proactive 1:1s vs Reactive Management
Some of the best 1:1 discussions I have had occurred during a walk around the block, at a cafe, or in a different setting. As with all relationships, it is important to know your team members well enough to know what their preferences are. Clearly, going for a walk with an employee with health issues might be challenging and potentially do more harm than good.
I often hear statements from managers like "my door is always open". The assumption that this style creates opportunity for meaningful discussion is flawed. Not all of your team members will proactively raise all of their issues and successes. Quite often the key few will pop up to your office to vent or raise concerns. Regularly the same employees will chat about the same challenges and points, visit after visit. Reactive conversations based on specific issues become the norm. Most commonly when this occurs, you are almost always solving your team member's problems for them. Although it may feel good, it is not effective and is poor leadership.
Your role as a leader is to teach others how to fish, not to keep feeding them.
Of course, not all of your team will approach you just because you offered it. 1:1s provide the alternative options for connecting and understanding. Personal and professional topics are discussed. You need to give these meetings a fair amount of time to make sure you really dig into issues that are bothering your employees, fully explore ideas with them, and have a good opportunity to coach your team members, based on the need. You will also build their confidence and trust in you, knowing that when they come to you with a problem you will not only listen, but help them do something about it and solve their own problems and challenges.
1:1s are proactive in nature, identifying and addressing things before they escalate.
The "door is open approach" is reactive and covers the select few issues that your team members choose to raise. It assumes too much and is quite a lazy approach. It is often an approach based on the manager, their fears, self-doubts, and lack of confidence to manage the conversations. The 1:1 should be mostly about the employee. Conversely, relationship-based 1:1s are proactive as they delve and discover opportunities that may not have been identified without facilitating and questioning.
The discussion is meaningful in that it maintains flow and momentum in actions, progress, and meeting goals.
The ironic part of this mindset is that a focus away from your team rarely ends well. The most relevant and impactful way to influence outcomes and results is via the effectiveness, capability, competence, and confidence of each team member. This takes focus and development. To assume that this growth will occur without your guidance and assistance as their immediate manager reflects inexperience or avoidance. Related to this, emphasis on results and outcomes without understanding the inputs and contributors drives managers towards the wrong focus.
We have already touched on a few key benefits of 1:1s, however the most important point is the risk if you do not formalise and maximise the opportunities provided through these discussions. What causes some people to fully commit to the team and give their maximum effort while others do not? It is trust. Research by The Ken Blanchard Companies and Training Magazine found that over 60% of respondents say the most important factor influencing the effort they give to a team is how much they trust their fellow teammates.
Recommended Listening
Two podcast episodes that explore effective 1:1 management and how to supercharge your one-on-one meetings.
The Organised Effective Management Tool: The 1:1
Managers who are given and strongly believe in the power of 1:1 management tools are often the most effective with their individuals. CS founder Steve Riddle discusses the findings and shares what consistently makes the difference in practice.
Supercharge Your 1:1 Meetings (HBR IdeaCast)
Research consistently shows that 1:1s are among the most important management tools available, yet surprisingly few organisations use them well. This HBR IdeaCast episode explores how to make them genuinely effective.
Trust and Rapport in Your 1:1s
Regular 1:1 meetings help to build and maintain a relationship of mutual trust between you as a manager and your team members. This personal connection is the foundation for a healthy, high-performing work environment.
Some of the best 1:1 discussions have the following trust-building elements present consistently. It is important that team members feel comfortable enough to bring their real challenges, and that comes only from leaders who invest in creating that environment over time.
- Active Listening. Give the team member your complete and genuine focus throughout the meeting. Free yourself from distractions before the conversation begins and maintain that presence throughout.
- Personalisation. Take particular care to understand the team member and manage their progress as an individual. People feel the difference between a manager going through the motions and one who genuinely knows and cares about them.
- Setting Expectations. Share expectations as part of a regular communication strategy. Follow up to understand how the team member is experiencing the work and whether any situation elements need addressing together.
- Open-Ended Questions. Encourage team members to take an active role through rich, relevant questions that build understanding. Use questions to explore and to demonstrate genuine curiosity, not to interrogate.
- Revisiting Previous Discussions. Give context by following on from issues covered in the previous 1:1. This signals that you were listening and that the person and their concerns genuinely matter beyond the meeting itself.
- Giving Time for Mutual Support. The 1:1 is an opportunity to give consistent, well-timed care to each team member. Make it a safe space where they can raise challenges without fear of judgement or consequence.
- Offering Resources. If a team member is struggling, offer resources, development opportunities, or access to support that could help them overcome their challenges and move forward with confidence.
Problem Solving and Conflict Resolution
- Create safety first. Have the team member share their problems or conflicts openly. Mutual respect and a safe space to be heard is the essential first step before any resolution is possible.
- Bring it together. Approaching a problem by involving team members in all aspects helps build trust and ensures accountability is shared rather than imposed from above.
- Connect to impact. Help the team member understand how their contribution connects to the larger goals of the team and organisation. This context is both motivating and constructive.
- Recognition and Appreciation. Regular recognition is one of the most powerful tools in a leader's 1:1 toolkit. Specific, timely, and genuine acknowledgement builds loyalty and drives discretionary effort consistently.
- Address conflict early. Left unaddressed, conflict grows. The 1:1 is the right environment to surface tension early, explore it with curiosity, and resolve it before it affects the broader team dynamic.
- Follow through after difficult conversations. A hard conversation only creates change if it is followed up. Check in at the next 1:1 to acknowledge progress and reinforce the commitment made by both parties.
Identifying Opportunities and Promoting Accountability
- Professional development. Ask questions and identify what competencies team members need. Provide the opportunity and support for them to build toward those capabilities over time.
- Career development. 1:1s are one of the best opportunities for discussing career aspirations. This gives the meeting a broader and more energising purpose for the team member beyond task review.
- Set clear goals. Give each team member clear goals and accountability. People feel more ownership of their performance when they have participated in setting the standard they are being held to.
- Encourage self-reflection. Ask team members to self-reflect on their own performance and identify areas they can improve, rather than always directing development from the top down.
- Celebrate progress, not just outcomes. Recognising the effort and growth that leads to results is as important as recognising the results themselves. It reinforces the right behaviours for the long term.
- Connect development to the organisation's direction. Help team members see how their growth aligns with the goals of the business. This connection makes development feel purposeful rather than transactional.
1:1 Focus for Team Members and Employees
It may take a couple of 1:1s for the team member to get comfortable and understand expectations and how best to apply them, but it is their time, so your employee should own it. Support them through this though, being fair and clear about how this looks and what they should do. Accountability should sit with the employee, who is the focus of the 1:1.
Much of the information on this page applies to managers and leaders, although there are key responsibilities for team members at any level when participating in 1:1s. Both parties participating in a 1:1 have responsibility for the inputs and outcomes of the meeting.
Effective participation demonstrates engagement and commitment, signalling to the leader that the employee is proactive about their role and growth within the organisation. Moreover, by actively contributing to the discussion, the employee can directly influence their career development and gain valuable insights from their leader's experience and feedback.
Effective 1:1s For Employees
We have put together a printable resource for team members detailing the most effective 1:1 related actions, responsibilities, and behaviours for an employee. Share this with your team before introducing a regular 1:1 rhythm so everyone understands their role and comes prepared to make the most of each meeting.
Download the Employee ResourceReady to Transform Your 1:1 Meetings?
CoachStation works with leaders and organisations to build the skills, habits, and systems that make every 1:1 count. Let's start the conversation.
