How to Get Your Silent 1-on-1s Back on Track

This resource first appeared in issue #93 on 24 Sep 2021 and has tags Becoming A Manager: Managing Individuals, Becoming A Manager: One-on-ones

How to Get Your Silent 1-on-1s Back on Track - Emmanuel Goossaert

Whether it’s trust issues, or just overwhelm, one-on-ones can get quiet from time to time. For almost any other kind of meeting, if the meeting is short because there’s not much to say, that’s a win! But the purpose of one-on-ones is maintenance of a line of communication, more so than what is actually communicated in any given week. If that line of communication isn’t functioning, we as managers need to do the maintenance work to get it the communication flowing again.

Goossaert suggests having a library of open-ended questions to prompt conversations:

What has been on your mind these days?
What’s the most exciting/interesting thing you’ve worked on since we last spoke?
What has been the most frustrating thing for you over the past week?
What is one thing within our team/org that you’re looking forward to?
Is there something you’re trying to learn, either tech or soft skills? What can I do to help you with that?
Anything I can support you with?