Proven Doc-Template: Monthly One-on-One Meetings
Lisa has been working in an agile team for a year. She enjoys her work, but sometimes she feels insecure. Has her boss noticed her successes? Are there things she can do better?
Right, you guessed it: If Lisa hasn’t had a single one-on-one conversation with her supervisor in the last year, then something is wrong.
Which brings us to the topic: Monthly 1-on-1 meetings between managers and employees are key to good team management.
By the way, it’s not so important whether they take place exactly monthly or have a different frequency - we’ll get to that in a moment.
Whether in a digital or virtual one-on-one meeting, 1-to-1 meetings offer space for feedback and thus for personal development, which is essential in today’s working world.
First of all: If you’re still unsure about what good one-on-one meetings look like, take a look at our guide: The guide with 6 tips for successful one-on-one meetings.
Monthly Employee One-on-One Template (Doc) for Managers
Is a monthly one-on-one meeting frequent enough?
Good question… The frequency of 1-on-1 meetings depends on the size of the team and the individual requirements. For example, if you have a team with ten direct reports, a monthly one-on-one meeting is a good rhythm. Smaller teams or more intensive projects may also require weekly or bi-weekly meetings.
It also obviously depends on how well you already know your team. During the familiarization phase, weekly one-on-one meetings are appropriate.
In Agile or Scrum teams, in which regular communication plays a central role anyway, the meetings should be adapted to the existing exchange. Some reflections at an individual level may not be necessary if you discuss how certain bugs arose during the retrospective.
A regular, for example monthly, one-on-one meeting is only necessary for the individual development of employees. Of course, this can also be useful digitally or virtually if the team is working remotely.
Incidentally, the picture below underlines an important point: more frequent reflection on the status quo also tends to mean a faster rate of change and improvement. 🙂
Monthly Employee One-on-One Template (Doc) for Managers
A good template for monthly one-to-one meetings (Doc)
The fact that you clicked on this article tells me that you are looking for a doc template for monthly one-to-one meetings. Corresponding templates can of course have different focuses.
That’s why I’ve saved a doc template for you here, which should work well for the classic monthly performance review. Further down, I’ll give you some ideas on how you can enrich the meeting routine with other questions.
Let’s start with the template for monthly 1-on-1 meetings. You can save it as a Doc under the actual template, or alternatively as a PDF, Google Sheets, Excel or Word document. Just click on the “Plus” toggle.
Warm-Up
- How was the last month for you?
🗣️ Topics of the direct employee (Name)
- …
🏆 Topics of the manager: Successes & progress
- What were your biggest successes in the last month?
- What did you learn last month and what skills did you develop?
⚠️ Topics of the manager: Challenges & support
- What obstacles did you have to overcome?
- Are there any resources or support you need?
📈 Topics of the manager: Development & goals
- Are there any new skills you would like to develop?
- How can I help you take a small step towards your career goals?
Closing
- Feedback: What can I do better to lead you and/or the team?
⁉️ Mood check (survey)
As you can see, the main aim of a monthly one-to-one meeting is to zoom out. This is often very difficult in everyday life, which is why a dedicated block of time is necessary.
By the way, don’t be fooled by the agenda: Basically, your goal should be for your intrinsically motivated employee to bring as many topics as possible to the table themselves.
Now let’s move on to a template that takes a slightly more creative approach to the one-on-one conversation.
“I like the employee, but they aren't performing as desired. How can I address this in 1:1s?”
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"Sometimes I’m not sure if I was too harsh - or too soft - in my 1:1s to be effective."
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"I can’t identify patterns or trends across my 1:1s. Everything feels isolated."
Solve this challengeMonthly Employee One-on-One Template (Doc) for Managers
2 more helpful templates for one-on-one meetings (Doc)
Having spoken to around 100 managers over the last few months, I have noticed a pattern.
Many supervisors incorporate small surveys into their one-on-one meetings from time to time. This means that they simply go through a few questions in a relaxed manner and ask the employee a) whether he or she agrees with a statement (for example from 1 to 7) and then b) why he or she answered in this way.
They expect the following from these micro-surveys in 1:1s:
- More variety and engagement in 1-to-1 conversations
- Taking on new perspectives
- Measurability of (soft) KPIs such as satisfaction over time
And of course you can also use this idea for your monthly one-to-one meeting. I have put together five statements for you here that focus on reflecting on important preconditions for a successful employee.
You can also download this template as a Doc, but even better is the following: In our one-on-one meeting software, we have an integrated tool that makes the results visible over time as a metric and gives you tips with an AI assistant - feel free to take a look without logging in via the button below.
⁉️ Mood check (agreement from 1-7): Personal development
- "My work tasks usually progress very quickly, even if external feedback is necessary."
- "When I observe suboptimal behavior, I know how to constructively draw colleagues' attention to it."
- "I receive constructive feedback on both my work and my personal development."
- "I see an attractive career path ahead of me in the company." #Growth
- "In recent weeks, I have very often been able to use my strengths at work."
This is what this survey looks like in Echometer:
As you can see, the statements address key preconditions of staff that feels happy.
Another prerequisite for healthy, productive employees is, of course, a good manager. Yes, I’m talking about you here.
And of course there are also statements that you can take with you into your one-on-one meeting. Specifically, here are 4 behavioral anchors that you can reflect on in a monthly one-on-one meeting with your employee.
⁉️ Mood check (agreement from 1-7): Leadership quality
- "I am really satisfied with my team leader." #JobSatisfaction
- "My team leader regularly zooms out to explain the higher-level team goals, strategy and vision."
- "My team leader questions things in a constructive way." #Feedback #Leadership
- "My team leader exemplifies what he expects from us as a team." #Leadership
This is what this survey looks like in Echometer:
Monthly Employee One-on-One Template (Doc) for Managers
17 Clever questions for monthly one-on-one conversations
So, now you should have a good foundation for your monthly one-to-one conversation.
And yet I have more tips for you. Because one thing is your agenda - the other thing is creative questions that you ask in the middle of the verbal skirmish. Especially in monthly one-on-one meetings, it’s worth taking a bird’s eye view - and the following list of questions will help you do that.
🧘♀️ One-on-one questions with a focus on the positive
- If you could add a responsibility or decision-making authority to your role, what would it be?
- Which skill would have the greatest impact on your personal performance if you mastered it?
- What new have you learned lately (privately or professionally)?
- When was the last time you helped another team member develop?
- What are the 3 best things you want for yourself professionally in the next 1-2 years?
- When was the last time you experienced a state of flow at work? How easy is it for you to get into the flow?
- What would you call the informal role you play on the team and why? (e.g. "Head of Happiness")
- What inspires you right now? What gives you energy right now?
And, can you hardly wait to ask these questions in your one-on-one meeting? Very good, I’m glad.
If you would like more creative input, I can recommend our corresponding article: 129 Good One-on-One Meeting Questions (by a Psychologist) .
Monthly Employee One-on-One Template (Doc) for Managers
15 more Templates for One-on-One Meetings (as Doc, PDF etc.)
You’ve probably already guessed it. Of course, there are many more templates for one-on-one meetings that you will need sooner or later.
For example, I talk about templates for your one-on-one meeting about salary, your conversation with a difficult employee or with a completely new employee.
We have additional templates for all of these use cases, which you can find in this article: 15 Free Proven One-on-one Meeting Templates to Edit & Print
Monthly Employee One-on-One Template (Doc) for Managers
Conclusion: Doc Template for monthly 1-on-1 meetings
First of all, congratulations: if you conscientiously conduct a monthly one-to-one meeting with your employees, you are taking your leadership role more seriously than average.
The text here should not let you forget one piece of wisdom: There are countless questions you can ask - but the most important thing is that you tailor the conversation individually to your employee.
Our AI meeting assistant for one-on-one meetings can also help you in your conversation. If you’d like to find out more, take a look at our website: The best 1-on-1 meeting software .
"Many team members are afraid to speak up!"
Solve this challenge "We discover too many unexpected issues & bugs at a late stage!"
Solve this challenge "Why does it sometimes take me hours to prepare a simple retrospective?"
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