5 Ideas for a Productive 1:1 Meeting full of Energy
Are your 1-on-1 conversations with your direct reports energizing - or an obligation? I suspect it tends towards the latter. But why?
Well, you know that feeling when you listen to the same playlist over and over again? It’s fun at first, but eventually it gets boring. One-on-one meetings between managers and employees work the same way: they need fresh ideas, new questions and a surprising element every now and then to be truly inspiring.
After all, who wants to eat only vanilla ice cream every week? It’s a good idea of yours to try out new ideas and topics in your one-on-one meeting.
Imagine you have a greenhouse full of plants, but you only ever water the same three. At some point, other plants or topics that are actually very important will wither away. (Okay, sorry, that was my last metaphor.)
Whether in a face-to-face, digital or virtual one-on-one meeting, 1-to-1 meetings between bosses and employees offer space for feedback and thus for personal development, which is essential in today’s working world. And in this article, I’ll give you some good ideas that you can use in your weekly, bi-weekly or monthly one-on-one meetings to have good conversations.
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.
One-on-One Meeting Ideas & Topics to discuss | For Managers & Employees / Staff
Some typical & atypical Topics & Ideas for One-on-One meetings
Before I get to the actual ideas, I would first like to give you a few typical topics that should be discussed regularly in your one-on-one meetings. After all, I don’t know how broad your range of methods and templates already is.
5 typical topics for one-on-one conversations:
- Goals & progress: What milestones have been achieved and where are there still challenges?
- Feedback: What is going well and where is there potential for improvement – in both directions?
- Resources & blockers: What obstacles stand in the way and what support is needed?
- Personal development: What skills would the employee like to develop and how can the manager help?
- Motivation & satisfaction: How does your staff currently feel and what could increase their motivation?
5 atypical but important topics:
- Energy level & workload: When does the employee feel overwhelmed or underchallenged, and how can this be adjusted?
- Desire for more or less responsibility: Are there areas of responsibility in which the employee would like to grow or reduce their workload?
- Hidden talents: What skills or interests does your staff have that are not yet being utilized?
- Communication style: How does the employee prefer feedback and exchange – directly, in writing, reflectively or spontaneously?
- Time thieves & efficiency: Which meetings, tools or processes take up unnecessary time and should be optimized?
Why do I give you so many topics to discuss?
Of course, so that you know which fields you should systematically cover in your one-on-one conversation. I’ll provide you with specific templates and questions later on. But let’s start with a very general template first.
One-on-One Meeting Ideas & Topics to discuss | For Managers & Employees / Staff
Idea or Topic 1: The Standard Template
The fact that you clicked on this article as a supervisor tells me that you are looking for ideas and topics for one-on-one meetings.
That’s why you’ll first find a standard doc template here, which should be a good accompaniment to a classic monthly appraisal interview, for example.
You can save the template as a Doc below the actual template, but alternatively also as a PDF, Google Sheets, Excel or Word document. Just click on the “Plus” toggle.
👋 Welcome & Icebreaker
- How are you today, how was your week so far?
📕 [Name]'s Topics
- …
👈 Manager's Topics: Review
- What went well in the last 2 weeks?
- What challenges were there?
👈 Manager's Topics: Priorities & Goals
- What are your key priorities for the coming weeks?
- Where do you need my support?
🤚 Closing
- Is there anything else you would like to discuss?
⁉️ Mood Check (Survey)
One-on-One Meeting Ideas & Topics to discuss | For Managers & Employees / Staff
Idea or Topic 2: Culture of Failure
Now let’s move on to an idea or topic that takes a slightly more creative approach to the one-on-one conversation.
A key prerequisite for successful teams is so-called psychological safety. And to improve this, a healthy culture of mistakes is very important. The following idea helps you as a supervisor to reflect on the topic of “making mistakes” with your employees using a picture. Of course, it’s best if you combine the picture with the questions.
As you can see, you can also use this template interactively in the 1:1 meeting software Echometer.
1:1 Meeting Idea: Fail Forward
When was the last time you felt you made a mistake with something?
How did you react to this mistake?
What would be a constructive view of this "mistake"?
What are the next important mistakes you need to make to get closer to your goals?
One-on-One Meeting Ideas & Topics to discuss | For Managers & Employees / Staff
Idea or Topic 3: Communication & Speech Distribution
The following topic or idea is probably particularly interesting for introverted employees.
The procedure is relatively simple: you can use the graphic to underline what the distribution of speech looks like in healthy, successful teams. As the manager, you then reflect together with your employee on the role he or she plays in this.
1:1 Meeting Idea: Communication
Where do you see your team: How are speaking turns distributed?
Where do you see yourself: What role do you play, depending on the meeting?
What would be a first step to distribute speaking turns more evenly in the team?
One-on-One Meeting Ideas & Topics to discuss | For Managers & Employees / Staff
Idea or Topic 4: Learning from the best
Sometimes we find it difficult to even come up with ideas on how we can develop further. This idea can help with your one-on-one meeting.
The so-called “model learning” is one of the most basic ways of learning for Homo Sapiens: You observe behaviors from your direct peers.
And at best, you do this with the most competent peers possible. The following exercise attempts to create precisely this effect by reflecting on your employee’s peer group. Perhaps a talented employee should try out a different team or project?
1:1 Meeting Idea: Learn From The Best
Who in your team do you look up to and why?
What are the things you would like to learn when you think of your colleagues in the company and beyond?
Get in touch with the people you want to learn from.
One-on-One Meeting Ideas & Topics to discuss | For Managers & Employees / Staff
Idea or Topic 5: Conflict Ability
The following topic or idea is not suitable for every one-on-one conversation. However, it can be all the more powerful at the right moment: Namely, when you are in the middle of or shortly after a conflict.
The idea here is that you reflect on the conflict behavior of your Direct Report based on the conflict diagram shown below. In my experience, this scheme in particular makes it easier to talk about the topic constructively.
1:1 Meeting Idea: Conflict Types
Name a conflict you recently had in your team.
Take a look at the 5 different conflict styles: Can your behavior and attitude be classified into one or more of the conflict styles?
How could you have handled the conflict better?
One-on-One Meeting Ideas & Topics to discuss | For Managers & Employees / Staff
Ideas 6 and 7: Health checks as a survey
In addition to the ideas and topics above, there are of course other aspects that you can reflect on in your appraisal interview.
Having spoken to around 100 managers over the last few months, I have noticed a pattern.
Many supervisors occasionally incorporate small surveys into their one-on-one meetings. This means that they simply go through a few questions in a relaxed manner and ask their staff 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 one-on-one meeting. I have put together five statements for you here that focus on reflecting on important preconditions for every 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 as metrics over time 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 point it out to colleagues."
- "I receive constructive Feedback on both my work and my personal development."
- "I see an attractive career path in front of me at the company." #Growth
- "In the last few 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 as an idea for your one-to-one meeting. Specifically, here are 4 behavioral anchors that you could reflect on in a monthly or quarterly 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 leads by example, setting the standard for what they expect from us as a team." #Leadership
This is what this survey looks like in Echometer:
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 and ideas, I can recommend our corresponding article: 129 Good One-on-One Meeting Questions (by a Psychologist) .
One-on-One Meeting Ideas & Topics to discuss | For Managers & Employees / Staff
15 more ideas and templates for One-on-One meetings (as Doc, PDF etc.)
You’ve probably already guessed it. Of course, there are many more ideas for one-on-one meetings that you can use 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
One-on-One Meeting Ideas & Topics to discuss | For Managers & Employees / Staff
Conclusion: The best ideas and topics for 1-to-1 meetings
One-on-one meetings should never be boring - then something is wrong. At the same time, you shouldn’t artificially drag them out. But if you have a good plan and good ideas for your one-on-one meetings, it should never get that far.
But there’s one piece of wisdom you should never forget: There are countless ideas you can try - but the most important thing is to tailor the conversation individually to your employee.
Our AI meeting assistant for one-on-one meetings can also help you with this. If you want to find out more about it, take a look at our website: The best 1-on-1 meeting software .
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