On Collaboration: How to Run a 1:1 Meeting
Don’t underestimate the influence of regular 1:1 meetings for your career growth.
One-on-one (1:1) meetings are utilized to discuss personal achievements or roadblocks, gain personalized feedback, and build solid relationships. In a 1:1, you have the focus, attention, and engagement of your manager or colleague; this is valuable time to showcase you, your value, and your path to success.
Understanding the 1:1 Meeting
A one-on-one meeting is a dedicated, recurring time on the calendar for you to meet with your manager or other colleague to discuss your work and career objectives.
One-on-one meetings typically range from 30-45 minutes and may occur weekly, fortnightly, or monthly, depending on who you’ve scheduled the meeting with. Often, direct managers will meet with you more frequently; indirect managers, skip-levels, or other colleagues may have less frequency.
One-on-one meetings are about two things: you and how you work. Your role, active projects, current gaps, potential growth or development opportunities, and manager feedback, are common (though not exhaustive) topics during regular 1:1s. Because this meeting is about you, you own the meeting and the agenda. This is your time. Our advice: Respect it. Own it. Prioritize it.
Common Misconceptions and Mistakes
Many professionals and organizations under-utilize the 1:1 meeting and show up unprepared to address bigger picture items. This can look like:
Transforming 1:1 meetings from a strategic alignment meeting into a tactical update on day-to-day activity. This is a frequent and common mistake. Tactical updates are better addressed in status meetings or team meetings, as this work often influences or impacts others within your team or organization.
Transforming 1:1 meetings into task completion updates. Managers and leadership have priorities and metrics around the day-to-day responsibilities for their team as a whole. Remember: this time is to prioritize yourself and set personal expectations with your manager. Don’t let your 1:1s turn into a status update checklist that could be a quick huddle or accomplished through another channel instead.
Transforming 1:1 meetings into a performance review. One-on-one meetings are great for regular coaching, mentoring, and feedback, not for formal performance evaluations. Many of your goals and outcomes take time to show results; utilize the 1:1 meeting to show your ongoing alignment to results while focusing on growth and development opportunities.
Cancelling or removing 1:1 meetings from the calendar. While you or your manager may be strapped for time, there is no replacement for ensuring your manager understands your achievements, your goals, and your personal roadmap toward success. Keeping a cadence will also ensure momentum on the things you work towards.
Going into a 1:1 meeting without an agenda or preparation. While one-on-one meetings may be more informal than most other meetings, it’s important to prepare an agenda ahead of time and share this with your manager. This keeps the conversation flowing and ensures you’re able to cover the topics you want to address.
We recommend creating a collaborative document that holds your agenda and notes from current and past 1:1s. This is extremely helpful for your manager to reference. Bonus: it can also be used as a reference point for your manager during quarterly or annual performance reviews, tracking progress, key accomplishments, and your effort toward achievement. Need a template? Download one here!
Forgetting what you talked about in the last 1:1 meeting. This is an ongoing, evolving conversation between you and your manager. This is not an isolated event, and your agenda should incorporate outcomes you’ve previously discussed.
Allowing your manager to run the 1:1 meeting. A one-on-one meeting is your time to shine. Set the expectation that you own this meeting, the preparation for this meeting, and then give your manager an opportunity to provide feedback and context, not to dominate the meeting or derail your agenda.
How to Structure a 1:1 Meeting: AQUIP Framework
We consulted our field contributors, asking them for advice on how to best structure 1:1 meeting time. The result: the Notes from the Field AQUIP framework template. Each 1:1 should follow this framework to guide your conversation. Here’s how it works:
A is for Accomplishments
As you plan the agenda for your 1:1, start with your current accomplishments and achievements. These can come in many forms:
Perhaps you’ve achieved a particular outcome tied to a professional or personal goal.
Perhaps you’ve incorporated feedback and had a positive accomplishment as part of that feedback.
Perhaps you’ve successfully addressed a relationship issue with another person in your company.
No accomplishment is too small to be included, but choose up to three you want to highlight during each 1:1.
Why start with accomplishments? This starts the meeting on a positive, with a productive tone; it confirms that your manager is aware of these items while they are engaged and focused on you. (It also ensures that if you run out of time, you have the most important news first!)
QUI is for Questions & Issues
On a regular cadence, this section of your agenda is likely where you will spend the bulk of your time together. Think about the roadblocks or barriers that you may come across:
Projects you’re working on; what things do you need help with to be successful?
People you’re working with; what relationship or collaboration issues are you struggling with?
Patterns you’re seeing; what behaviors or actions seem to be incongruent with stated objectives or goals?
Personal opportunities for growth; what feedback can your manager provide to ensure you’re working at your best and are aligned to your goals?
As you think through these items, be clear on what you need from your manager. Do you need a thought partner to help you create a plan to remove or work around the barrier? Do you need action from your manager? Do you need a different point of view from your own? Be direct about what you need. It is vital to document clear action items based on your discussion of these items.
P is for Priorities
To wrap up your 1:1, reserve time to confirm that your priorities are aligned with your manager. As you have new projects or items that are added to your ongoing workload, confirming where each item should be on your priority list is key to maintaining a strong work-life balance. This addresses the workload and, more importantly, prevents burnout. Remember: this meeting is an open, collaborative conversation to align your path to success. By clearly outlining your priorities, your manager can shift work to others, deprioritize less important projects, and ensure the work you’re doing is aligned with the team and company.
Preparing for your 1:1 Meeting
As you prepare for a one-on-one meeting, start with the AQUIP framework to frame your agenda. Bullet points are ideal, but if you have specific items that need additional review, include them as links or otherwise attach them in your agenda. You will provide additional context throughout the flow of the conversation; just include enough to ensure both you and your manager are clear on the items to cover.
Once you finalize the agenda, send it at least a day before your scheduled meeting for comment and review. Both you and your manager should have adequate time to prepare and reflect prior to the meeting. Allow your manager to add any additional agenda items or comments, but remember; you own this meeting.
If there are several additions to the agenda, confirm that you can cover everything necessary within the scheduled time; if not, add more time to the meeting or break the agenda into separate meetings, whichever makes more sense.
Finally, if there are any additional resources or collateral you plan to review, be sure to have them ready to share by the time of the meeting. Plan to review together, then send a follow-up post-meeting if needed with these items.
During the Meeting: Active Listening & Note-Taking
Expect your manager to provide you feedback during your 1:1. Feedback is a gift; be open and receptive to what is communicated. Listen and get to the why: what is driving this feedback, how does it impact the business, and how does it impact you and your growth? Take the time to reflect, then ask thoughtful questions to gain a deeper understanding on how you can address or course correct as needed.
Throughout these conversations, note-taking is often underutilized, yet vital to these recurring meetings. Without note-taking, it is hard to recall exactly what was said or agreed to. Note-taking will:
Keep you on track
Hold you and your manager accountable
Summarize the things you’ve completed
Create an action plan that you understand
Our advice: create your 1:1 meeting and notes as living, breathing document with your manager for full transparency, collaboration, and accountability. Need a template for this? Download the framework here.
After the Meeting: Reflect and Act
Congratulations! You’ve completed your first one-on-one meeting! Take the opportunity to reflect on the conversation and feedback you uncovered throughout the meeting. Did the meeting go as expected? Would you assess the meeting as effective and worth your time?
After your meeting, review your notes and incorporate the feedback you received as well as any adjustments to your priorities into your day-to-day work. The cycle will start again as you plan for your next 1:1 with updates on the items you discussed, as well as any new ideas, thoughts, patterns, successes, or blockers you may have between meetings.
Action Plan: 1:1 Meetings
Step One: Identify Who You Will Set a 1:1 Meeting With
Your manager is at the top of the list, but there may be others in your organization that could benefit from a regular 1:1 with you.
Step Two: Confirm Cadence & Timing for Recurring Meeting & Send Meeting Invites
Before you send the meeting invite, confirm timing and cadence with your 1:1 invited attendee; then send the calendar invite for the mutually agreed-on time and cadence.
Step Three: Prepare Your 1:1 Agenda Tailored to Your Meeting Invitee
Take fifteen minutes to prepare your agenda using the AQUIP framework. Simple bullet points are ideal.
Step Four: Send 1:1 Agenda Prior to the Meeting for Adequate Time to Review
The day before, send the agenda to the meeting invitee via a shared, collaborative document. Ask for any additional agenda items that they want to include.
Step Five: Lead the 1:1 Meeting
This is your meeting; open the meeting with a quick icebreaker, then dive into your prepared agenda. Let the conversation flow and invite feedback and engagement from your meeting attendee.
Step Six: Reflect on the Conversation and Document Action Items or Learnings
Following the meeting, reflect on your conversation and document any feedback, learnings, or other action items discussed during the meeting. Keep this within a shared document for easy reference.
Step Seven: Incorporate Feedback from 1:1 Meeting into Ongoing Plan
Take feedback and incorporate it into your ongoing work and development plan. Update your priorities as needed to ensure this feedback is adequately incorporated.
Step Eight: Take Action with Agreed-On Items and Plan for the Next 1:1 Meeting
Action is key; update your day to day work with the agreed-on items and weave updates on these items into your next 1:1 meeting.
Additional Resources
Take Action
Template: Download the Notes from the Field 1:1 Meeting Template
This template utilizes the AQUIP framework to help you plan your meeting, set agenda, take notes, and track your progress throughout the 1:1 cadence.
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