One on one questions to ask your team
A one on one meeting is the one meeting that belongs to the other person. Good 1 on 1 questions are open, specific and easy to answer honestly. Here are the ones worth keeping, grouped by what you want to find out, followed by a simple agenda.
Updated
To start
- "What is on your mind this week?"
- "What would you like to talk about today?"
- "How are things going for you lately?"
About workload
- "How is your workload feeling this week?"
- "What could wait, or go to someone else?"
- "Is anything holding you up?"
About the team
- "How is working with [name] going?"
- "Who has helped you lately?"
- "Who could pair with you on this?"
About growth
- "Is there something you would like to pick up next?"
- "What do you want to be doing a year from now?"
- "What would you like more feedback on?"
About you as their manager
- "What could I do more of, or less of?"
- "Is there anything you need from me that you are not getting?"
For particular moments
- After time off: "Welcome back. What do you need to catch up on?"
- In someone's first weeks: "What has been confusing so far?"
- After a big effort: thank them first, and say what they did.
A simple 1:1 meeting agenda
Keep the same shape every time, so neither of you has to plan it. Thirty minutes is enough for most weeks.
- Their topics first. Ask what they want to talk about before you raise anything.
- Workload. What is on their plate, and what is in the way.
- One thing from you. Feedback, news or a question, only one.
- What you agreed. Write it down and read it back.
What to talk about when they have nothing
Some people arrive with no topics. That is fine. Pick one area from the lists above, or ask what the best and the hardest part of their week was.
Do not fill the time with status updates. Status belongs in the team's tools. A 1:1 is for what does not fit there.
How to use them
Pick one or two. A 1:1 is a conversation, not a survey.
Ask, then wait. A pause after a question is often where the real answer starts.
Write down what you agreed, and start the next 1:1 by checking on it.
The signals behind this guide
- How to tell if a team member is overloaded
Someone is working too much.
- How to tell if someone on your team is blocked
Someone is stuck waiting on a teammate.
- How to tell if someone could take on more work
Someone has had much less of their own work than usual, and could take on more.
- How to welcome someone back from leave
Someone just came back from a week or more off.
- Checking in with a new hire in the first 90 days
Someone is in their first 90 days.
More guides
- Why employees leave and the signs before they go
Why employees leave, the changes a manager can see before someone resigns, and how to start the conversation while there is still time.
- Quiet quitting: the signs, and what to do
What quiet quitting looks like on a team, how it differs from a quiet week, and how a manager can respond without blame.
- Employee recognition: how to thank good work
Employee recognition that costs nothing: how to notice the work that deserves thanks, how to say it so it lands, and ideas to make sure nobody is missed.
- Signs of burnout at work a manager can see
The signs of burnout at work a manager can see early are about the work: late nights, no breaks, no say. What to look for, what to say, what to change.
- Signs an employee is secretly struggling
The work changes that show someone may be struggling, why they hide it, and how a manager can ask in a way that gets an honest answer.
- How to tell if an employee is disengaged
What disengaged looks like day to day, how it differs from a bad week, and how a manager can find the reason and respond without blame.
- Bus factor: how to find it and raise it
Your bus factor is how many people could leave before work stops. How to find the one person your team relies on, and how to spread what they know.
- How to support an employee returning from leave
What to do before, on and after someone's first day back from leave, so they can catch up without being rushed or left out.
- Overwhelmed at work: how a manager can help
What to do when someone has too much on: how to find out what they are carrying, what to take away, and how to check that it worked.
- Employee onboarding: a 90-day plan
A practical plan for a new hire's first days and first 90 days: what to prepare, who they should meet, and what to check on each week.
- Performance review examples for managers
Performance review examples you can adapt for results, teamwork, growth and problems, a short template, and how to write a fair review from facts.
- Employee retention: how to keep your best people
What employee retention depends on, why good people leave, and the habits that keep them: fair workload, real growth and a manager who notices.
- Team health check: how to run one
How to run a team health check in half an hour: what to ask, how to get honest answers, what to do with the result, and what to watch between checks.
- First time manager: what to do first
A plan for a first time manager: meet each person, learn how the team works, start one on ones, and avoid the mistakes most new managers make.
Ready when you are
A quieter morning, starting in your inbox.
Connect the tools your team already uses. Sonarwork reads the past of the ones that keep one, so there is something to look at on day one. Then every weekday morning, the brief lands.
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