Awesome 1on1s

Effective 1on1 is not about you, but about the other person.

1on1s are about mutual teaching and exchange of information. They should be regarded as the subordinate’s meeting, with its agenda and tone set by him. The supervisor is there to learn and coach. Feedback must be integral to the progress. If you don’t know how well you are performing, how can you get better?

• Effective feedback is regular, specific and fair. Your goal is to build a culture of giving and receiving feedback regularly. This creates security and trust between all parties and allows people to grow.
• Use the Non-Violent Communication (NVC) framework: What happened, How I felt, Relation to my Values, Specific Actions.
• Recognition should be timely and specific.
• Recipe for weekly 15 minute 1on1. Block this as 30 min in your calendar to allow 5 min for preparation (write-down goals prior to the talk) and 10 min if you over-extend.
  • smalltalk (5min): How are you, how are you feeling, how have you been, what are you looking forward to.
  • the meat (7min): Start by setting agenda. Can be driven by both parties. Place to discuss important stuff, give feedback,..
  • wrapup (3min): Repeat actionable goals. Use this to improve the your skills. “Is there anything I could help you with?” (unblock, enable you,..). Solicit feedback: “Give me one point that you like about our org (me) and one that we (I) can improve.”

Some questions to be asked during an One-On-One:

• What are you working on?
• How are you doing; how are your OKRs coming along?
• Is there anything impeding your work?
• What do you need from me to be more successfull? And now let me tell you what I need from you.
• How do you need to grow to achieve your career goals?
• What’s working well? What’s not working well?
• What makes you very happy?
• What saps your energy?
• How would you describe your dream job?