In a small company, people talk all day. Yet the owner or manager often discovers a problem only when it has already cost something: a customer is unhappy, a person is overloaded, a task has been stuck for weeks. Daily conversation is mostly about the task in front of you. It rarely leaves room for the slower questions: what is getting in the way, what should change, what does this person need.
A regular one-to-one meeting is a simple answer. It is not an appraisal and it is not a status report. It is a protected half hour between a manager and one team member. This article describes a minimal version that works for a team of three to thirty people.
Decide what the meeting is for
Name the purpose in one sentence and tell the team. A good one is: "This is your time to raise what slows you down, to ask for what you need and to hear how your work looks from my side." That also says what the meeting is not. Task updates belong in the weekly team meeting or in a short written status note. If the one-to-one turns into a list of open tasks, the personal topics always lose.
Frequency and length
- Every two weeks is a good default for a team that works closely together.
- Every four weeks is enough for experienced people who work independently.
- Weekly is useful for a short period: a new starter in the first two months, or someone who is going through a difficult project.
Thirty minutes is usually enough. Book the next meeting before the current one ends, and put it in both calendars as a repeating item. Choose a time that is not squeezed between two other things. The place can be a meeting room, a walk or a video call; what matters is that nobody else can overhear.
A simple agenda
Let the team member write the first items. Share a document, or just a short list, where both people add topics before the meeting. The manager brings at most two or three items. A workable order:
- Last time (5 minutes). Read the actions from the last notes. Which are done, which are not, and why?
- Their topics (15 minutes). What is slowing them down? What are they unsure about? What would they like to do more or less of?
- Your topics (5 minutes). Feedback on recent work, one thing that is changing in the company, one request.
- Close (5 minutes). Read back the decisions and actions. Fix the date of the next meeting.
Useful questions to keep nearby, if the conversation is slow: "What took more time than it should have this month?", "What would you change if it were up to you?", "Is there anything you are waiting for from me or from someone else?", "What would you like to learn in the next few months?"
What gets written down
Without a note, the meeting is pleasant and forgotten. With too long a note, nobody writes it. Three headings are enough:
- Decisions. What was agreed ("Anna takes over the supplier orders from March").
- Actions. Who does what by when. Every action has one name and one date.
- To raise elsewhere. Things that came up and that the manager has agreed to take to someone else, for example a problem with another team or a request for equipment.
Write the note during the meeting, or in the last five minutes, and send it the same day. Keep it in a place that only the two people can open. Personal information about employees is covered by data protection rules, so keep notes factual, limited to work, and for a defined time. The government guidance on data protection for your business is a sensible starting point if you are unsure what to keep.
Rules that keep it working
- Do not cancel without a new date. The meeting is cancelled most often by the busiest manager, and the team reads that as a message. If you must move it, move it within the same week.
- Listen first. If the manager speaks for more than a third of the time, the meeting has turned into instructions.
- Do not turn it into an appraisal. If you also want a yearly conversation about performance and pay, hold it separately. Mixing the two makes people careful about what they say.
- Follow through. An action that the manager promised and did not do will do more damage than no meeting at all. Do your own actions first.
- Raise bad news early. Say clearly that a small problem mentioned early is welcome, and then react to it that way.
If you have many people to see
A manager with ten people and a fortnightly rhythm spends about five hours a month on this. That is a lot, but it replaces many unplanned interruptions. If the number is too large, spread the load: team leads hold one-to-ones with their people, and the owner meets only the leads. Acas publishes general guidance for employers on managing people at acas.org.uk.
A short start
In the first week, tell the team what the meeting is for and book the first round. In the first month, hold the meetings, write the three-line notes and check that actions are closed. After three months ask each person one question: "Is this useful, and what would make it better?" Change the length, frequency or agenda accordingly, and keep the fixed slot. The value does not come from a clever format. It comes from the fact that every person knows when they will next be heard.