Running Great 1:1s

🚧 Expanding

The 1:1 is the highest-leverage recurring meeting you have, and it’s the easiest one to quietly ruin. The failure mode is almost always the same: it slides into a status update you could have read in a ticket. A great 1:1 is their meeting — a standing, protected space where the person you manage sets the agenda and you mostly listen, ask, and unblock. It’s also the natural home for coaching: the same habit of asking rather than answering is what keeps a 1:1 in their court.

When this page is filled in, it’ll cover how to structure a 1:1 without making it rigid, how to build the trust that gets you the real conversation instead of the polished one, what to do when someone always says “everything’s fine,” and how to keep notes and follow-through so the meeting actually compounds over time. Until then, the Go Deeper links below carry the weight — Lara Hogan’s first-1:1 questions are where I’d start today.

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Never cancel a 1:1 — reschedule it. Cancelling tells someone their time with you is the first thing to go when you’re busy. Moving it tells them it still matters. That one habit does more for trust than any clever agenda.

📚 Go Deeper

Books

High Output Management — Andy GroveGrove's case for the 1:1 as a high-leverage manager activity — where a lot of modern 1:1 thinking starts.
The Coaching Habit — Michael Bungay StanierSeven questions that keep a 1:1 in their court instead of yours — the antidote to advice-monster 1:1s.

Tools

Lara Hogan — 1:1 resourcesConcrete questions for first 1:1s and a manager voltage/energy framework — the single most practical 1:1 resource I point people to.

Last updated on June 25, 2026

Coaching Skills