Why your one-to-ones feel like status updates

If your one-to-ones are mostly “what are you working on?”, you’re using your most valuable half hour of the week for something a shared document could do.

Move status out

Ask your team to write a three-line update before the meeting: what they finished, what’s next, where they’re stuck. Read it before you meet.

Use three better questions

• What’s taking more energy than it should?
• What’s one thing I could do to make your week easier?
• What are you learning right now?

The one-to-one belongs to them, not to you.

Let them set the agenda. Your job is to listen, ask, and follow up on what you promised last time. That last part is where most managers lose trust without noticing.

Try it for four weeks. Most of my clients say it’s the change their team noticed first.