One on One Meeting Questions: 210 Questions and Agenda Builder

One on One Meeting Questions: Build Your Agenda

This page lists 210 one on one meeting questions, 120 for managers to ask and 90 for employees to ask their manager, and builds them into an agenda with timings. Say who you are, what the situation is and how long you have. The builder proposes 3 to 7 questions. You can swap any of them, add your own items, then copy or print the agenda. Every question is also listed further down the page.

Nothing you choose or type here is stored or sent anywhere. The agenda lasts until you close or reload the page.

How the 1:1 meeting agenda is built

The builder treats 1 on 1 meeting questions as prompts for a conversation and keeps the number low. It takes one question from each theme you ticked, starting with the themes that fit your situation, and goes around again if there is room.

• 15 minutes: 1 minute to open, 3 questions at 4 minutes each, 2 minutes for actions.
• 30 minutes: 3 minutes to open, 5 questions at 4 minutes each, 3 minutes for anything else, 4 minutes for actions.
• 60 minutes: 5 minutes to open, 7 questions at 6 minutes each, 7 minutes for anything else, 6 minutes for actions.

The timings are rough guides. If the first question opens up something that matters, stay with it and carry the others over to next time. Items you add yourself get the same time as a question, and the builder tells you when the total goes over the meeting length.

Worked example

Choose “A manager”, “A regular check-in” and “30 minutes”. The builder ticks three themes: Check-in, Priorities and blockers, and Feedback both ways. Select “Build my agenda”. You get 5 questions at 4 minutes each: two from Check-in, two from Priorities and blockers and one from Feedback both ways, starting with “What’s on your mind this week?”. With 3 minutes to open, 3 minutes for anything else and 4 minutes for actions, the agenda adds up to 30 minutes. Select “Swap” beside the first question and it changes to the next Check-in question that is not already on the agenda, “What has gone well since we last spoke?”.

A simple one on one meeting template

If you want one page to reuse every time, copy this one on one meeting template into a shared document that both of you can edit. Add each new meeting at the top so the history stays in one place.

ONE-ON-ONE: [employee] and [manager]
Date: [date]   Length: 30 minutes

1. Your items (employee goes first) (10 min)
   -
   -

2. Priorities and blockers (8 min)
   - What matters most before we next meet?
   - What is stuck, and who can unblock it?

3. Feedback, both ways (5 min)
   - One thing that went well, one thing to change

4. Growth (once a month) (4 min)
   - One step toward what you want to be doing next

5. Actions (3 min)
   - Who / what / by when
   - Who / what / by when

Carried over from last time:
   -

Running one on ones that people want to keep

Cadence

Thirty minutes every week or every two weeks suits most working relationships. Go weekly with a new hire for the first 90 days, with someone whose role is changing, and with anyone you do not otherwise see during the week. A monthly meeting can leave a small problem to grow for weeks before anyone raises it.

Keep the slot. If you have to move a meeting, move it within the same week. A manager who cancels one-on-ones when things get busy teaches the team that the meeting is the first thing to go, and people stop saving things for it.

Whose meeting it is

It is the employee’s meeting. Their items go first and take most of the time. The manager’s job is to ask, listen, decide what only a manager can decide, and remove what is in the way. A useful check for managers is how much of the time you spent talking. If it is more than half, the meeting has turned into a briefing.

Employees can make this easier by arriving with two or three items and saying which one matters most. The one on one questions to ask your manager further down this page are written for that.

Asking for feedback

Asking for feedback only helps if the other person feels able to answer honestly. Amy Edmondson defined team psychological safety as "a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking" (Edmondson, 1999, Administrative Science Quarterly). Her definition is about teams. In a one-on-one, the practical test is what you do after someone tells you something uncomfortable. Thank them, act on one thing, and tell them what you did.

Notes and follow-through

Keep one shared document per person, with the newest meeting at the top. Write down the actions and nothing more: who, what and by when. Start the next meeting by reading the last set of actions. Managers should do their own actions first, because a manager who does not follow through is the quickest way to empty the meeting of anything real.

Keep the shared notes factual. A one-on-one document is a working record, and both of you should be comfortable with what is in it.

What not to use the time for

• Status updates. Put them in writing beforehand and use the meeting for what the update raises.
• Saving up feedback. If something needs saying today, say it today.
• Formal conversations by surprise. A performance warning or a disciplinary matter needs its own meeting, with notice and under your organization’s procedure.
• Talking about people who are not there. Asking for help with a working relationship is fine. A running commentary on a colleague is not.
• The manager’s to-do list. If you are handing out tasks for 25 minutes, send them in a message and give the time back.
• Personal questions. Do not ask about health, family or life outside work. Ask about the work, and let the other person decide what else to share.

210 one on one meeting questions, by purpose

The full list, grouped by what you want the conversation to do. Each theme has one on one questions for managers and a second list of one on one meeting questions for employees to ask their manager. The agenda builder draws from these same lists.

Questions about one on one meetings

What are good one on one meeting questions?

Good one on one meeting questions are open, about something recent, and lead to a decision or an action. Three from this page are "What’s blocking you that I could remove?", "Where are you having to guess what I want?" and "What’s one thing I could do differently that would make your work easier?". This page lists 210 questions in 10 themes: 120 for managers to ask and 90 for employees to ask their manager.

What one on one questions should I ask my manager?

Ask about priorities, decisions and feedback, because those are the things only your manager can give you. Examples from this page are "Of everything I’m working on, what matters most to you right now?", "Which decisions on this can I make without checking with you?" and "What would I need to show to be ready for the next level?". Choose "An employee" in the agenda builder to see only questions written for you to ask.

How many questions should I bring to a one on one?

Fewer than you think. The agenda builder on this page proposes 3 questions for a 15 minute meeting, 5 for 30 minutes and 7 for 60 minutes, and leaves time for the other person’s items and for agreeing actions. One question that gets a full answer is worth more than five that get a sentence each.

What should a 1:1 meeting agenda include?

A 1:1 meeting agenda needs four parts: the employee’s own items first, priorities and blockers, feedback in both directions, and the actions you have each agreed with a date. Add a growth or career item about once a month. The one on one meeting template on this page sets this out for a 30 minute meeting.

How often should managers hold one on one meetings?

Weekly or every two weeks suits most teams, for 30 minutes. Meet weekly with a new hire in their first 90 days and with anyone going through a change in their role. A regular slot that is kept matters more than the exact interval, so move a meeting when you have to and avoid canceling it.

What should you not use a one on one for?

Do not use it for status updates that could be written down, for holding back urgent feedback until the next meeting, for a formal performance or disciplinary conversation with no warning, or for talking about colleagues who are not there. Those uses crowd out the things the meeting is for.