Make the one-to-one theirs

Most one-to-ones turn into a status report. You ask where things are, they read out a list, and twenty-five minutes disappear into information that could have been a message. Meanwhile the worries, the half-formed ideas and the quiet frustrations — the things that actually decide whether someone stays — never come up.

This lesson is for new managers whose weekly check-ins feel flat or pointless. It covers why status creeps in, how to hand the agenda to the other person without it collapsing into silence, and what to do when someone genuinely has nothing to say. You get an opening question that works even with quiet people, and a simple way to end so the conversation leads somewhere.

Part of the One-to-ones track. About two minutes to read, with a seven-day practice plan and a recall check a week later.