Your First One-on-One Meeting as a New Manager

When you first step into management it can take a while to get used to being the one taking the lead in one-to-ones with your reports.

But get them right and they can be your secret weapon.

Here’s everything you need to know to make your first one-to-one as a new manager – and every one after it – a huge success.

What is the first thing to do as a new manager?

Your success as a manager is going to live and die on your ability to get the most from your team. And to get the best from anyone, a “one-size-fits-all” approach to people management isn’t going to cut it: you need to tailor your approach to each teammate.

So, your first act as a manager needs to be to get to know the people you’ll be working with.  Within a few weeks of starting your role, make sure to grab a coffee with everyone on your team. 

These meetings shouldn’t be formal, and no one needs to prepare for them. They should just be about getting to know the people you’ll be working with and letting them know they can always grab you for a word about anything they want to talk about.  

It’s best to have these meetings face-to-face if possible. And be sure to give them your full attention while they’re going on (that means no phones and laptops). Be sure to book in time with everyone from senior staff to interns, too – the mark of a good manager is that you’re there for everyone on your team, not just the most “important” people.

Book a demo of Assembly to quickly and easily set up one-to-one meetings across your organization. 

What do you discuss in the first one-on-one?

Your first one-to-one with a teammate is the perfect chance to:

• Get a sense of how they’re feeling about their work.
• Learn what they’re responsible for – and how those responsibilities are going.
• Learn what their career aspirations are.
• Find out where they need a helping hand. 
• Ask if there’s anything they’d like to change about the way things are done.

You hopefully built up a bit of a rapport with each of your teammates when you grabbed that coffee. So, when your first formal one-to-one rolls around, they’ll ideally be more comfortable opening up about their career aspirations and anything they’d like to see done differently than they would if it’s their first time properly talking to you.

The biggest thing you want to get across to your people in that first one-to-one is that you take their wellbeing – and their career aspirations – seriously. And you can do this by focusing the meeting around:

• What their responsibilities are.
• What they like doing.
• What they’d like to do more of.
• Where they see their career going.
• Anything they think should be changed.

Making these points the focal point of your first one-to-one with each of your new teammates is sure to set your working relationship off on the right foot.

Try Assembly to make setting up your first one-to-one as easy as possible.

How can a manager be successful with one-on-one meetings?

Make sure you’re ticking every box in the manager’s checklist for an effective one-on-one meetings to make sure these meetings are the most valuable on your calendar every month:

Create an agenda

Your meetings will be far more focused and productive if you distribute an agenda ahead of time. 

So, keep a running list of everything you want to cover in a one-to-one in a one-to-one template – and encourage your teammate to do the same. Be sure to include any important updates your report needs to be kept in the loop on and specific items and projects you want to catch up with them on. 

This will ensure you’ll get a clear overview of where your report is at with everything on their plate. Plus, it will prevent your reports from ever feeling ambushed during a one-to-one (a surefire way of making them feel like you don’t have their best interests at heart).

Prepare questions to ask

Asking the right questions in one-to-one can encourage your reports to open up about their career aspirations, how you can get the best out of them, and how you could be doing better.

Plain and simple questions are one of the most powerful tools in a manager’s toolbox. The top one-on-one meeting questions to ask direct reports can help you:

• Make sure you’re on the same page as a report.
• Spot how engaged a report is with their work.
• Understand a report’s career aspirations.
• Improve a report’s performance.

Come prepared to every one-to-one with a list of thoughtful questions to make sure your one-to-ones are successful. 

Prepare possible answers to employee questions

To get the most from your one-to-ones, you shouldn’t just quiz your reports with your own questions. You should also invite them to ask you any questions of their own – and be prepared to answer them properly.

‍Questions your reports might want to ask their manager are more than likely to cover:

• What’s going on at the company.
• What opportunities there are in the company to progress their careers.
• What they can do to land a pay rise during their next annual review.
• What they could be doing better.

If you don’t have an answer to any of these questions your teammates are liable to start thinking they have a brighter future elsewhere. So, be sure to spend a bit of time thinking these things through before you head into your meeting. 

Set up a one-on-one schedule

To get the most from your one-to-ones, you should set them up as a recurring meeting in your and your reports’ calendars and then consider them set in stone. 

That means treating a catch-up with a teammate with as much respect as you would a meeting with a board member or investor. So, no canceling or rearranging unless you absolutely have to (or it would suit your employee to do so). 

This not only shows your team that they’re your priority, but also sets the expectation that they’re accountable for updating you on their progress towards their goals on a regular basis. 

Try Assembly to set up regular one-to-ones with just a few clicks of your mouse.

What is one thing managers commonly get wrong with one-on-one meetings?

40% of employees say they’d put more energy into their work if they were recognized more often.

And yet respondents to one survey said it’s been an average of 50 days since they last felt recognized in any way at work.

A simple way to avoid this trap is to bake employee recognition into each and every one-to-one meeting with your team.  

Studies have shown that recognition is most effective when it’s given immediately, regularly and consistently. So, make sure you turn up to every one-to-one with at least one bit of praise for your employee. It doesn’t matter if this is big or small – showing an employee you recognize and appreciate their contributions to your team can go a huge way to boosting their engagement levels at work.

The final word

Follow these simple steps during your first one-to-one meeting with each of your new teammates and you’ll lay solid foundations for some strong working relationships.