Time spent one-on-one with employees is a potential engagement goldmine. It is time to ensure employees feel respected, understand their purpose and to build relationship with them. Using a one-on-one to connect with employees can save tons of time and frustration in the long run. Use this list to help you build a more collaborative, effective and interesting plan for employee one-on-ones.

1. Listen more than talk.
2. Consider the best location. Should you try a “walk & talk”? Where might you hold the meeting so it feels different than other meetings?
3. Prepare a standard agenda or list of topics (e.g., successes, workload, colleagues, projects, etc.) and have a place where you take notes to get ready for each one-on-one.
4. Ask about employees' lives outside of work (e.g., “How was your weekend?”). This helps build the relationship and may give insight into personal events that may impact their work.
5. Take time to celebrate successes. Give employees time to share what they are feeling successful about and provide your positive feedback as well.
6. Ask, “What concerns or questions do you have?” (Asking, “Do you have any concerns?” is less likely to elicit a response.)
7. Be consistent and have the meetings. Don’t just wait until you NEED to meet. Consistency allows employees a time to address concerns and allows you a natural space to coach the employee before concerns escalate.
8. Occasionally do a "Continue, Stop, Start" exercise with the employee around their specific role and around you as their manager to collaborate on what's going well and ideas for improvement.
9. Take notes on the topics you cover so you can follow up on discussions as necessary.

See also: Resource: Performance check-in conversation