1on1-questions

1 on 1 Meeting Questions

Mega list compiled from a variety to sources. Also available here: http://www.managersclub.com/mega-list-of-1-on-1-meeting-questions/

I wrote a book about 1 on 1 meetings. You can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Effective-One-Ones-Productive-Meaningful-ebook/dp/B0BY89ZZP4

Applications using this data

Simple React app from @shershen08 that displays random questions from the list https://compassionate-bose-f21503.netlify.app/ repo here: https://github.com/shershen08/react-tailwind-question-generator

Another app from @perlin, https://1on1questions.netlify.app/

Table of Contents

• About Manager
• Career development
• Conversation starters
• Job satisfaction
• Other
• Team and company
• Work-life

About Manager

• Are there any obstacles I can remove for you?
• As your manager, what would you like me to stop, start, or continue doing?
• At what point in the past week were you most frustrated with or discouraged by your work? What can I do to help you manage that?
• Do you feel you’re getting enough feedback? Why/why not?
• Do you have any feedback for me?
• Do you think that you receive enough feedback? Is feedback helpful for your personal development? What can I do to help you get the feedback you want?
• How can I better support you?
• How can I make your days more fulfilling?
• How could I do a better job communicating with you?
• How do you prefer to receive feedback?
• How might I make this project more challenging or interesting for you?
• I'd like to improve as a manager and I could really use your help. Next week, would you be willing to share some feedback on one to two things you think I could do better as your manager?
• If you were me, what changes would you make?
• I’m trying to make my 1-on-1s better and would appreciate your honest feedback on this one — what did you like about it, and what could be improved?
• I’ve noticed that our last several 1-on-1s have stayed pretty surface. What are your honest impressions of this meeting? What could we be doing differently or better?
• What additional resources can I provide for you between now and the next time we meet?
• What are your impressions of our 1-on-1s? What could we do differently or better?
• What are your thoughts on my changes?
• What aspect of your job you would like more help or coaching?
• What aspects of your work would you like more or less direction from me?
• What can I be doing better to help you in your job?
• What can I do as a manager to make your work easier?
• What can I do better or differently as your manager to support you?
• What can I do for you that I'm not?
• What can I do to help remove obstacles?
• What can I do to help you achieve you current goals and priorities?
• What can I do to help you enjoy your work more or remove roadblocks to progress?
• What can I do to help you?
• What can I do to make things more manageable?
• What can I do to make your job easier?
• What could I do as a manager to make your work easier?
• What do you like about my management style? What do you dislike?
• What do you think I should know about the project, but might not?
• What have your past managers done that you’d like me to also do or not do?
• What is something I could do better? What feedback do you have for me?
• What is something I could have done better? What are the situations that I could have helped more but didn’t?
• What is the biggest challenge you are currently facing? How can I help with that?
• What is the one thing that you need the most from me?
• What is the percentage of my involvement in your daily tasks? Would you prefer more or less?
• What would you like to know about me?
• What would you like to see change about these discussions? How could we make them more useful for you?
• What’s your favorite thing I do as a manager of this team I should keep doing?
• Where do you think I can be most helpful?
• Which areas would you like more or less direction from me on your work?
• Would you like more coaching? What aspect of your job do you like more help and coaching on?

Career development

• Are there any events or training you’d like to attend to help you grow your skills?
• Are there any projects you’d really like to work on if you were given the opportunity?
• Could you see yourself making progress on more of your goals here? What would need to change to do so?
• Do you feel like you are learning at work? What are the new things you learned lately? What are the areas you want to learn about?
• Do you feel like you’re making progress on your big goals here? Why or why not?
• Do you feel we’re helping you advance your career at a pace you would like?
• Do you have the tools you need to reach your goals?
• During this meeting you’ve mentioned that you’d like to pursue X. What steps can you take toward that before our next 1-on-1?
• Have you ever felt undervalued here?
• Have you given any more thought to your long-term goals since our last meeting? What are your latest thoughts?
• How do you feel you are progressing in your career?
• How do you think about your progress on your big goals? What needs to be done to move towards the goals? What can we do to help?
• How do you think you did on your performance review this year? What do you think the results will be?
• How is your current work helping or hurting your professional development?
• If you were to create your ideal position, how would it differ from what you are currently doing?
• Imagine it’s two years from now, and things have gone well: What has been your role in that? What does your role look like?
• Is there a different way we can develop your skills outside of traditional training?
• Is there an aspect of your job you would like more help or coaching?
• Tell me about something new you learned since we met last.
• To help identify and clarify the goal: What do you want to achieve? What will you do to achieve it? When will you do it? Who do you need to involve? When should you see results?
• What about this goal is important to you and what will be different when you achieve the goal?
• What actions will you take before our next 1-on-1 to make progress on X? (Also discuss and agree on actions you will take to help.)
• What additional training or education would you like?
• What are some of the work projects you’re most proud of, and what do you think you might want to do next?
• What are the projects you would be interested in working on next?
• What are two to three new skills you’d like to learn on the job? What about those skills interests you?
• What are your big dreams in life? Are you making progress on them?
• What are your goals (for our group for you personally)
• What are your long term goals? Have you thought about them?
• What are your super powers? What powers would you like to develop?
• What areas of your job do you find difficult that getting better skills at would help?
• What big questions do you have about your career opportunities in the future?
• What can I do to take action or make progress on what we talked about today?
• What can you do to take action or make progress on what we talked about today?
• What capabilities do you want to develop?
• What development areas do you want to work on in the coming weeks?
• What do you see as the next step in your career?
• What do you want to be doing in 5 years? 10 years? 3 years?
• What do you want to do in your next job?
• What else can I be doing to help you grow/advance in your career?
• What goals have you set for your career?
• What kind of training or experience would be most helpful to you right now?
• What opportunities have you had recently to learn something new?
• What other roles here could you see yourself in down the line? Or what areas would you like to explore?
• What parts of your job would you like to deepen your skills in or get additional training in?
• What professional goals would you like to accomplish in the next 6 to 12 months, and what makes you say that?
• What skills are required to reach your goals?
• What skills do you have that you think are underutilized?
• What skills would you like to develop right now?
• What sort of progress have you made on the next steps we discussed last time?
• What work are you doing here that you feel is most in line with your long term goals?
• What would make this your perfect job?
• What would you like to learn about in the future?
• What’s one thing we could do today to help you with your long term goals?
• Where do you see your career in 1 year, 3 years? What can you do to make sure you reach those goals? How can we as HR help you to reach those goals (assuming the goals relate to the company)?
• Where do you see your career in the next (2/5/10) years?
• Where do you see yourself in three years? Five years?
• Which career or development goals do you feel like you’re not able to focus on right now?
• Which part of the work here do you feel as most relevant to your long-term goals? What kinds of projects do you want to take part in to move toward your goals?
• Who in the company would you like to learn from? What do you want to learn?

Conversation starters

• Are you on track to meet the deadline?
• Hey, what’s going on?
• How are you? How is life outside of work?
• How are your parents/grandparents? Where do they live? Do you visit them?
• How is your family?
• How was your weekend?
• How’s it going?
• If around a holiday: Do you celebrate [Holiday]? If so, can I ask what are you plans?
• If they have children: How is [name of child] doing? (Ask something related to their age like starting school, playing sports, or other interests.)
• I’ve noticed you’re a little quieter than usual. Is there anything you’d like to talk about?
• So, what’s on your mind? (or Anything on your mind?)
• Tell me a story...
• Tell me about anything you stumbled over.
• Tell me about last week.
• Tell me about what you’ve been working on.
• Tell me about your family/weekend/ activities?
• Tell me about your week – what’s it been like?
• What can I do to make your day better?
• What do you like to do in your free time? What are your hobbies?
• What have you been doing for fun lately?
• What would you like to focus on at this meeting?
• What would you like to start with?
• What's something I don't know, but should?
• Who do you really admire? Why? (People often admire those they want to become)
• Would you like to walk today, or go somewhere else outside the office?
• Would you update me on Project X?

Job satisfaction

• Are you happy here? What makes you say that?
• Are you happy with your recent work? Why or why not?
• Can you name three things we can do to help so you can enjoy your job more?What is the best accomplishment you had since you are here? Do you feel appreciated for it?
• Do you feel challenged at work? Are you learning new things?
• Do you feel like you're growing in your role? What makes you say that?
• Do you feel over-worked, under-worked, or just the right workload?
• Do you think our company is loyal to its employees? Why or why not?
• Happiness level, 1 to 10?
• How are you feeling about the project?
• How are you feeling about your role?
• How did that affect you?
• How did that make you feel?
• How do you feel your work/life balance is right now?
• How do you think of your current workload and how are you coping with them?
• How do you think that least favorite thing affects your overall performance?
• How many hours a day do you feel you’re productive? How could we help you be more productive?
• If you could change what happened, how would you alter it?
• If you could work on anything for the next month, what would it be? What makes you say that?
• In our last 1-on-1 you mentioned that you’d like to grow in X — how has that been going?
• In our last 1-on-1 you mentioned you were frustrated by X and wanted to try