Why it matters
Manager-led one-to-ones drift into status updates. When the report owns the agenda, they raise the issues that matter to them — the ones that never come up otherwise.
How to run it
- The day before, ask: “Send me up to three things you want to talk through.”
- They go first. Don’t reclaim the first ten minutes.
- Add your topics last, only if there’s time.
- Capture actions in the shared doc.
Watch out for
- Reclaiming the meeting after five minutes
- Using it for status updates that could be written