When you're a member of the C-Suite, a founder, or a VP we still recommend having a regular 1:1 with your direct reports. However, the agenda and frequency will look different than you'd set with an individual contributor.

A Different Context

When it comes to managing senior team members, you are working in a different context to managing individual contributors. 

For starters, your direct reports have a complex span of work with high impact. Many of them will be acting as managers of managers, often overseeing multiple functions. They can operate autonomously (you’re paying them for this!) and the stakes are higher. 

You have a range of touch points with these direct reports. For example, a regular leadership team meeting. You might participate in their executive functional meetings - ‘Marketing Leadership Weekly’ - or lead a cross-functional meeting with multiple direct reports - e.g. ‘Growth Weekly’.

Outside of meetings, your direct reports might provide visibility on progress in forums like a Slack channel update, metrics report, or business-wide summary.

This means that your one-on-one meetings with senior direct reports can and should be different. 

Why 1:1s with senior direct reports are important

Given this context, are 1:1s with senior direct reports even necessary? YES, they are. 

According to research, teams that engage in regular one-on-ones report a 30% increase in employee satisfaction and a 20% boost in productivity.

If you’re the CEO of Nvidia (who famously has 60 direct reports and discourages 1-on-1s), you’d say “No”. But Jensen Huang has a rigorous leadership approach that’s hard to replicate.

Here’s why you need a regular 1:1 with senior direct reports. 

Build connection for better results

A consistent 1-on-1 gives your direct report time to connect with you, and vice versa. Especially in a remote work setting, this 1:1 time builds trust and understanding. When you have a strong foundation, you’re more likely to challenge, share feedback with, and push one another for better results. 

In a 2021 study on the impact of connection, 94% of workers agree they’re more productive when they feel connected to colleagues. 96% of connected employees are satisfied with their current role (versus 60% of disconnected employees). 

Many leaders make the mistake of forgetting to prioritize connection and jump straight into business. Don’t be afraid to use 1:1 time exclusively for connection. Go for lunch or, if you’re remote, jump on the phone to walk-and-talk. Share photos and personal stories with one another or ask one another a few meaningful questions.

Share quality feedback

A regular 1:1 with each direct report provides the opportunity to share and receive feedback. When you reinforce strengths and offer ways to improve performance in a timely way, you ensure better performance.

This is also a great way for you to model the feedback practices you want to see across your organization.

Not convinced about the value of feedback? Employees at all levels want feedback, especially high performers like your senior leaders. In fact, 60% of employees would like feedback on a daily or weekly basis (reference). 40% of employees actively disengage when they get little or no feedback. A Gallup study found that organizations that implemented regular feedback experience a 14.9% reduction in employee turnover.

Confirm alignment

Your direct reports own critical goals and are accountable for the work of many people. When you’re misaligned, the impact is far-reaching. For example, if you’re not crystal clear on priorities resources can get funneled into the wrong programs and team members can get confused. Use your 1:1 to confirm alignment and resolve healthy conflict if there is any.

Get into meaty discussions

Taking time to zoom out of the day-to-day with your direct reports is important. This can take the form of contemplating business strategy and goals, organization design and team planning, or personal development. 

Creating space for these topics increases buy-in and helps the business. This practice is also an opportunity for you to upskill your leaders and delegate work to them. 

1:1 Pro tips

• Make a copy of the [Template] 1:1s for Senior Leaders
• Use async weekly check-ins to confirm priorities and share goal progress
  • Have your direct report populate your 1:1 doc or send a Slack message with this information
  • Ask directs to send these by 10am Monday so you have full visibility across your team and can identify issues
• Hold a recurring 1:1 every month, preferably the same day and time. Show up on time and try not to move it around
• Refresh the frequency as needed. If your direct report is new to the business, flexing a new skill, or doing particularly high stakes work, increase the frequency
• Be present. As a busy leader, your direct reports don’t get your undivided attention often

[Template] Async Weekly Check-in

Instructions for use in italics, delete before using.

Week of xx/yy

‼️ Priorities

Ask your direct report to list out their priorities in order. Have them label if any work will fall below the “line” this week (i.e. not getting done) and add notes as relevant. 

1. Emergency 1 - this came up on Friday. Since customer impact is high, I’m shifting Employee X to this.
2. Initiative 1
3. Initiative 3
4. Dumpster fire - 

----------------

5. Initiative 2 - I will not prioritize this this week because we’re waiting on X Team to finish xyz work
6. Initiative 4 - this is below the line because Employee X is focused on Emergency

🎯 Goal Progress 

Ask your direct report to list the most important key metrics / milestones they own and link to data sources (e.g. Salesforce dashboard). Include asks / blockers (is an issue) / risks (could be an issue). 

1. CSAT - actual # vs goal # (link to source)some text
   1. Blocker: CRM upgrade not getting through Finance
2. TFir - actual # vs goal # (link to source)some text
   1. Risk: 40% team got sick, will provide update in Customer Weekly Meeting on how we plan to make up gap
3. TRes - actual # vs goal # (link to source)some text
   1. Ask: can you send Employee Y a note praising the Internal Wiki Project? Their work has made it easier for support reps to resolve issues.
4. CRM migration project - migrate 100% team by xx datesome text
   1. Ask: help me get Finance approval

[Template] Monthly Senior Direct Report 1:1

Instructions for use in italics, delete before using.

Date

♥️ Check-in Use this space to check in on how the person is doing. See sample questions below. 

• What are your highlights and low lights from the last week?
• What’s your battery level (1-100%), why?
• Is anything keeping you up at night? 
• What are you most excited about right now?
• What’s your super power?
• What most motivates you?
• What is your achilles? 
• What does it look like when you’re in a bad place, and how can I help you?

🎁 Feedback Aim for two-way feedback each month. Remember to make it specific and actionable. The ideal ratio for a high performer is 5 pieces of positive feedback to 1 piece of critical feedback. A great way to get feedback is to invite it in advance - for example, “I’m working on concise communications. Can you share feedback with me about this next month? Feel free to share it along the way too!”

Feedback from [INSERT direct report name] to [INSERT manager name]

Feedback from [INSERT manager name] to [INSERT direct report name]

🔮 Zoom-Out Discussion Topics  Rotate through these 3 areas and invite your direct report to add topics too.

👥 Organization

Use this space to discuss team and culture-related topics. Pick 1 topic in advance and ask your direct report to prepare for discussion. Here are some examples:

• Who are your top performers, what are we doing to develop and retain them? Low performers, what are we doing to get them on track?
• Do you see any attrition risk within your team? What’s the succession plan for key role/leader(s)?
• How is your team optimized for the goals you need to achieve? Are we missing skill sets or roles?
• How would you describe team culture? Are you proud of/concerned about engagement or values-alignment anywhere?
• What’s 1 thing you’ve done to improve team productivity and effectiveness? What’s 1 thing we can do as an organization to support performance?

🛣️ Looking Ahead 

Use this space to discuss strategy and planning. Pick 1 topic in advance and ask your direct report to prepare for discussion. Here are some examples:

• When you consider the next 3, 6, and 12 months from now, are there any risks or opportunities we should be talking about?
• As a thought exercise, how could we make the experience 10x better for prospects/customers/[relevant audience]?
• As a thought exercise, how could we reduce cost by 10x?
• Is there anything holding back your team from their best performance? Would a resource accelerate your team’s work?
• Imagine it’s 1 year from today and you’re sharing an update with the Board. What’s the thing we nailed and what did we mess up?

📈 Career & Personal Development

Use this space to document career development goals. Agree on how often you will check in on these goals and progress. We recommend every 6-12 months for senior direct reports. 

Use this space to agree on and write down 

• What are career goals for the next year?
• What strengths can [direct report] use to get there?
• What support does [direct report] need to achieve these goals?
• What cadence do we agree on to check in on progress towards these goals?