u/NotGeorge1

Hey everyone,

I hope it’s cool to post this here as an employee, but I wanted to get a bit of perspective from actual managers.

I feel like the 1-on-1s with my current manager are pretty poorly run. They usually just turn into a basic status update on my current tasks, or we end up kind of scrambling for things to talk about. On top of that, action items we agree on always seem to get lost or written on some sticky note, and by the next session, we’ve completely forgotten what we talked about last time. It feels like not the best use of both of our times.

I want to, ideally, try and fix this (developer by day haha), but I want to understand it more from a manager POV.

• What do you actually look for or care about most during a 1-on-1? What makes a session genuinely valuable for you vs just checking a box?
• How much structure do you actually want? Do you prefer when an employee comes in with a strict pre-session agenda/form filled out, or do you want it completely open-ended and conversational?
• How do you keep track of everything long-term? Is there a specific workflow or tracker you use for tasks across your direct reports so stuff doesn't constantly slip through the cracks?

I’d love to hear how you guys run yours successfully so I can figure out how to get my own manager on the same page.

Thanks!

Edit: Wow, these replies are really useful. Keeping status updates out of the room, and adapting to what the specific employee needs makes total sense.

Being a developer, I've been building a tool called Accordia to try to fix my issues with the 1-1 process and this feedback completely cements why I'm aiming for something modular. The whole point is putting total control back in the manager's hands so you can structure the space exactly how you want depending on the person in front of you.

For example, if you have an employee where you just want to focus on building trust and keeping things conversational, your template can literally consist of just a single long-answer module to dump random thoughts freely, plus a quick action item module at the bottom so commitments don’t get lost on a sticky note.

But if you are managing a junior dev who explicitly asks for a clear career development plan, you can spin up a more defined, multi-module structure for them with milestone mapping and growth blocks so their long-term goals don't get buried by day-to-day fires.

Basically, trying to build something that lets you customize the layout to fit your exact management style on a 1-to-1 basis, without forcing useless homework on your team.

If anyone is interested in looking at the dashboard layout or playing around with the builder to see if it actually hits that balance right, let me know! I'd love to get some real-world feedback on it.

Edit 2: Had a few people DMing me asking about the project I'm building to handle this. Dropping the link here for anyone curious, hope this is allowed! Accordia