The complete list of questions for manager recommended talking points in 1:1s
The recommended talking points inspire managers with optional questions to add to their 1:1s. These questions are drawn from content in the Lattice Library, gathered and vetted by HR experts and researchers in organizational behavior. Others have come from business and people leaders who publish their content publicly, explicitly identifying what matters to employees, understanding their problems or concerns, and supporting them more effectively.
For more information on setting this up for your direct reports as a manager, read Using Recommended Talking Points.
About Manager
- 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?
- How could I do a better job communicating with you?
- How can I make your days more fulfilling?
- What can I do as a manager to make your work easier?
- What is the one thing that you need the most from me?
- What would you like to see change about these discussions? How could we make them more useful for you?
- Which areas would you like more or less direction from me on your work?
- What challenges or roadblocks do you need help with?
Career development
- Are there any projects you’d really like to work on if you were given the opportunity?
- What are the new things you learned at work lately? What are the areas you want to learn about?
- Do you feel like we're helping you advance your career? What can I be doing to help grow your career?
- How is your current work helping or hurting your professional development?
- What is one aspect of your job you would like more help or coaching with?
- Which career or development goals do you feel like you’re not able to focus on right now?
- Who in the company would you like to learn from? What do you want to learn?
- A year from now, what do you want to have accomplished?
Job satisfaction
- Do you feel over-worked, under-worked, or just the right workload?
- Do you feel like you're growing in your role? 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?
- What is your least favorite part of your role? How does that affect your overall performance?
- What are your biggest concerns about your current project(s)?
- What aspect of your current work is most interesting to you? Why?
- What do you like most about working with your team?
- What do you think you could be doing differently?
- What drives you? What motivates you to come to work each day?
- What feedback/praises have you been getting about your current priorities?
- What’s a recent situation you wish you handled differently? What would you change?
- What’s an area of your work you want to improve? How can we work together on that?
- What part of your job do you wish you didn’t have to do?
- What’s your No. 1 problem right now? How are you feeling about it?
- When was the time you enjoyed working here the most?
- Which areas make you feel like your hands are tied or you are unable to reach your full potential?
- What do you want to do but don't feel like you have the time for?
Other
- What would you be doing right now if we weren’t having this meeting? How do you feel about being taken away from that task?
- What’s one thing we could change about work for you that would improve your personal life?
Team and Company
- Are there any meetings or discussions you feel you should be a part of that you’re not? Are you included in any you don’t want to be a part of?
- Are you uncomfortable giving any of your peers constructive criticism? If so, why?
- How would you describe the division of work among team members?
- How would you rate our communication as a team?
- How would you say we're doing at working together as a team? What makes you say that?
- What are we doing that you think we should stop doing, and why?
- What are we not doing that we should be doing? What makes you say that?
- What kind of communication or information do you wish you had more of?
- What sort of resources could you use right now to make things more manageable?
- What’s one thing we’d be crazy not to do in the next quarter?
- Which areas would you like more feedback on?
- Who inspires you in the team? Whose opinions do you respect? What have they done?
- What's the biggest opportunity that we aren't thinking about?
Work-life
- What are the most important things you will focus on before we meet next?
- What do you do when you feel low energy or unmotivated?
- What is an ideal, productive day at work for you? Walk me through the day…
- What makes you excited and motivated to work on a project?
- What part of your work routine do you find is working best? What area do you want to improve?
- What were your biggest time wasters or roadblocks since we last met?