Personal development questions for 1:1s

Kasia Wyrwa

One-on-one meetings are a great tool for managers to regularly spend some time with each employee and get their insights on how they are doing, their growth, and their feedback.

While you can find lots of templates that go through the basics of a 1:1 meeting, we made sure to focus on personal development plans and their learning progress.

Encourage team members to think about projects they are involved with and how they're doing in those projects

  • What project did you enjoy working on the most? Why?

  • Did others from the team come to you for help? If so, what?

Determine a single skill they should focus on

Focusing on more than one skill can be overwhelming, so work together to find one skill you both think would have the biggest impact on their job performance.

  • Are there any skills that you could learn or improve that would help you with the projects you're working on?

  • Are there any other skills you would like to start or continue learning? 

If a personal development plan is already being followed

  • How is your assigned learning path (or development plan) going?

    • Is there anything to add or change? 

    • Have the skills you learned helped you in your everyday work? 

    • Do you need any support with your development plan?

  • Did you manage to find time to work on the path? Yes/No, why? (At Innential we recommend booking dedicated time to learn in the calendar, once a week.)

Check in about blockers and plan the development

  • Do you see any obstacles in the coming week/months to work on the topics we discussed?

Finish up by encouraging them to schedule dedicated time in the calendar for development, such as 30 minutes every Thursday afternoon.