A recent survey was conducted by Soapbox - a London-based creative communications agency - of 200+ managers from across over 30 industries and with collectively over 1280 years of management experience. The survey was to learn how they conduct one-on-one meetings with their teams. 

Of the managers surveyed, 94 per cent stated that they carried out one-on-ones and of the remaining 6 per cent, most stated that the reason they did not do so was lack of time.

Nearly half the managers who held one-on-one meetings reported that the agenda is a shared responsibility with the team members. Only 23 per cent discuss alignment to company mission, but 75 per cent reported discussing growth and development.

About one in two managers have one-on-one meetings on a weekly basis - helping to build rapport, trust and continuous feedback with the employees.

When questioned about the goal of one-on-one meetings, 70 per cent state it is to understand and eliminate roadblocks; 61 per cent stated it is to ensure employees are engaged and happy - and 53 per cent is to enquire how specific projects are coming along.

An overwhelming 68 per cent of managers said that juggling their responsibilities - along with managing a team - is their biggest challenge as a people leader. The next challenge specified was hitting team goals - referred to by 14 per cent of managers. This was followed by over 10 per cent stating that getting their team to collaborate with one another was a test and 4 per cent cited retaining employees.

Brennan McEachran - CEO and Co-Founder - SoapBox, said:

“Most managers start their people leadership journeys with zero training, zero coaching, zero tools and zero experience. They're left to their own devices to figure out an entirely new set of skills: leading others. After 10 years in the management space, we’ve learned that the biggest opportunity a manager has to impact the performance and engagement of an employee is during one-on-one meetings. We've also learned that for many managers, this time is often disorganized and unproductive. But how can we help a group of under-serviced super-powerful people in today's workplace level-up their one-on-ones? “

He added:

“We believe the findings in this report are extremely important for new and existing managers looking to find their groove. We’re aiming to understand the state of management through the one-on-one lens and hope that as a result, managers reading this can build on the patterns that have proven successful for others."