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One-on-ones

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One-on-one meetings are an important way for managers to connect with their team members and provide a dedicated and comfortable space for coaching, communication, and connection. Successful managers ensure that their employees feel valued and empowered, and one-on-ones drive this positive interaction. Asana helps you plan your one-on-ones in advance, stay focused during the conversation, and track any action items that come out of the meeting. 

Using Asana for 1:1 meetings

Organizing 1:1 meetings by setting up Asana projects with tasks for agenda items, action items, and notes will ensure a consistent and organized approach to planning each 1:1 meeting. You can read about the benefits of using Asana for 1:1 meetings below:

  1. Structured meeting agendas: Projects and templates ensure a consistent and organized approach to planning each 1:1 meeting.

  2. Efficient action item tracking: Tasks and subtasks help in assigning, following up, and tracking the progress of action items.

  3. Centralized documentation: Comments and attachments enable thorough documentation and easy reference.

  4. Effective time management: Custom fields and calendar views help in scheduling and managing meeting time efficiently.

  5. Reliable scheduling: Calendar integrations help in scheduling regular 1:1 meetings and sending reminders to both parties.

How to create a 1:1 project

  1. Create a project, set privacy to private to members, and invite only your report to join. Choose a layout for the project. Opt for List view for a structured approach to track agenda items, notes, and action items.

     

  2. Create sections in the project to organize your meeting agenda. For example:

    • Agenda items
    • Discuss this week
    • Revisit later
    • Roadblocks and wins
    • Goals
    • Action items
    • Notes

  3. Create a reusable template for 1:1 meetings with other reports to save time when setting up future 1:1s. If you have recurring agenda points, you can also create a task template that can be reused for every 1:1 meeting, ensuring consistency.

 Customizing the meeting agenda

  1. Incorporate custom fields such as "Meeting Date," "Priority," and "Status" to keep track of important details.
  2. Add tasks ahead of each meeting under the "Agenda Items" section. Each task should have a clear description of the topic to be discussed.
  3. Link to any goals your report owns from the project overview.
  4. Contribute new topics to your project between meetings (both managers and reports should add agenda items).
    • Provide descriptions on the tasks so you remember specifically what you wanted to say.
    • Comment on tasks to discuss work before and after a meeting.
    • Add a task from another project into your 1:1 project so you can discuss it in context.
    • You can use recurring due dates on the topics you want to cover every week. Put them in the “Discuss this week” section and they will re-appear each week.

Scheduling the meeting

  1. Use due dates to schedule the meeting. Sync this to a calendar via Asana’s calendar integrations with Google Calendar or Outlook.
  2. Set reminders via Asana or integrate with Slack to notify both participants about upcoming meetings.

Capturing discussion points and notes

  1. During the meeting, use the comments section of each task to record discussion points and feedback.
  2. Attach relevant documents, performance reports, or feedback forms directly to the meeting task or specific agenda items.

Assigning and tracking action items

  1. Convert discussion points into actionable tasks. Move these tasks to the "Action Items" section, assign them and give them due dates to ensure their completion before the next meeting.
  2. Use dependencies to indicate if an action item is reliant on the completion of another task.

Reviewing past meetings

  1. Before each 1:1, review notes and action items from previous meetings to ensure continuity and effective follow-up.
  2. Update the status of action items based on progress.

Post-meeting follow-up

  1. Monitor the progress of action items assigned during the meeting.
  2. Continue the conversation by adding further comments as needed, providing feedback, or noting progress outside of the meeting.

Reflect and plan

  1. Periodically review the effectiveness of 1:1 meetings by generating reports that track the completion of action items and overall progress.
  2. Use insights from the reports to plan for future meetings and address any recurring issues or themes.

Tips for managing your one-on-one project

The goal of a 1:1 isn’t to introduce yet another meeting into your schedule. Once you’ve set up your meeting project in Asana, you can make the most of your meeting by:

  • Pre-populating the agenda so you can reflect on topics beforehand and approach them thoughtfully instead of on the spot.
  • Contributing ideas throughout the week so you remember them and avoid spending time in the meeting trying to think of what to talk about.
  • Encouraging your report to have a say on meeting topics and priorities to set an honest, safe, and respectful tone beforehand. These meetings are ultimately for your team member to discuss what’s on their mind.
  • Checking in regularly on goals, career planning, and growth opportunities to ensure greater commitment to achieving them.

Setting aside time on your calendar for a one-on-one is an important part of being an effective team lead. The consistent and honest feedback that emerges brings out the best in your employees. Emphasizing professional growth, talking through roadblocks, and prioritizing ideas together ultimately drive careers and organizations forward. By using Asana for 1:1 meetings, managers can ensure that their sessions with team members are well-organized, productive, and focused on continuous improvement. This structured approach helps in maintaining a consistent meeting cadence, tracking progress, and fostering better communication and connection.

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How to manage one-on-ones | Asana Help Center