One on One Meeting Questions: 60+ to Ask Your Team

Good one on one meeting questions are open, specific and about the person, not just the project. A strong set covers rapport and wellbeing, priorities and blockers, feedback in both directions, growth, engagement and retention, first meetings, and remote check-ins. Below are more than 60 questions, grouped by theme, for managers and for the employees who sit across from them.

Do not treat this as a script. Pick two to four questions that fit this week, ask them, and listen to the answer before moving on. If you want the format and cadence first, read our guide to one-on-one meetings. If you want an agenda to drop the questions into, use the one-on-one meeting template.

How to use these one-on-one questions

Three habits make the difference between a useful 1:1 and an awkward interview.

• Let the employee set the agenda. Your questions fill gaps. If they arrive with three topics, you may not need any of yours.
• Send two or three questions ahead. People answer more honestly when they have had a day to think, especially in feedback and growth conversations.
• Follow up on the answer. Ask "what makes you say that?" or "what would help?" before moving to the next question. Write the action down with an owner and a date.

Questions also vary by mood. A person in a hard week needs wellbeing and blocker questions, not a growth discussion. A person who has been in the role two years may need the opposite. Read the room first.

Rapport and wellbeing check-in questions

Open every weekly 1:1 with something personal and low-stakes. This is the block most managers skip, and it is the one that builds trust. These work as employee check in questions in a full 1:1 or in a short check in meeting.

1. How are you doing, outside of the task list?
2. What was the best part of your week?
3. What is taking up most of your headspace right now?
4. How is your energy at the moment, on a scale of 1 to 10, and why that number?
5. What is one thing outside work that you are looking forward to?
6. Is your workload about right, too heavy, or too light?
7. When did you last take proper time off, and do you need to?
8. Is there anything I could do this week that would make your life easier?

If someone answers "fine" every week, try a more specific version: "What is one thing that annoyed you this week?" Specifics get past the polite answer. Be careful with health and family questions. Ask how someone is, and let them decide how much to share.

Priorities and blockers questions

This is the working core of most 1:1s. The aim is to make sure the person is spending time on the right things and is not stuck on something you could clear in two minutes.

1. What are your top priorities this week?
2. What is the most important thing for you to finish before we next meet?
3. What is blocking you right now, and who or what could unblock it?
4. Is anything on your plate that should not be there?
5. Where are you spending time that you think is low value?
6. Is there a decision you are waiting on from me or from someone else?
7. What is the riskiest part of your current project?
8. If you could drop one thing from your list, what would it be?
9. Do you have what you need: information, tools, access, time?
10. What would you do differently if you were running this project?

Keep status out of this block if you can. If the answers sound like a project update, you could have read them in a tracker. Ask about decisions, risks and obstacles instead.

Feedback questions: manager to employee

Feedback works best when it is a regular, two-way habit and not a surprise. These questions invite the employee to assess their own work first, which makes your feedback easier to hear.

1. What are you most proud of from the last few weeks?
2. What would you do differently if you could redo it?
3. How do you feel about the quality of your recent work?
4. How do you prefer to get feedback: in the moment, here in our 1:1, or in writing?
5. Is there feedback you have been expecting from me that I have not given?
6. Where do you want more direction from me, and where less?
7. How did that presentation or project go, from your side?

When you do give feedback, a simple structure helps. The SBI feedback model (situation, behavior, impact) keeps it specific and removes the guesswork about what you mean. If a conversation turns difficult, our guide to giving constructive feedback without discouraging employees covers the wording.

Feedback questions: employee to manager

Most managers say they want feedback and few ask for it in a way that feels safe. Asking these first, and thanking the person for the answer, is the single biggest signal that it is welcome.

1. What is one thing I could do differently to help you do your best work?
2. Where do I get in your way?
3. Is there anything I am doing too much of, or not enough of?
4. How clear are my expectations of you?
5. Do you get enough recognition for your work, and from whom?
6. When did you last feel I handled something well, and when not so well?
7. What do you wish I knew about how you work?

Do not defend yourself when you get an answer. Say thank you, ask one clarifying question, and tell them what you will try. The point is to make the next honest answer easier. For a wider, anonymous view across the team, a set of manager feedback survey questions gives people a way to say what they will not say face to face.

Questions an employee can ask their manager

A 1:1 is also your meeting. If you are the report, bring questions, not just updates. These help you do better work and build a clearer picture of where you stand.

1. What is the most important thing for me to deliver this quarter?
2. How would you rate my work so far, and what would move that up a level?
3. What does great look like in my role?
4. What is changing on the team or in the company that I should know about?
5. What do you need from me that I am not giving you?
6. How do you see my role developing over the next year?
7. Who should I be working with or learning from?
8. Is there a project coming up that I could take on or help with?
9. How do you prefer I raise problems: early and rough, or once I have a plan?
10. What is one thing I could do in the next month that would make the biggest difference?

Write them in the shared agenda a day ahead. A manager who sees your questions in advance can come prepared with a real answer instead of an improvised one.

Growth and career development questions

Run a longer career conversation about monthly or quarterly, not weekly. Do not promise promotions or pay in it. Promise what you control: stretch work, introductions, feedback and time.

1. What do you want to be doing in two years?
2. What part of your job do you enjoy most, and which part drains you?
3. What skill do you most want to build this year?
4. What kind of work would you like more of?
5. Is there a role on the team or in the company you are curious about?
6. Who do you admire at work, and what do they do well?
7. What would make you feel you were growing in this role?
8. What could I do to help you get there?
9. What is one stretch assignment you would like to try?

The role of performance reviews in career development shows how these monthly conversations feed the formal one, so the annual review holds no surprises.

Engagement and retention questions

These are the questions that surface a problem before it becomes a resignation. Ask them a few times a year, not every week, and only when you are ready to act on the answer. Several overlap with a stay interview, which is a dedicated version of the same conversation.

1. What do you look forward to most when you start the week?
2. What would make you leave this team, and what keeps you here?
3. If you could change one thing about your job, what would it be?
4. When did you last feel really motivated at work?
5. Do you feel your work is noticed and valued?
6. Do you feel you can speak up when something is wrong?
7. How is the team getting on, in your view?
8. Is there anything that has been bothering you that we have not talked about?
9. On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to still be doing this work a year from now?

People often will not say the real answer to their own manager. If you suspect that, use a short anonymous pulse alongside the 1:1. Our employee pulse surveys guide shows how. A skip-level meeting is another route, because it gives people a line to someone above their manager.

First one-on-one questions for a new report

The first 1:1 sets the pattern for all the others. Spend it learning how this person works, then explaining how your meetings will run. Allow 45 to 60 minutes.

1. How do you like to receive feedback: in the moment, in our 1:1s, or in writing?
2. What did the best manager you have had do that I should keep in mind?
3. What did a past manager do that made your work harder?
4. How will I know when you are overloaded or stuck?
5. What do you most want to learn or get better at this year?
6. What does a good first month look like to you?
7. What is unclear about the role or the team right now?
8. Who should you meet in the first few weeks?
9. How often would you like us to meet, and for how long?
10. Is there anything about how you work that I should know?

If you are the new hire, you can ask the manager the mirror questions: how they like to work, how they prefer to hear about problems, and what success looks like at 30, 60 and 90 days. The template includes a ready-made first-meeting format.

Remote and hybrid check-in questions

With no hallway conversations, small problems stay hidden for longer. A remote check in meeting needs to ask about the things you would otherwise see.

1. How connected do you feel to the team right now?
2. When did you last have a conversation that was not about a task?
3. Is your workspace and set-up working for you?
4. Are you able to switch off at the end of the day?
5. Which meetings are worth your time, and which are not?
6. Is there anything you used to learn by overhearing that you are now missing?
7. What is one thing we could change about how we work across time zones or locations?
8. Do you know who to ask when you are stuck?

Keep the camera-on question out of it. Ask about outcomes and connection, not presence. Our piece on remote performance reviews covers how to keep the formal side fair for people who are not in the room.

Questions to avoid in a one-on-one

A few common questions do more harm than good.

• Yes/no questions. "Is everything OK?" gets "yes." Ask "what is the hardest thing this week?"
• Leading questions. "Don't you think the launch went well?" teaches people to agree with you.
• Interrogation questions. "Why did you not finish this?" puts the person on the defensive. Try "what got in the way?"
• Anything you would not want to answer yourself. If a question would feel invasive to you, assume it will to them.
• Questions you will not act on. Asking about workload and then changing nothing costs more trust than never asking.

How to make the answers count

A question bank is only the start. Questions help when three things follow.

1. Listen first. Pause after the answer. The second sentence is often the real one.
2. Write down actions. Keep a shared note with the action, the owner and the date, and read it back at the start of the next meeting.
3. Close the loop. If you cannot fix something, say so and explain why. People accept "no" better than silence.

1:1s are coming to FeedbackPulse in Q1 2027. Until then, a shared document and a regular slot are all you need to start. If you want to hear from the whole team at once, a free pulse survey for a team of up to 10 is a good companion to your 1:1s, and our one-on-one meetings guide covers the rest of the routine.