What to Cover in Your First One–on-Ones as a New Manager

Here are 5 tips for your first individual meetings with your team

Image Credit: airfocus on Unsplash

I’ve had the privilege of training hundreds of managers, and one of the scariest moments for many new leaders is their first one-on-ones with their new team members.

Whether you were hired from outside the company or promoted within, the first one-on-one meetings set the tone for your relationship with your direct reports. It’s a critical first impression.

Broadly, you have two goals in this first meeting:

1. Get to know each other
2. Learn more about them and their challenges

You’ll have time to dive into nitty-gritty work details later. This first meeting isn’t the time for that. For now, you need to build rapport and begin getting comfortable with each other.

Here are five tips for your first one-on-ones with your team:

1. Create as casual of an environment as possible

If you’re working in an office, consider doing your first one-on-one meeting off-campus at a nearby coffee shop or lunch joint. This will help the meeting feel more conversational and less business-y, like two friends getting together to catch…