Bosses, Coworkers, and Building Great Work Relationships (HBR Work Smart Series)

2 Twenty-Eight Questions to Ask Your Manager in Your One-on-Ones

by Steven G. Rogelberg, Liana Kreamer, and Cydnei Meredith

When she started a new role, Brianna was told she would be having regular one-on-one meetings (1:1s) with her manager, Jayden. She welcomed this news; she saw it as a great opportunity to get aligned with and supported and mentored by her new boss. But her hopes were quickly dashed. In their initial meeting, Jayden focused only on project updates and then assigned her a few additional tasks. This pattern continued over the weeks, and Brianna routinely left their meetings feeling both micromanaged and unsupported in her development.

This story is, sadly, a composite of many we have heard from employees in our research ...