One-on-Ones

1-on-1 meeting - The tough talk

Give constructive feedback or address a sensitive issue with a team member.

The importance of a tough talk

As a manager, not all conversations are going to be easy. Sometimes you have to address a sensitive issue or give constructive feedback when an employee needs to improve. But being able to have these challenging conversations is an essential management skill.

Let’s imagine a team that is excelling, but one or two team members are struggling to perform or behaving in a way that is not in line with your team values. If not addressed quickly, it could easily turn into a larger issue and affect the team’s performance and engagement. That’s when the ability to have productive conversations comes in! A focused conversation will allow you to check in on your employee, drill down on the cause of the issue, and align on the next steps to fix it and be back on the road to success.

Questions for sensitive conversations

All managers at some point will struggle with these types of conversations. We’ve learned a lot at Officevibe from our own experiences and have created a template to help you out too! Use our one-on-one meeting template when you need to give constructive feedback and address other issues. The questions will lead you into a productive conversation and ensure a positive outcome.

In this template, you’ll also find private notes that are only visible to you. Use them to write down anything that stands out during your meeting! In these private notes, we have included extra tips from our experts for your conversation to go as smoothly as possible.

When to use this one-on-one template

People behave differently. And many things can affect our attitude or actions on a given day. When you notice that an employee’s behavior is not in line with the team’s principles, it is not always cause for alarm. Managers should keep an eye on behavior patterns – actions that are repeated over time and impact the team’s work and dynamic. When you spot these, use our template to talk about them and understand what caused them.

Some behavior patterns to look out for are:

Late to meetings or missed deadlines – sometimes affecting other people’s work.
The quality of their work seems to be decreasing.
Dismissive attitude or inappropriate behavior with other co-workers, whether remote or in the office.
Unethical behavior with clients or suggests unethical practices to accomplish a goal.
Constant conflict with other team members and unwillingness to resolve the issue themselves.