Imagine you're standing outside under a starry sky. Somewhere in the distance you see a campfire flickering – you know someone is there, but the distance makes it hard to really know how they are.
This is exactly what leadership at a distance can feel like: You see each other in video calls, work together, but the distance somehow makes you feel in the dark. One-on-one meetings between managers and remote employees should be "campfire moments" where, at best, both sides can warm up – and feel better and have a sense of progress.
That's why I've put together some refreshing questions in this text that you can ask your remote employees for a good conversation.
Whether in a digital or virtual one-on-one meeting, 1-to-1 meetings offer space for feedback and therefore personal development, which is essential in today's working world. And in this article, I'll give you good questions that you can use in your weekly, bi-weekly or monthly remote one-on-one meetings with your direct reports to have good conversations.
First of all: If you're still unsure about what good one-on-one meetings (whether virtual or on-site) look like, take a look at our guide: The guide with 6 tips for successful one-on-one meetings.
6 Practical Tips for your Remote One-on-One Meetings
According to the Harvard Business Review, almost half of employees rate their one-on-one meetings as suboptimal (HBR, 2022). And now imagine you're also doing them remotely – that probably doesn't make it any easier.
As you can see in the picture, there are many additional challenges in a remote situation when leading at a distance. To help you overcome these, I would like to give you a few practical tips before we move on to our list of questions for your Remote Direct Reports.
1. Use the camera "weather report" 🌤️
Instead of starting with "How are you?" (which is often followed by an unmotivated "Fine"), ask: "How is your inner weather today? Sunny, cloudy or stormy?" This lightens the mood, gives room for real emotions and helps to better assess the dynamics of the conversation.
2. Change of location for more clarity 🚶♂️
Think about whether it might be possible to hold your one-on-one meeting somewhere other than your normal workplace. After all, other locations help you to become more aware of the 1:1 and to get out of the daily grind mentally. At Echometer, we also hold one-on-one meetings that are less operational and more strategic or for reflection during walk-through calls through – - these are very creative meetings!
3. "The one big topic" instead of too much small stuff 🎯
Instead of working through a checklist, ask: "If you could only take or clarify one thing today – what would it be?" This will take you straight to the most important point.
4. "If I were to disappear today...?" 👀
Ask the question: "If I were suddenly gone as a manager for a month – what would you miss, what would you do differently? What would you want to know beforehand?" This will also help you to focus on the most important points with a new perspective.
5. Try "chat mode" for introverted employees 💬
If you have very shy employees, the following could be worth an experiment: You have your 1:1 conversation as a live chat. Topics are addressed in writing with fewer barriers. You can think about questions for longer and without time pressure. It's worth a try.
"I can’t identify patterns or trends across my 1:1s. Everything feels isolated."
"I like this employee, but he's underperforming. How can I address this in 1:1s?""
"I feel like my employees tell me what I want to hear in our 1:1s, but they don't actually open up."
"Sometimes I’m not sure if I was too harsh - or too soft - in my 1:1s to be effective."
"No one ever taught me how to run 1:1s - I am sure I could be much more effective."
"My manager keeps asking how my team is doing - I wish I had something more tangible to share."
6. "Guess your week" game 🎭
Start with: "Let me guess how your week felt..." Then name three options ("You were super productive", "Everything was chaotic", "You had a low"). This provides a playful introduction and opens up the conversation. Of course, you can also turn it around and your employee guesses your week – - you may even give answer options.
7. End the meeting with a mini preview 🎬
Instead of "See you next week", ask: "What's the one thing you're looking forward to until the next 1:1?" This helps you to leave the meeting with a positive feeling.
So, these tips should make your one-on-one meeting much easier for you as a supervisor or boss. Now let's move on to our list of questions.
Good standard one-on-one Meeting Questions
Managers of remote employees in particular have a greater obligation to ask about the well-being of their direct reports. Because in everyday life, there are naturally far fewer cues for the well-being of your team members if you don't regularly bump into them in person.
I have put together some questions for this use case and other general areas here.
✅ General One-on-One Staff Meeting Questions to ask
- How are you (really) doing right now?
- On a scale of one (very bad) to ten (very good), how are you feeling right now?
- How focused are you at the moment on a scale of 1 to 10? And why?
- What's going through your head right now?
- What is slowing you down in your work at the moment?
- What's going well for you right now?
- What's not going so well at the moment?
🧑🎨 Creative One-on-One Staff Meeting Questions to ask
- If you had to characterize your mood as a weather report with regard to the project, your job in general and your tasks, what would it look like?
- How often do you feel overwhelmed or stressed at work? In which situations?
- What does a good break look like for you (fresh air, screens...)?
- What are you doing right now that isn't actually getting you anywhere?
- You get a magic wand and have one wish related to work: What would you wish for (excluding a higher salary)?
- What do you currently need to improve?
- What was your biggest challenge yesterday (or last week etc.)?
Refreshing 1:1 Meeting Questions to ask Remote Employees
In addition to the more general areas above, there are some other topics that are particularly relevant for remote employees.
These include, for example, the topics of communication, tools or work-life balance. I also have some suggested questions for you.
🤖 Remote 1-to-1 questions about resources
- How satisfied are you with your home office setup?
- What moments are there when you feel lost or disorganized?
- Are there any technical or ergonomic challenges that bother you?
- Which tools or processes could make your work more efficient?
- Are there any processes that you find unnecessarily complicated?
- What team rituals or formats are you missing in our remote setup?
- Are there any team events or activities that you would like to try out?
- What resources or support do you need to work more productively?
🤩 Remote 1-to-1 questions about the subjective situation
- How well do you feel involved in team meetings and discussions?
- When was the last time you were able to make small talk with a colleague in peace?
- How well do you manage to keep your work and private life in balance?
- Do you currently feel overworked, underchallenged or just right?
- What gives you energy and what robs you of energy in your day-to-day work?
- How much do you feel part of the team? And the corporate culture?
- How well informed do you feel about company decisions?
- How do you experience the team spirit in our remote environment?
- What is a topic that has been on your mind for a while?
- What question should I ask you that I haven't asked before?
One-on-One meeting questions for Remote Employees on the topic of Soft Skills
As a supervisor, you are particularly dependent on your employees having the necessary soft skills to compensate for the lack of personal contact, especially when managing remotely.
Soft skills can also be reflected on and improved by asking your remote employees the right questions. Here are some examples.
🫣 1 to 1 questions on soft skills – Reflection
- When did you think about asking a question in our team (meeting) but didn't do it? What stopped you from doing so?
- What would you do differently if you had 100% confidence in yourself?
- How would your life change if you had 20% more self-confidence?
- When was the last time you had the feeling that you had made a mistake with something? What would be a constructive way of looking at this "mistake"?
- When was the last time you needed help at work? When did you actually ask colleagues for help? How did you ask and how did they respond?
- Reflect: What are good reasons to say "no" when someone asks you to do something?
- Where do you see your team: How are contributions distributed? Where do you see yourself? What role do you play, depending on the meeting?
- What efforts can you make in the near future to improve your relationships with colleagues? What improvements would have the most positive impact on your working life?
🤩 1 to 1 questions on soft skills – Developing further
- What advice would you give your younger self?
- What is the most important tip you have learned for "good communication" in your life?
- What have you learned recently? How do your current skills compare to the skills you had 6 or 12 months ago?
- Which skills would currently help you the most in your personal development journey?
- How can we improve the feedback loops between you and your stakeholders? (e.g. share progress more proactively, request feedback earlier, document feedback better)
- What topics are you able to coach others on? Who could benefit from your feedback?
- In which situations do you find it easy to speak up and address conflicts or problems in the team?
- Which person in the team would you like to know better?
9 Health survey questions as interactive remote 1:1 Meeting
After interviewing around 100 managers about their 1-to-1 meetings over the last few months, I've noticed a pattern.
Many supervisors occasionally incorporate small surveys into their one-on-one meetings. This means that they simply go through a few questions in a relaxed manner and ask their staff a) whether he or she agrees with a statement (for example from 1 to 7) and then b) why he or she answered in this way.
They expect the following from these micro-surveys in 1:1s:
- More variety and engagement in 1-to-1 conversations
- Taking on new perspectives
- Measurability of (soft) KPIs such as satisfaction over time
And of course, you can also use this idea particularly well in your one-to-one meetings with remote employees. I have put together five statements for you here that focus on reflecting important preconditions for every successful employee.
You can also download this template as a doc, but even better is the following: In our one-on-one meeting software, we have an integrated tool that visualizes the results over time as a metric and gives you tips with an AI assistant – feel free to take a look without logging in using the button below.
⁉️ Mood check (agreement from 1-7): Personal development
- "My work tasks usually progress very quickly, even if external feedback is necessary."
- "If I observe suboptimal behavior, I know how I can constructively draw my colleagues' attention to it."
- "I receive constructive Feedback both to my work and to my personal development."
- "I see an attractive career path ahead of me in the company." #Growth
- "In the last few weeks, I have often been able to use my Strengths at work."
This is what this survey looks like in Echometer:
Download template as printable PDF
Preview: PDF template
If you would like to download the above sample or template as a printable PDF, simply click on the image below. You can then edit or print the template as you wish.
Click image to open ⬇️
Download template as Word document
Preview: One-to-One Meeting Microsoft Word Template
If you would like to download the above sample template as a Word document, simply click on the image below. You can then edit or print the template as you wish.
Click image to open ⬇️
Download template as Google Docs
Preview: Google Docs one-to-one meeting template
If you want to edit the above sample template as Google Docs, simply click on the image below. You can then edit the template flexibly by copying it.
🚸 Attention: You must be logged in to Google to be able to copy (and thus edit) the template in the menu at the top left.
Click image to open ⬇️
Download template as Google Sheets
Preview: Google Sheets one-to-one meeting template
If you would like a template for weekly check-ins as an editable Google Sheet, simply click on the image below. You can then edit the template flexibly and print it out, for example.
🚸 Attention: You must be logged in to Google to be able to copy (and thus edit) the template in the menu at the top left.
Click image to open ⬇️
Download template as Excel or XLXS
Preview: Excel or XLSX template
If you would like to download the above template as a printable or editable XLSX, simply click on the image below. Then you can flexibly edit or print the template.
Click image to open ⬇️
As you can see, the statements address key preconditions of staff that feels happy.
Another prerequisite for healthy, productive employees is, of course, a good manager. Yes, I'm talking about you here.
And of course there are also statements that you can take with you to your remote one-on-one meeting. Specifically, here are 4 behavioral anchors that you can regularly reflect on in a weekly or monthly one-to-one meeting with your employee, for example.
⁉️ Mood check (agreement from 1-7): Leadership quality
- "I'm really happy with my team leader." #JobSatisfaction
- "My team leader regularly zooms out to see the higher-level Team goalsexplain the strategy and the vision."
- "My team leader questions things in a constructive way." #Feedback #Leadership
- "My team leader sets an example of what he expects from us as a team." #Leadership
This is what this survey looks like in Echometer:
Download template as printable PDF
Preview: PDF template
If you would like to download the above sample or template as a printable PDF, simply click on the image below. You can then edit or print the template as you wish.
Click image to open ⬇️
Download template as Word document
Preview: One-to-One Meeting Microsoft Word Template
If you would like to download the above sample template as a Word document, simply click on the image below. You can then edit or print the template as you wish.
Click image to open ⬇️
Download template as Google Docs
Preview: Google Docs one-to-one meeting template
If you want to edit the above sample template as Google Docs, simply click on the image below. You can then edit the template flexibly by copying it.
🚸 Attention: You must be logged in to Google to be able to copy (and thus edit) the template in the menu at the top left.
Click image to open ⬇️
Download template as Google Sheets
Preview: Google Sheets one-to-one meeting template
If you would like a template for weekly check-ins as an editable Google Sheet, simply click on the image below. You can then edit the template flexibly and print it out, for example.
🚸 Attention: You must be logged in to Google to be able to copy (and thus edit) the template in the menu at the top left.
Click image to open ⬇️
Download template as Excel or XLXS
Preview: Excel or XLSX template
If you would like to download the above template as a printable or editable XLSX, simply click on the image below. Then you can flexibly edit or print the template.
Click image to open ⬇️
And, can you hardly wait to ask these questions in your one-on-one meeting? Very good, I'm glad.
If you would like more creative input, I can recommend our corresponding article: 129 Good One-on-One Meeting Questions (by a Psychologist).
15 templates for one-on-one meetings (as Doc, PDF etc.)
You've probably already guessed it. Of course, there are many more questions and entire templates for one-on-one meetings that you will need sooner or later.
For example, I talk about questions and templates for your one-on-one meeting on salary, your conversation with a difficult employee or with a completely new employee.
We have additional templates for all of these use cases, which you can find in this article: 15 Free Proven One-on-one Meeting Templates to Edit & Print
Conclusion: Good Employee Questions in remote One-on-One Meetings
The success of one-on-one meetings is best measured in the long term: Is an employee consistently satisfied and productive, is he or she developing?
Routine sometimes creeps in, especially with many conversations, and the quality of one-on-one meetings decreases. That's exactly why I wrote this text: Hopefully you have been inspired by the various questions for good appraisal interviews with remote employees.
But there is one piece of wisdom you must not forget: There are countless questions you can ask – but the most important thing is that you tailor the interview to your employee.
Our AI meeting assistant for one-on-one meetings can also help you with this. If you want to find out more about it, take a look at our website: The best 1-on-1 meeting software.
Most Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters run in circles...
...fixing superficial symptoms. Time to use psychology to foster sustainable mindset change.
