Impress Your Boss with This One-on-One Template

I’ve had the luxury of working for some exceptional leaders in my career. They’re the ones who empower you to make decisions, help you make the right calls when you’re stuck, and clear blockers so you can work efficiently.

As a leader myself, I can tell you that supporting a team effectively in those ways requires context - and a lot of it. You need context on multiple different topics at varying levels of detail.

Being structured, strategic, and consistent in how you share information with your boss is an effective way to provide them with the relevant context they need. It helps them help you!

Here are a few tips and a 1:1 template that is sure to impress your boss!

Tips

1. Be strategic – You have limited face time with your boss. What are the most important topics that require synchronous discussion, maybe for input or feedback? What are the topics you need to share but are more of an “FYI, no action needed”? By splitting these up you can use the limited time you have to talk about what’s important, while still sharing other important context.

2. Be structured – Use a structure that offers a thorough view of your portfolio, scope of work, or domain of ownership. I suggest using the 3P framework discussed below but the goal is to lay out the information in a way that lets your leader get a birds eye view AND drill down into more detail where they have questions.

   1. Use the 3P’s to help you structure your thinking! What do you need to share within the following areas:

      1. Product: anything relating to the product itself is fair game here. Scope decisions, roadmap changes, metrics updates would all go here.

      2. Process: anything relating to how work gets executed. This could include information about what’s working vs not working or where processes can be improved - including collaboration with stakeholders or changes in

      3. People:

         1. If you’re an individual contributor, this section is an opportunity to share how cross-functional collaboration is going with your core team and broader set of stakeholders.

         2. If you have people leader responsibilities, this section is also an opportunity to share how individuals on your team are performing.

3. Be consistent – Find a format that works for you both and use it over and over. Consistency is the best way to set and manage expectations - the more you share information within a consistent structure, the easier it is for your leader to help spot gaps and ask better questions.

One-on-One Template

Downloads & FYI’s:

1. Include here those important bits that don’t require discussion but need to be shared. Be judicious and ask yourself - is there an action my leader needs to take as a result of this, or is it just context sharing? If the latter, put it here.

Discuss:

1. Include here the big items that require active face-to-face discussion with your leader. Don’t forget to prioritize them so if you run out of time you’ve started with what’s most important!

Next steps:

1. Document any next steps that come out of your discussion - these could be for you or your boss!

When preparing, use the 3Ps framework to help you structure your thinking as you divide it up between Downloads & FYI’s vs items to Discuss!