How Often Should You Hold 1:1 Meetings?

One of the most common questions new managers ask is how often they should hold 1:1 meetings. The answer depends on a few factors, but the short version is: weekly for most teams, biweekly if you have a strong reason, and monthly is almost never enough.

Here is the reasoning behind each cadence and how to decide what fits your situation.

Weekly: The Default for Most Teams

Weekly 1:1s are the gold standard for a reason. Seven days is short enough that problems get surfaced before they grow, feedback stays timely, and your direct report knows they always have a conversation with you coming soon.

Weekly works best when:

• You manage people who are still ramping up or are early in their careers
• The work changes quickly and priorities shift week to week
• You are building trust with a new team or new direct report
• You want to establish a strong feedback habit

A weekly 30-minute 1:1 costs you 26 hours per year per direct report. That is a small investment for the amount of trust, alignment, and problem-solving it produces. If you manage six people, that is about three hours a week dedicated to your most important job: supporting the people who do the work.

Biweekly: When It Can Work

Biweekly 1:1s make sense in specific situations:

• Your direct report is experienced, autonomous, and consistently performing well
• The work is stable and does not change dramatically from week to week
• You have strong async communication habits (regular Slack check-ins, shared docs, quick ad-hoc calls when needed)
• Your direct report has explicitly told you they prefer biweekly

The risk with biweekly is that 14 days is a long time for a small issue to go unaddressed. Something that would have been a five-minute conversation on Monday becomes a bigger problem by the time you meet two weeks later. If you go biweekly, make sure there is a clear channel for raising urgent items between meetings.

Monthly: Almost Never Enough

Monthly 1:1s are rarely the right choice. Thirty days between conversations creates too much distance. Feedback loses its impact. Small frustrations pile up. Your direct report starts solving problems on their own that you should have been involved in, or worse, they stop raising issues at all because the meeting feels too infrequent to bother.

The only scenario where monthly might work is if you are managing a senior leader who has their own team and your relationship is more about strategic alignment than day-to-day support. Even then, most effective executive relationships run on a biweekly cadence.

How to Know If Your Cadence Is Wrong

A few signals that you should meet more frequently:

• Surprises in performance reviews. If issues come up in reviews that were never discussed in 1:1s, you are not meeting often enough.
• Your direct report seems disengaged. Less communication, less initiative, shorter responses. These can indicate they feel disconnected from you.
• Problems escalate quickly. Small conflicts or misunderstandings that could have been caught early are turning into bigger situations.

Signals that you might be meeting too often:

• Meetings regularly end early with nothing left to discuss (and your direct report is performing well, not just quiet).
• Conversations feel forced. You are both struggling to fill the time.
• Your direct report suggests spacing them out. Listen to this. Some experienced people genuinely work better with less meeting overhead.

The Rules That Apply Regardless of Cadence

1. Never cancel without rescheduling. A canceled 1:1 tells your direct report that something else is more important than them. Reschedule instead.
2. Protect the time. Do not let 1:1s be the first meeting you drop when your calendar gets tight. They are the last meeting you should sacrifice.
3. Let the cadence flex. During high-stress periods like launches, reorgs, or personal challenges, increase the frequency temporarily. When things stabilize, return to your normal cadence.
4. Ask your direct report what they prefer. The best cadence is the one that works for both of you. Check in on this every few months.

The right frequency matters less than the commitment to show up consistently. A biweekly 1:1 that happens every single time is better than a weekly one that gets canceled half the time. Pick a cadence, protect it, and adjust as needed.