1-1 meeting template generator
Answer two questions and get a template you can paste into Notion, a doc, or whatever you keep notes in. No signup, nothing stored, free.
The reasoning behind these four sections is in the 1-1 template I actually use every week. If the meetings themselves are the problem rather than the notes, start with how to run one on one meetings.
The default template, section by section
This is what the generator produces for a regular report you meet weekly. Everything else it builds is a variation on these four sections. Copy it straight from here if you would rather not answer the two questions.
About them
- How they want to be worked with, and what they have asked me for before
- What they are proud of, in their words
- What they want next, and roughly when
- Personal context worth remembering, only what they offered
This is the part you cannot rebuild from a calendar. It holds the things people tell you once and expect you to still know a year later, the reason they took the job, the thing they are quietly proud of, the constraint at home that shapes their week. What usually goes wrong is that managers write it in the first month and never touch it again, so the section slowly describes a person who no longer exists.
Open threads
- Career topics we keep returning to
- Frustrations that have come up more than once
- Team dynamics they have mentioned
- Anything I said I would think about
Some topics take five conversations. A promotion case, a strained relationship with another team, a growing suspicion that the work has gone boring. Threads live here so you can pick one up deliberately instead of waiting for the person to raise it a third time. The common failure is turning this into a wish list you never revisit, which is why every thread should either move or get closed out loud.
Open loops
- Promised by me, with a date: what, and by when
- Waiting on them, with a date
- Waiting on someone else, and who is chasing it
- Carried over from the last week, still open
Anything either of you is waiting on, with a date next to it. This is the section that earns the most trust, because it is the one people notice. When you come back three weeks later with the thing you promised, they stop assuming their requests disappear. Loops go wrong when they are written without a date, since undated items quietly become permanent.
Log
- Date
- What they actually talked about, not what I planned to ask
- Anything that changed since last time, mood included
- One thing to bring back next time
Three or four lines after each meeting, dated. Not minutes, and not a status report. What they actually talked about, what changed, one thing to bring back. This is the section people skip when the week is busy, and it is also the only one that makes the other three worth keeping. Write it in the last two minutes of the meeting rather than promising yourself you will do it after lunch.
What to leave out
Three things are missing from this template on purpose.
No shared agenda field
Shared agendas get filled in five minutes before the meeting, usually with whatever is on the person's screen at the time. The meeting then becomes a status update, and the things that needed a longer run at it never make the list.
No separate action items table
Two lists means neither gets maintained. Open loops already hold everything with a date next to it, and keeping a second table in sync is work that pays nobody back.
No mood rating
A number tells you less than three honest lines. A four out of five in March and a four out of five in June look identical, while two sentences about what changed are still readable a year later.
Common questions about the template
- How long should a 1-1 be?
- Thirty minutes covers most weeks, and it is short enough that you will actually keep it. Give a new hire or a hard conversation forty five. If you are regularly finishing in ten minutes, the cadence is probably too tight rather than the meeting too long.
- Should the report see my notes?
- Share the open loops and the agreed next steps, keep your own read of the situation private. A shared doc that holds your unfinished thinking makes people manage the doc instead of talking to you. Anything you would not say out loud in the meeting does not belong in a page they can open.
- What if we have nothing to talk about?
- Open the previous log entry and read the last three lines back. There is almost always a thread you left hanging. A quiet 1-1 is also a fine outcome, so end early rather than filling the time with a status update.
- How do I keep this up when the week gets busy?
- Write three lines in the last two minutes of the meeting, not later in the day. The template survives busy weeks because the only required habit is dated notes. When you miss a week, write one line about why and carry the open loops forward.
A template works until the week gets loud
LeaderCues keeps these same four sections filled in for you, remembers the open loops, and hands you a short prep before the next 1-1. Free plan, no time limit.
No credit card. Free AI credits included.