1-1 topics for managers who don't know what to talk about with their teams

A couple weeks ago I wrote about 1-1s. I got a lot of messages and comments about my belief that managers should run 1-1s on a weekly basis. The detractors said “It’s micromanagement”, “It’s too frequent”, “What do you even speak on a weekly basis?”

For the managers who don’t believe you’ll have “topics”, here are some of the things I discussed with my team “about last week”, in the last 6 months:

- Giving feedback on specific situations
- Aligning thought process of an in-progress initiative
- Asking feedback about an upcoming initiative
- Talking about a recent decision (mine or them)
- Asking how they’re feeling and how can you help
- Proposing a new challenge and offering context
- Raising the quality bar by providing comparatives
- Clearing expectations on a management decision
- Giving active coaching to become better managers or individual contributors
- Discussing principles, where they might/not have been applied
- Asking where I could unblock/help, so an initiative can be launched/improved
- Explaining a high-level decision, strategy or clarifying area’s mission

Now I ask you: wouldn’t you benefit from your own manager discussing these would you? Wouldn’t they unlock many more thoughtful conversations? Do any of these look like micromanagement?