Make feedback flow in both directions
Give timely, specific feedback — and ask for it on your own management.
Why it works
The recurring, trusted setting is ideal for feedback because it’s frequent enough to be timely and private enough to be candid. Crucially, asking for feedback on yourself models that candor is safe and reciprocal, lowering the power gradient so the report believes your invitation to be honest is real.
How to do it
- Deliver feedback specifically and close to the event, not saved up for review season.
- Ask explicitly what you could do better as their manager — and act on something you hear.
- Receive their feedback without defensiveness, so they’ll risk it again.
Evidence
Timely, specific feedback improves performance in goal-setting research; seeking feedback and responding non-defensively builds the psychological safety that makes upward feedback possible. (observational)
Feedback can backfire when it threatens the self or is purely evaluative; specific, behavior-focused, frequent feedback is the safer form.
Sources
- Locke & Latham, goal-setting and feedback; Edmondson on leader behavior and psychological safety
Common mistake
Only ever giving feedback downward and never asking for it — which keeps the gradient steep and your own blind spots invisible.
Practice this with IX Coach
7 days free, then $40/month (~$1.30/day).
More practices for Effective One-on-Ones, Made Practical
- Make it recurring and genuinely protected
A standing slot you almost never cancel beats a longer meeting held only when there’s a "reason."
- Let the report own the agenda
It’s their meeting — they bring what matters to them, and you adapt to it.
- Listen far more than you talk
Aim to talk a fraction of the time; your silence is what makes space for the real issues.
- Use the time to remove blockers
Ask what’s in their way and then actually clear it — this is your highest-leverage move.
- Spend real time on growth, not just tasks
Regularly leave the weeds and talk about career, skills, and where they’re headed.