Even during the best of times, many managers don’t actually enjoy conducting one-to-ones. They are often the first thing to go when there are diary pressures, and when they do take place they can be cursory and performance-focused.

During a pandemic the task of making these what they should be is even harder. Of course you should absolutely stay in the loop on what all the important projects and tasks are for individual members of your team, especially if people are working remotely. But a one-to-one is not the place to do this.

In my last column I suggested that we are all, to a greater or lesser extent, different people than we were before the pandemic. We have had time for reflection and many of us have used this time to recalibrate how we think about our working lives.

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