Now that we've discussed why you should have a one-on-one, as well as great topics to focus on, we'll turn to other aspects of 1:1s. One of the most often asked questions is, how long should my 1:1s be?
The answer to this is that it depends. How many topics do you have to discuss with your manager? How much time do the two of you have? How many opens does your manager typically bring to the meeting? How much do you want to invest in the career? How often does your 1:1 get canceled due to vacations, one person being out of office, or simply business emergencies? There's no right or wrong answers and each person will have their own thoughts on these things.
Personally, I like to err on the side of too much time rather than too little. This gives you room to expand and do deep dives into topics when needed, while ensuring that you don't always have to feel as if the conversation is rushed. And if you happen to get through all topics before the scheduled end of the meeting, you can simply end the meeting early and get time back. On the other hand if the one-on-one is regularly scheduled for the shorter side of things, it's much harder to try and go over time or expand the meeting ad-hoc as there can often be other meetings or commitments boxing in your 1:1.
There's no hard and fast rule for a standard 1:1 timeframe, but for folks who are interested in growth, expanding their careers or simply doing an excellent job at what they do, 60 minutes is a great start. You might sigh, "Wow, what am I going to talk about for a whole hour?" At first this might seem like a really long period of time, but once you make it through a few, you'll quickly see that time passes quickly and sometimes it feels too short. Also don't dismiss that at least the very first few minutes of a one-on-one, occasionally even up to half of the time, could be used for simply catching up on each other's personal lives, finding out about your families, hobbies, etc. These are important conversations in order to build a relationship, rapport and understanding between an individual and their manager.
Of course how long your regular one-on-one runs will be dictated by its frequency. If you're meeting weekly with your manager, you might only schedule 30 minutes a week, but if you're meeting monthly, then you're likely to need 60 minutes. And don't get tied up in having your 1:1s always fit within a set span of time. For example maybe they're usually 60 minutes, but once a quarter you like to go into a detailed exploration of your career. Maybe these career sessions end up being 90 minutes instead so that you can cover what you normally cover and leave time for the career discussion. Or alternatively, you could leave the time at 60 but agree that once a quarter you'll shorten your normal topics to free up time for the career discussion.
And lastly, remember that your 1:1s are your time and you can choose how you want to handle them, including how much time to allot them. Don't take the time for granted but also make sure that you have the time to discuss topics that are important to you and the business. In due course you'll get a feel for how quickly you and your manager can get through various topics and you can readjust your 1:1 time accordingly.