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Federal Judicial Center guest: regular, employee-focused one-on-ones boost engagement and cut turnover
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Summary
In an episode of the FJC podcast In Session: Leading the Judiciary, Steven Rogelberg, a UNC Charlotte professor and author of Glad We Met, urged managers — including judiciary leaders — to run regular, employee-driven one-on-one meetings (weekly or every other week) and to "listen more than you talk."
In a Federal Judicial Center podcast episode of In Session: Leading the Judiciary, Laurie Murphy interviewed Steven Rogelberg, a UNC Charlotte chancellor’s professor and author of Glad We Met, about why and how managers should hold employee-focused one-on-one meetings.
Rogelberg said a one-on-one should be an intentional, manager-facilitated meeting whose agenda belongs to the employee. "It is for their employees to truly be seen," he said, adding that managers should not use the time primarily for status updates.
The practice, Rogelberg said, delivers measurable organizational benefits. Citing published research and large-scale survey work, he said managers who run regular employee-centered one-on-ones report higher engagement, greater productivity and reduced turnover. "We have data from Gallup following, I think, 1,000,000 managers that showed a threefold increase in employee engagement," Rogelberg said.
He offered practical guidance for implementation: introduce the practice as values-based, ask employees to prepare both short- and long-term topics, and consider rotating broad core questions (for example, "What are the best things going on for you right now?" and "What are your biggest challenges?"). Rogelberg recommended weekly or every-other-week cadences and observed that even a focused 25-minute meeting can be effective: "Quality of minutes matters more than the number of minutes."
During meetings, managers should prioritize active listening and ask clarifying questions rather than solving problems uninvited. "Listen more than you talk," Rogelberg advised when asked to name a single change that would make one-on-ones more successful.
He warned against canceling meetings, saying that cancelations send a signal that employees are not a priority; if a meeting must be moved, he recommended moving it earlier rather than postponing it. For scheduling, he suggested managers offer windows of availability and let employees choose times within those windows and to cluster meetings with 15-minute breaks to protect focus.
To judge whether one-on-ones are working, Rogelberg recommended centering the employee’s perception — did they feel heard and seen — and using periodic anonymous feedback tools such as start/stop/continue surveys.
Rogelberg illustrated adoption at scale with an example of a large insurance organization that trained managers, tied the practice to senior-level values and reported lower turnover and higher engagement. He also noted that royalties from his book are being donated to the American Cancer Society and pointed listeners to stephenrogelberg.com for resources and tools.
The episode closes with distribution and production information: the podcast is available via Apple, Spotify, YouTube and fjc.gov and credits the production team.
