One-to-One Meetings: 3 Red Flags Managers Misinterpret (And What They Really Mean)

Most one-to-one meetings fall short not because the questions are wrong, but because the culture around them isn’t safe enough to support honest answers. When team members respond with “everything’s fine,” “I don’t know,” or surface-level suggestions, most leaders treat those as red flags about the employee. But more often, they are red flags about the environment.

Employees avoid hard conversations for a reason. They’ve learned that speaking candidly can lead to backlash, criticism, or subtle punishment. So instead of sharing what they see, they protect themselves. They offer the safest answer possible. And while the meeting looks calm on the surface, the real issues stay buried, costing the organization time, money, and trust.

In this video, I walk through common “red flag answers” circulating on social media and explain why these aren’t signs of weak employees, but signs of a workplace where psychological safety has eroded. One-to-ones should be a place where people feel safe enough to tell the truth, offer feedback, and ask for the support they need. When that safety is missing, everything else in the engagement cycle breaks down.

If you want one-to-ones that actually deepen trust, strengthen relationships, and improve engagement, you need more than the right questions. You need the right foundation.

If you want to build that foundation in a practical and sustainable way, explore my Employee Engagement Toolkit. It includes assessments, tools, and daily practices to help you create a culture where people feel supported, safe, and encouraged to speak up.
It’s a simple, heart-centered approach to building engagement that lasts.