So, it’s time for your weekly one-to-one check-in with your manager. You have a general idea of what to expect: it’s your responsibility to provide updates on current projects, give a general idea of performance and projections [1], and ultimately convey any timely news or information to them.

Check out the below sample encounter between an employee, James, and their manager, Lynn, followed by a breakdown with some additional easy-to-use expressions.

[Opening: Small Talk]

• James: Good morning, Lynn! How was your weekend? (a)
• Lynn: It was fantastic, although I did have to take Frankie to the vet.
• James: Ah, I’m sorry to hear that! You’ll have to keep me posted on how things go.
• Lynn: I absolutely will! What about you, though, how was your weekend?
• James: Fantastic! I visited the zoo, although its foot traffic seems to be slowing these days. I do wish more people would visit!

[Agenda Item 1: Discussing a project yielding great results]

• Lynn: Indeed! Speaking of decreasing traffic, though, should we chat on the impact of our second email ad campaign? (b)
• James: Sure! The iteration of the advertisement that we decided to experiment with for targeting younger audiences is really paying off (c). We’re getting around a seven percent conversion rate, which is nearly double our former rate.
• Lynn: Impressive. And all of that was a result of (d) the market research that we conducted back in March?
• James: Yep, we used that information to shape this new campaign.
• Lynn: I’m thinking we ought to allocate more time to (e) conducting market research, then.
• James: Absolutely. In addition, I wanted to let you know that progress on the Banana Project has come to a halt [2] pending the current legal situation.

[Agenda Item 2: Discussing a project whose performance hasn’t met expectations]

• Lynn: Not a surprise, but definitely unfortunate. How was the progress on the Banana Project going prior to the situation with legal?
• James: Not great, unfortunately. Sales of the product were significantly lower than our predictions, especially due to the release of the Cantaloupe 4 by our competitor, which undercut our pricing and actually made it to the US market about a week prior to our release.
• Lynn: Didn’t we expect Cantaloupe 4’s release, though?
• James: Yes—but we didn’t anticipate the timing as well as the competitive pricing.
• Lynn: I see. Keep a close eye on the progress of the project with legal for me, and we can touch base (f) about this next week.
• James: Sounds good.
• Lynn: I imagine the legal situation we’re dealing with might impact other teams, and probably have some long standing implications for future projects.

[Closing]

• Lynn: Anything else we ought to check-in on?
• James: Nothing at the moment. That’s all from my side.
• Lynn: Awesome. I have to run to another chat with Charles, but it’s been great catching-up, James (g).

Below, find a breakdown of the highlighted key expressions frequently used in one-to-on meetings.

(a) It’s always good to lead into conversations with a little bit of casual chatting, both to establish rapport and to make everyone comfortable.

Expressions to start off small talk might look like:

• “How was your weekend?”
• “How’s it going?”
• “How’s the weather?”

For more options on questions, check out our piece titled “Practice Office Small Talk With Your Tutor”

If you’re opting to skip the small talk, you might say:

• “Should we jump right in, since we have a lot to cover today?”
• “I’m going to go ahead and get started by sharing a brief update on how the Banana project has been going for the past 2 months.”

(b) After opening with small talk, Lynn segues the conversation into the topic at hand, smoothly.

Expressions to help transition you from one topic to another:

• “On the topic of delays, what do you think is the critical cause of this one?”
• “Speaking of the Horizon project’s monthly performance, did you ever get a chance to compare it to Q3 of last year’s?”
• “Can I support you with any of your ongoing projects?”
• “Have you run into any roadblocks as of late?”

(c) Expressions to describe good investments or positive performance of a campaign might look like:

• “The investments we made in market research are finally paying dividends.”
• “We observed obvious improvements in performance following these changes…”

(d) Lynn will sometimes summarize James’s statement to ensure that she is fully comprehending James’s message. These statements help to ensure that all parties are on the same page.

Example expressions to summarize or recap might look like:

• “All of that was a result ofthe market research that we conducted back in March?”
• “So, what I hear you saying is it’s necessary to invest more of our budget to market research prior to implementing a CRM strategy.”
• “As you’ve said, I agree that more time needs to be allocated on the XYZ project.”

(e) Expressions to suggest changes in resource allocation might look like:

• “We ought to allocate resources to boost our sales… ”
• “We should devote a separate team to managing the logistics of ABC project, since the workload seems overwhelming at present.”

(f) If a project ends up not meeting expectations or runs into bumps along the road, it can be important to debrief and monitor a product’s progress.

Expressions to follow up on the progress of a project may look like:

• “I’ll be keeping a close eye on this and will keep you in the loop.”
• “Certainly. We can regularly touch base about the unexpected situation’s ramifications every week until it resolves.”

(g) It’s always important to wrap up these conversations with a nice send-off.

Expressions to signal the conclusion of a conversation might include:

• “Thanks so much for taking this time to meet with me! Have a lovely rest of the week.”
• “Always great catching up. Let me know if anything else comes up during the workday.”

If you’re planning to have a meeting with your manager on Zoom, check out our guide titled: ‘Useful English Expressions for Zoom Work Meetings.’