Most managers get one-on-ones wrong with their Latin American team members.
They treat them like status updates.
Or worse, like interrogations.
Let me show you how the best managers run these meetings.
How Often Should You Meet
Weekly works best for full-time team members.
30 minutes every week, or 45 minutes every two weeks.
For contractors or part-time workers, aim for 30 minutes every one to two weeks depending on workload.
Keep that recurring slot on the calendar even if you occasionally shorten or skip it.
Having it there signals availability. Support. Not micromanagement.
Less frequent meetings risk missing problems until they’re big. Or your team member disengages and you don’t notice until it’s too late.
The Structure That Actually Works
Most managers wing it.
Don’t.
You need a loose structure, flexible enough to feel conversational, rigid enough to make progress.
Start Human
Light personal check-in for 5-10 minutes.
“How’s your week going, work and outside work?”
Acknowledge what’s happening locally. A festival. A national holiday. Heavy rains.
Ask an open question: “What went well this week?”
This isn’t fluff. This is foundation.
Work Updates and Blockers
Now you can talk business for 10-15 minutes.
“What are your top 2-3 priorities right now?”
“What’s blocking you that I can help remove?”
Let them drive here. This is their time to surface issues, not your time to grill them on status.
If you need a status update, you can get that async through your team management system. Don’t waste the one-on-one on it.
Feedback Both Ways
Give specific positives for 5-10 minutes. One or two things they did really well.
Then one focused area for improvement, delivered kindly but clearly.
Latin American professionals respond well to feedback that starts from strengths, shows empathy, and focuses on behaviors rather than personal traits.
Don’t say: “You’re disorganized.”
Say: “I noticed the last two deliverables came in without clear naming conventions. Can we set up a simple system together?”
Then flip it.
Ask for feedback: “What can I do differently to support you better?”
Many won’t answer the first time. Keep asking. Make it safe.
Career and Growth
This is huge in cultures that value long-term relationships.
“What skills would you like to develop?”
“What projects would give you more exposure to areas you want to grow in?”
You’re not just managing tasks, you’re investing in a person.
That matters more in LATAM than you might think.
Wrap With Action Items
Review decisions together for 3-5 minutes.
List commitments, yours and theirs.
Confirm deadlines.
This part gets documented so nothing falls through the cracks.
Let Them Set the Agenda
Here’s a principle that changes everything: it’s their meeting, not yours.
Come with prompts and structure, but let your team member set the topics.
Tell them explicitly: “This is your meeting. Bring your wins, your issues, your questions, your career goals. Send me a short list the day before so I can prepare.”
This shifts the dynamic from you interrogating them to you partnering with them.
Big difference.
Tools for Capturing Everything Without Killing the Vibe
You need notes from these meetings.
But taking notes while talking ruins the flow.
AI Note Takers
Tools like Fireflies or Otter can automatically record, transcribe, and summarize your one-on-ones.
Ask permission first: “I’d like to use an AI note-taker so we both have a record, cool with you?”
Configure it to auto-tag action items. Some can even push tasks directly into your project management tools.
Fireflies tends to give richer summaries and speaker analytics. Otter is strong on real-time transcription.
Both beat frantically typing while trying to have a real conversation.
Quick Human Summary
Even with AI, write a short human summary at the end.
3-6 bullets:
- Key topics discussed
- Decisions made
- 2-3 action items with owners and dates
Store it in a shared doc. Notion, Confluence, Google Doc, doesn’t matter. Just somewhere you both can reference later.
Time Zones and Scheduling
LATAM time zones, mostly GMT-3 to GMT-5, give you decent overlap with US hours. Great overlap, really.
UK gets decent overlap too. Australia is trickier.
Schedule one-on-ones during mutually reasonable daytime hours. Don’t make your team member in Argentina take a call at 8 PM their time just because it’s convenient for you.
Use Google Calendar’s world clock or World Time Buddy.
Simple rule: no one-on-ones before 9 AM or after 6 PM in either person’s local time.
For Australian managers hiring in LATAM, cluster your one-on-ones on specific overlap days, early AU morning equals LATAM afternoon. Don’t scatter them across the week, that disrupts both of you constantly.
How to Give Feedback Across Cultures
Be clear and direct, but not harsh.
Start from strengths. Show empathy. Focus on behaviors and next steps, not personal traits.
Many Latin American professionals may avoid confrontation in the moment, especially with authority figures. They might nod along even if they disagree.
That’s why you need to explicitly invite disagreement: “If you don’t agree with my take on this, please tell me. I won’t be upset, I want your honest perspective.”
Here’s a framework that works:
- Start with appreciation: specific recent positive example
- Describe the issue factually and its impact
- Ask their perspective first, “Help me understand what happened from your side”
- Co-create an improvement plan together with a timeline
This respects hierarchy while still addressing issues clearly.
When You Need to Address Performance Issues
One-on-ones are for support and periodic feedback, not surprise performance ambushes.
If there’s a serious issue, signal it ahead of time.
Send a message: “In our next one-on-one, I want to talk about X challenge and how we can address it together.”
This gives them time to prepare emotionally and factually.
Use video if at all possible. Non-verbal cues matter even more when you’re discussing something sensitive across cultures.
Focus on specifics, impact, and next steps. Then schedule a follow-up one-on-one to review progress.
Don’t drop a bomb and then ghost for two weeks.
The Bottom Line
One-on-ones with your Latin American team members aren’t just calendar blocks.
They’re the relationship.
Make them frequent. Make them human. Give them structure.
Respect cultural nuances around hierarchy and relationship-building.
Use AI tools to capture the details so you can focus on the conversation.
And let your team member drive the agenda, it’s their time, not yours.
Do this right and you won’t just have remote workers who complete tasks.
You’ll have engaged team members who trust you, speak up when something’s wrong, and stick around for the long haul.
That’s worth 30 minutes a week.
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