TLDR: The Mochary Method is a structured 1-on-1 framework used by some of the best-run startups in tech. Its core insight is that management meetings should be asynchronous-first and agenda-driven, not conversational. Here is the template, why it works, and how AI can run the solo version of it with you in five minutes.
Best For: Founders running their first team, sales managers trying to make their 1-on-1s less like status updates and more like actual coaching, and anyone who has read about the Mochary Method and wants to see what the template actually looks like in practice.
What is the Mochary Method
Matt Mochary is an executive coach who has worked with the CEOs of companies including Coinbase, OpenAI, Reddit, and Brex. His approach to management is documented in The Great CEO Within, which he has made available free online, and is widely used by venture-backed startup teams.
The method's core argument is that most management time is wasted on reactive, unstructured meetings, and that people perform better when they feel psychologically safe and emotionally clear. The manager's job, in Mochary's view, is to remove blockers, not to direct activity.
The 1-on-1 format is the most widely adopted piece of the method. It is structured enough to surface real problems without becoming bureaucratic.
Why traditional 1-on-1s fail
Most 1-on-1s are unstructured status updates. The manager asks "how are things going?" The direct report gives a summary of recent activities. The manager responds with questions or suggestions. Thirty minutes pass. Nothing changes.
Research from Gallup on employee engagement found that the quality of the manager-employee relationship is one of the strongest predictors of engagement and performance. But relationship quality does not improve through status reporting. It improves through conversations where both parties are honest about what is not working, which requires a structured format that makes it safe to raise problems.
The Mochary Method 1-on-1 forces this by requiring both parties to prepare in writing before the meeting. By the time the conversation starts, the real issues are already on the page.
The template structure
The Mochary 1-on-1 document lives in a shared doc that both parties can access before the meeting. Each 1-on-1 follows this format:
Top of mind. Each person writes one to three things they are thinking about most this week. This is not a to-do list. It is whatever is occupying the most mental space, which is often not the official agenda item but the thing that is quietly taking up energy.
What's working. A brief list of things going well. This is not filler. Naming what is working builds the rep's confidence in their own judgment and creates shared evidence about what to replicate. Managers who skip this section consistently are implicitly communicating that nothing is worth acknowledging.
What's not working. The most important section. A list of real problems, blockers, and frustrations, written candidly before the meeting. The written format matters here because it reduces the social pressure to minimize problems that exists in live conversation. A person who would not say "my manager is creating chaos in my accounts" will sometimes write it.
Feelings and energy check. A brief self-assessment: on a scale of 1 to 10, how is your energy and how are you feeling about your work right now? This is the section most managers skip and Mochary considers essential. Research from Harvard Business School's Amy Edmondson on psychological safety found that teams where people feel safe to be honest about their emotional state make better decisions and surface problems earlier than teams where emotional disclosure is treated as unprofessional.
Goals review. A brief status check on the rep's current goals: on track, off track, or blocked. The written format keeps this from turning into a narrative explanation of why things are hard and keeps it anchored to the actual number.
Action items from last week. What was agreed in the last 1-on-1, and what actually happened. The accountability loop is what converts a 1-on-1 from a pleasant conversation into a mechanism for change.
How to run it asynchronously
Mochary's preferred format is fully asynchronous: both parties complete their sections of the document before a scheduled meeting or in place of one. The meeting becomes a conversation about the most important items rather than a read-through of the doc.
This works especially well for remote teams where synchronous time is expensive and calendar overhead is high. The document captures the substantive content and the live conversation focuses on what the document raises.
Running the Mochary Method with AI
The framework is useful as a solo practice, not just as a manager-to-report format. A founder with no direct manager can use the same template as a personal check-in, with AI playing the role of the questioning party.
The AI version of the Mochary 1-on-1 runs like this: you fill out your sections of the document, then bring it to an AI session and ask it to run the 1-on-1 with you. The AI reads your "what's not working" section and asks the follow-up questions a good manager would ask: why is this happening, what have you already tried, what would you need to believe to solve it?
This is different from asking an AI "what should I do about this problem." The Mochary format keeps the responsibility for the answer with you while using the AI to create the friction that surfaces better thinking. Research from MIT Sloan on structured decision-making found that leaders who use a structured external challenge process, even an asynchronous one, produce better decisions than those who rely on internal reflection alone.
For sales managers specifically, running the AI version of the Mochary 1-on-1 before the live version with each rep primes better questions. You arrive already knowing what you want to understand about each person's situation rather than going in unprepared.
The template you can use today
Here is a simplified version you can copy into a shared doc:
[Name] 1-on-1 | [Date]
Top of mind this week:
- [Manager writes 1-3 things]
- [Rep writes 1-3 things]
What's working:
- [Rep writes]
What's not working:
- [Rep writes honestly]
Feelings and energy (1-10):
- Energy: [Rep rates]
- Feeling about work: [Rep rates]
- Optional note: [Rep writes]
Goals review:
- Goal 1: [on track / off track / blocked]
- Goal 2: [on track / off track / blocked]
Action items from last meeting:
- [Action] - [Completed / In progress / Not done]
Action items this meeting:
- [Action] - [Owner] - [Due date]
The value of this format is not the format itself. It is the discipline of completing it honestly before the conversation starts. A 1-on-1 where both parties have pre-committed their real thinking in writing is structurally different from one that starts cold.