Airbnb CEO avoids one-on-one conversations. Tips on how to make them effective.

• Nvidia’s Brian Chesky and Jensen Huang avoid one-on-one meetings with subordinates.
• “You become like her therapist,” Chesky told Fortune.
• But one person who studies meetings said making an employee feel heard can have “amazing” results.

Meetings are the primary way Airbnb’s Brian Chesky gets his work done. Still, he says the one-on-one format with a direct report is fundamentally flawed.

“Almost no great CEO in history has ever done this,” the Airbnb boss said in a recent interview.

Because when an employee “owns the agenda,” they bring up topics that managers don’t want to discuss — and “you become like their therapist,” Chesky said. Topics may also come up that would benefit others in the company, but are instead isolated in one-on-one conversations.

Of course, there are certain times when a one-on-one conversation makes sense, Chesky said in an interview with Fortune – such as when an employee is having a difficult time personally and needs to confide in a boss privately.

But in general, he said, they just aren’t productive on a regular basis.

Chesky is not alone. Although he has many direct reports, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also prefers to avoid one-on-one meetings.

“I don’t really think there’s any information that I process that somehow only one or two people should hear about,” Huang said at Stripe Sessions earlier this year.

Making employees feel heard can have “amazing” results

While some executives are cracking down, one expert previously told Business Insider that one-on-one meetings, when done correctly, can increase employee engagement, productivity and overall satisfaction.

“The results of effective one-on-one meetings are astonishing,” said Steven G. Rogelberg, an organizational psychologist who is also a professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and author of “Glad We Met: The Art and Science of 1:1 Meetings.” “

Rogelberg previously told BI that one-on-one meetings are more successful when the employee leads the conversation. He said managers should devote about 25 minutes a week to focusing on employees’ personal needs as well as the practical aspects of the job.

Many managers avoid this first component, Rogelberg said, because it requires more effort.

But at the same time, employees have to fulfill their duty of care, he said – and was willing to talk in more than half of the cases. Fruitful topics include: challenges, how a manager can better support an employee, and what is going well and what could be improved.

“Nitpicking Sessions”

Chesky isn’t the only boss who survives the one-on-one interview. In May, Aditya Agarwal, a former Facebook director, wrote in a post

“They condition people to randomly check their happiness and constantly criticize things that are not ideal. In practice, 1:1 discussions lead to quibbles,” Agarwal wrote in a thread.

Agarwal added that bosses should provide feedback every three to six months, rather than weekly. This approach, he said, could prompt managers to identify patterns and provide “holistic” guidance rather than weekly spot checks.