How to make effective use of 1 on 1s with E4s?

• Come in with an agenda, and perhaps share it with each mentee ahead of time.
• I'd view the meeting as a mechanism for you to get feedback, rather than something for you to share updates. Leave time to ask for their feedback, and what they're excited/concerned about.

As Rahul said above, coming up with an agenda and not covering status updates is a good way to make these teams more effective quickly. Just make sure to let them know that ahead of time in case they are confused by the sudden switch in topics.

In general, I would try to figure out what do you want out of these meetings? It sounds like you would like to use these meetings to prioritize/align work for these folks? Maybe some of it is career growth? Once you have the goals of the meetings sorted out, the agenda becomes rather easy to come up with.

I would also ask them what they find useful. Different people need to be supported differently. Some folks like to bounce off ideas, others want more guidance, others just want to focus on career growth. You'll need to modulate what you do with each teammate yourself.

It's great that you are reflecting on 1:1s and trying to make them more effective for both of you. Just that exercise will pay off.