"Are there any obstacles I can remove for you?" is a poor first question. If you (as a manager) haven't spent time figuring that out before the meeting, then y

"Are there any obstacles I can remove for you?" is a poor first question. If you (as a manager) haven't spent time figuring that out before the meeting, then you haven't done your share of the work. You'll be wasting your staff's time and energy in awkward 1-1 meetings. "How is it going with [obstacle that has already been identified]?" is what I would expect a vaguely competent manager to say in place of this.