One-on-one discussions are one of the most powerful, yet massively under-utilized leadership tools. They are crucial for driving high employee performance and solving problems in a timely manner. And yet, many organizations fail to take full advantage of them.
In this article we’ll discuss why companies should improve their 1-1s, what are common problems impacting 1-1 quality, and then focus on how AI is such a game changer.
The Importance of 1-1 Discussions for Driving Employee Performance
One-on-one discussions are critical for driving employee performance.
They are essential for building relationships and trust – the bedrock for creating psychological safety and high performance. 1-1s provide a safe space for a leader’s reports to vent and talk about problems they are facing. For the leader, they provide an opportunity to listen, gain information, help with resolving problems, or coach the individual to solve the problems themselves.
One-on-ones create an opportunity for personalized feedback. Leaders can address specific needs for improvement on the level of an individual employee far more effectively than when providing general, team-level feedback. Personalized feedback helps employees understand their unique contributions and areas where they need to grow, leading to enhanced performance and job satisfaction when done right.
One-on-one discussions help in identifying and addressing roadblocks that hinder an employee's performance. This enables leaders to recognize issues early and provide the necessary support to overcome them. This proactive approach prevents problems from escalating, blockers from lingering and ensures employees remain focused, productive, and engaged.
1-1s also foster a culture of continuous improvement and learning. By regularly discussing goals, progress, and challenges, employees can reflect on their performance and think critically about how to improve. This ongoing dialogue helps to keep performance aligned with organizational goals and promotes a culture of accountability.
Common Challenges with One-on-One Meetings
The primary reason why one-on-one discussions remain underutilized in many organizations is that there is no silver bullet for having a great 1-1. Consistently having high quality 1-1s is hard work and to make them meaningful, preparation is required. However, due to a lack of leadership experience, time, or a structured approach, 1-1s often end up being poorly conducted or infrequent. This means the discussions never reach a level where the most meaningful, deeper issues that have the biggest impact on employee performance and engagement can be systematically addressed.
Several common problems make 1-1s less effective:
- Inconsistent cadence: The biggest mistake with 1-1s is not having them. For 1-1s to be valuable, they need to happen frequently. In many organizations, either they are not kept at all because the benefits of having them are not visible in the short-term, or they are deprioritized due to other work.
- Inconsistent quality: The quality of 1-1s can vary greatly. This can be due to the experience level of the manager, agendas and action points not being recorded, or critical data such as engagement, feedback, or business KPIs not being used for preparing for 1-1s. A high level of inconsistency directly impacts the ROI of having one-on-one discussions.
- Poor Tools: Leaders in many organizations are using outdated tools to document and run 1:1s. Additionally, HR Leaders have zero visibility on whether 1-1s happen regularly and whether specific, important topics are addressed. This outdated toolkit does not help to overcome the inconsistency problem of 1-1s.
- Lack of time to prepare: Even the most diligent note takers out there are facing the problem of not having time to review documentation and process it for the next meeting. Without processing the documentation somehow, you will not benefit from it no matter how diligently you write down notes and action points.
How Technology Can Revolutionize 1-1s
To solve these challenges, organizations need tools that enable HR professionals to influence 1-1 discussions, while empowering team leaders to conduct data-informed one-on-one conversations and effectively track follow-ups. Here are a few ways technology can make one-on-one discussions better.
- Discussion templates: HR teams need to make sure that development discussions or salary reviews happen in a consistent format across the whole organization. When 1-1 discussion tools support templates, HR can facilitate leaders and their reports to have the difficult conversations that ultimately have the biggest impact on performance.
- Integration to daily communication tools: In order to reach full utilization, 1-1s should not be tucked away on a separate platform. When they are integrated into the organization’s daily communication tools – such as Slack or Microsoft Teams, it makes it effortless for leaders and their direct reports to do consistent record keeping and always find their notes.
- Collaborative agendas: One-on-one discussion points are not meant to be defined by the leader. Far better and deeper discussions can be had when both sides can impact the agenda and build it together.
- Automated action points and discussion summaries: For 1-1s to be truly impactful, they should result in action. This is why recording action points, follow-up tasks and summaries of past 1-1 conversations is vital. Automated action points ensure that nothing is forgotten for example due to inconsistent note taking. Summaries of the entire 1-1 conversation also go a long way in ensuring alignment and avoiding misunderstandings.
- Data-informed discussion points: For the discussion to be truly meaningful, it needs to have deeper context and data to back it up. When 1-1 discussion tools integrate with people analytics data, such as engagement survey results or personal feedback, they allow leaders to have far more meaningful conversations and solve problems with their direct reports.
Maximize the value of 1-1s with Teamspective's Discussions AI
Teamspective’s Discussions AI is a purpose-built tool for organizational leaders and HR that facilitates better 1-1 discussions, helping boost engagement and keep employee performance high.
Our solution makes 1-1 meetings more effective by providing:
- Shared agendas, notes and action points for participants, ensuring both parties can easily keep track of important items.
- AI-generated discussion points and insights. We crunch your latest engagement survey scores, feedback rounds and performance reviews and turn these into concrete discussion points and summaries.
- Company meeting templates and guidelines that are directly usable as your meeting agenda.
- Integrations into your daily communication tools. Discussions AI is fully integrated into Slack and calendars for optimal usability.
- AI-generated summaries and action point suggestions based on your meetings.
Join the beta program
Discussions AI is currently in the beta test phase and is free for anyone to try out. To get access to our beta program, reach out to your Customer Success Manager or request access here.