How do one-on-ones complement performance management?

Three gaps in annual performance management

Whether a company uses KPIs or OKRs, most performance systems run on a yearly or half-yearly cycle. The system is needed, but the long stretch until the next checkpoint leaves gaps. One-on-ones fill them on a short cycle.

This table is a practical suggestion based on a one-on-one leader training deck from Upstream that Orblit referred to and on field experience. In practice, Adobe dropped its annual review and stack ranking for quarterly check-in conversations between managers and employees, and some managers folded those conversations into weekly or monthly one-on-ones (Chief Learning Officer, 2014).

Gap 1. When goals drift from reality

Goals set at the start of the year reflect what was known then. Within a quarter, customer needs, company priorities, and the situation of partner teams change. If you look at goals only once a year, team members end up holding on to work that has become less important. That is also why Harvard Business Review puts aligning on expectations first among the goals of one-on-ones (HBR, 2024). Set aside a few minutes in each one-on-one to revisit goals, and ask questions like these.

• Which of your current work connects most directly to the goal?
• Has anything changed since we set the goal?
• If something more important has come up, what should we cut back or postpone?

If your team uses OKRs, turn key results into this week's actions in the one-on-one. If the quarterly objective is to cut the time it takes a new customer to start using the product from 30 days to 20, check which steps the team member shortened this week and which are stuck, then agree on what to try next.

Gap 2. When reviews lean on memory

Recall a year's work all at once at year-end and the last few weeks loom large while results from months ago fade. If you leave two or three lines on what was done, how, and the feedback exchanged at each one-on-one, you can look at records instead of memory at review time. Team members can also see what the evaluation is based on, which makes the result easier to accept.

Notes also cut down the traps reviewers commonly fall into: the recency effect (the weeks right before the review loom large), the halo effect (one good or bad impression colors the whole judgment), rating everyone too generously or too harshly, and avoiding judgment by clustering everyone in the middle. All of these grow when evidence is thin. One-on-ones must not turn into review meetings, though, so see How is a one-on-one different from a performance review? for how to keep the two apart.

Gap 3. When growth and recognition wait until year-end

Even with a development plan, busy work often pushes it aside until year-end. It is more realistic for growth to happen inside current work than in time set aside for it. Give the team member a slightly wider scope or a role they have not tried, and look back on how it is going together in one-on-ones. Talking about how they made decisions, not just what they produced, is what makes the learning stick.

The same goes for recognition. Point out good work specifically in that week's one-on-one, not at review season. Saying what was good and why, such as "Preparing answers to the client's questions in advance made that meeting end early," shows team members what the organization values. Be careful not to go beyond what you can promise on pay or promotion.

How to keep one-on-one notes for performance management

Closing the three gaps depends on one-on-one notes building up over time. Keep notes for performance management like this.

• Write one or two lines at a time. Record the process and contribution, not only the result.
• Note agreed goals and changes in priority with the date.
• Let the team member see the notes and correct anything wrong.
• Reread the notes each quarter and sum up the overall trend and results.
• If you use them in a review, tell the team member in advance and follow your organization's evaluation policy.

Notes built up this way are useful beyond reviews. When setting next quarter's goals, you can look at where things got stuck last quarter; when discussing a promotion or role change, you can describe what the team member achieved with concrete examples. Signs of slipping engagement also show up first in the pattern of the notes.

A form for these notes, split into prep, meeting notes, and action items, is in the one-on-one doc.