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Welcome to Tactical Memo, my memos on helping leaders and teams execute and operate smarter in the AI era. Each issue tackles one real workplace challenge and hands you a ready-to-use solution.

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👉 Why Read This Edition: You are going to learn a dead-simple feedback structure that turns your 1:1s from awkward status updates into the most productive 30 minutes on your calendar.

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THE PROBLEM

Most 1:1s are a waste of everyone's time. I am not going to sugarcoat that.

You block 30 minutes on the calendar. You sit down with your direct report. You ask how things are going. They say fine. You ask if they need anything. They say no. You talk about a project that is already being discussed in three other meetings. You both leave feeling like you did something productive. You did not.

I have sat through hundreds of these, on both sides of the table, and I can tell you the pattern is almost always the same. The meeting exists on the calendar, so it happens. But nobody walks out of it with anything they did not already have walking in.

Managers respond to this problem in two ways, and both are useless.

The first type treats the 1:1 like a status update. They run through the task list. They check boxes. They ask about deadlines. This is a complete waste of a 1:1 because you can get status from a dashboard, a Slack message, or a two-line email. You do not need a face-to-face meeting to find out if someone finished their deliverable. If you are using your 1:1 for status, you are burning your most valuable leadership time on something a spreadsheet could handle.

The second type goes the other direction. They make the 1:1 a therapy session. They ask open-ended questions with no structure. They let the conversation wander for 30 minutes. The direct report vents. The manager nods. Everyone feels heard and nothing changes. The same problems show up next week. And the week after that. Empathy without direction is not leadership. It is a warm blanket over a broken system.

Both types share the same root problem. They have no structure for giving feedback in the moment. And without structure, feedback becomes either nonexistent or so vague that the person on the receiving end cannot do anything with it.

Here is the truth most managers do not want to hear. Your direct reports are not growing because you are not telling them what they need to hear. You are telling them what feels comfortable to say. And comfortable feedback produces comfortable performance. Which is another word for mediocre.

THE SOLUTION: THE 3x3 FEEDBACK METHOD

Want to see the entire solution in one visual? Grab the infographic here.

I learned this method years ago from a leader who ran one of the most disciplined organizations I have ever been inside. He was blunt about it. He told me that every single 1:1 should leave the other person knowing exactly three things: what they are doing well that they should keep doing, what is not working that they need to stop or fix, and what specific action they should take before the next conversation. Three observations. Three minutes of honest feedback. Every single week.

I started using it on every team I ran after that. Consulting engagements. Recovery projects. Cross-functional teams where I had no authority and all the accountability. It worked every time. Not because it is complicated. Because it is relentlessly simple and it forces you to do the one thing most managers avoid: be specific.

Part 1: Three things working

Start every 1:1 by naming three specific things the person did well since your last conversation. Not general praise. Not "great job this week." Specific, observable behaviors tied to outcomes.

Here is what that sounds like. "The way you handled the vendor call on Tuesday was sharp. You caught the scope change before it became a change order and saved us two weeks of rework." That is feedback a person can use. They now know exactly what behavior to repeat and why it mattered.

Here is what you do not do. You do not say "you are doing great" and move on. That is not feedback. That is a reflex. It costs you nothing to say and it gives them nothing to build on. Peter Drucker had a line about this. He said that the most important thing in communication is hearing what is not said. When you give vague praise, your direct report hears "my manager has not actually been paying attention to my work." They are usually right.

The reason you start with three specific positives is not to soften what comes next. It is because most people genuinely do not know what they are doing well. They are heads-down, executing, and nobody has ever told them which of their behaviors are the ones creating the most value. When you name those behaviors, you are programming their autopilot. You are telling their subconscious: do more of this.

I ran a team once where one of my best operators had no idea that her ability to synthesize information in a meeting was her strongest asset. She thought her value was in the reports she wrote. It was not. Her reports were fine. Her ability to listen to four people argue for 20 minutes and then summarize the actual decision in two sentences was extraordinary. I told her that in a 1:1. She leaned into it. Within six months she was running meetings for the entire program. That never happens if I just say "nice work."

Part 2: Three things to fix

This is where most managers fall apart. They either skip this section entirely or they wrap the feedback in so many qualifiers that the person walks out thinking everything is fine.

After your three positives, name three specific things that need to change. Same rules. Observable. Specific. Tied to an outcome or a consequence.

Here is what that sounds like. "The stakeholder update you sent on Friday had the right content, but it buried the risk section at the bottom. The VP read the first two paragraphs and assumed everything was on track. We need the risks at the top, every time, so nobody is surprised in the steering committee."

That is useful. The person knows exactly what happened, why it matters, and what to do differently. There is no ambiguity.

Here is what you do not do. You do not say "I think we could maybe improve the stakeholder comms a little bit." That is not candor. That is cowardice with a smile. Your direct report cannot act on a feeling you had. They can act on a specific observation with a clear fix.

I will go further. If you are not slightly uncomfortable giving the three things to fix, you are probably not being honest enough. The best feedback I have ever received in my career made me uncomfortable in the moment and grateful a week later. The worst feedback I ever received was the kind that made me feel good walking out of the room and taught me absolutely nothing.

One thing to watch for. Do not save hard feedback for review time. If you are stockpiling observations and dropping them all in a quarterly review, you have already failed that person. They deserved to hear it when it was still fixable. The 3x3 method prevents this by forcing you to deliver corrective feedback every single week. Small doses. Consistent rhythm. No surprises.

Part 3: Three actions before next time

This is the part that turns feedback into forward motion. Before you end the 1:1, both of you agree on three specific actions the person will take before your next conversation. Not goals. Not aspirations. Actions.

Here is what that sounds like. "Before next Thursday, I need you to reformat the stakeholder update with risks at the top and send it to me for a quick review before it goes out. I need you to schedule the vendor check-in we talked about. And I need you to block two hours this week to finish the capacity plan draft."

Three things. Clear. Measurable. You will both know next week whether they happened or not.

Here is what you do not do. You do not end the 1:1 with "let us keep working on it" or "keep up the good work." Those are non-endings. They signal that nothing you just discussed actually matters enough to track. If you do not close with specific actions, the entire 1:1 evaporates the moment the person walks back to their desk.

I keep a running note for each direct report. Three columns. Working. Fix. Actions. I update it before every 1:1 and review it at the start of the next one. That takes me about five minutes of prep. Five minutes. And it is the difference between a 1:1 that drives performance and a 1:1 that fills a time slot.

The compounding effect of this is staggering. After four weeks, you have given someone 12 specific positives, 12 specific corrections, and 12 tracked action items. After a quarter, you have a complete picture of their growth. Review time becomes a formality because nothing in it is a surprise. That is how it should be.

THE REAL TEST

Ask yourself this question after your next 1:1. Could my direct report, right now, without looking at any notes, tell someone else exactly what they should keep doing, what they need to fix, and what they committed to finishing this week?

If the answer is yes, you are running a 1:1 that actually develops people. If the answer is no, you had a conversation. Conversations are nice. They do not build careers.

The managers who get the most out of their teams are not the ones with the best leadership books on their shelf. They are the ones who show up every week, prepared, with three honest observations and three clear actions. That consistency is rare. And the people who receive it remember it for the rest of their careers.

Here is your action step. Before your next 1:1, open a blank note. Write the person's name at the top. Write three things they did well this week with specific examples. Write three things that need to change. Write three actions you want them to take before you meet again. Walk in with that note. Deliver it. See what happens.

I promise you the conversation will be different. And so will the results.

If this helped you, send it to someone who could use it this week.

Until next time,
Justin

✍️ From the Desk of Justin Bateh, PhD
Simple tactics. Real results. No fluff.