Why Senior Leaders Should Cease Having So Many One-on-Ones

0:28This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. back support is made with a blend of melatonin and L-theanine for both kiddos and grown-ups. So when your mind won't switch off, you've got something that can help. Erasing thoughts and restless nights won't stand a chance. Find Oli Sleep Solutions for the Whole Family at Oli.com. That's O-L-L-Y dot com. Senior leaders often fill their calendars with one-on-one meetings thinking it helps with alignment, connection, and trust. But here's the problem. The more one-on-ones you have at the top, the more fragmented your organization becomes. I work with executives and their teams to help them lead and collaborate better without politics, bottlenecks, or silos.

1:08And one of the first things I tell CEOs, stop having so many one-on-ones. Here's what too many private executive meetings leads to. Fragmented governance. Each one-on-one acts like its own mini steering committee. Functional bias. Leaders stay in their own lanes and don't cross boundaries. Decision repackaging. You waste time repeating and defending calls made in isolation. Executive rivalry. Private access turns into power plays and erodes trust. These meetings don't just slow you down. They can damage the culture. Instead of making decisions in private one-on-ones and relitigating them later, bring the right people together from the start.

1:46Hold what I call capability meetings. Small group conversations with two or three leaders whose functions combine together to create a capability. For example, here are a few capabilities that often need cross-functional alignment. Innovation isn't just a product team's job. It also involves marketing, customer research, and go-to-market strategy. Customer experience spans operations, customer support, and digital. Digital transformation touches HR, IT, and every business unit it enables. Since no one department owns these capabilities, it's essential to bring key voices together early. That way, alignment happens before action, not after confusion.

2:25So how do you put this into practice? Save your one-on-ones for development. Use them for quarterly career growth and deepening trust, not project updates. Build your meetings around capabilities. Structure meetings around your core competitive areas that include the leaders whose work intersects there. Make the most of executive team meetings. Don't waste that time replaying private decisions. Use it to tackle big picture strategy and long-term priorities. Get rid of back-channel politics. Private meetings shouldn't be used to gain status. Real leadership shows up when everyone's part of the conversation.

2:59At the executive level, alignment isn't built in private. It's built together. To learn more, read the full article at hbr.org.