The Four Patterns
The thread through all four: AI drafts the preparation, never the delivery. The conversation is yours.
"Here are my sanitized notes from the last three sessions with a direct report. Identify the recurring pattern and give me three coaching questions that help them find the root cause themselves."
Working from your own notes keeps hallucination risk low. The AI surfaces patterns. You add context and adapt the questions to the actual person.
"Draft feedback for a mid-level analyst who missed a project deadline by three days. Context: scope crept and neither side flagged it early. Use the SBI structure: Situation, Behavior, Impact. Factual and behavior-focused, three to four sentences."
SBI structures feedback as Situation, Behavior, Impact, which keeps it anchored to actions rather than character and reduces defensiveness.
"My report wants to grow toward a senior role. Generate ten open questions I could ask to understand their goals and gaps, ranging from motivation to specific skills."
AI generates a wide set fast. You select the subset that actually fits this person, this moment, and the direction they want to go.
"Help me prepare for a career conversation. Here is the role they are in and the direction they are interested in. What questions help us map which of their current skills transfer and which need building?"
Skill adjacency mapping turns a vague "where do you want to go?" into a structured, forward-looking conversation. The decision still happens together, in the room.
Privacy Checkpoint (every time)
Every prompt above says "sanitized" for a reason. Before you paste people notes into a commercial AI tool, strip names and identifying details and describe behavior generically ("a mid-level analyst," not a name). This is the rule we formalize in the final module, and it applies on every task.
Sam's story
Sam preps for a one-on-one with a report who keeps missing documentation deadlines. Sam sanitizes six months of notes, pastes them in, and asks for the pattern plus three root-cause questions. The AI spots it (recurring low urgency, no personal tracking system) and offers good questions. Sam adds the missing context (this report is overloaded covering a vacancy) and reshapes the questions to open a conversation about workload rather than to corner someone about discipline. The AI prepped Sam. Sam will run the conversation.
Apply It Today
Sanitize your notes for one upcoming one-on-one and prompt for the pattern plus three questions. Edit before you use it. Confirm there are no names or identifying details in what you pasted.
Reflect