121s

Holding regular, structured one-to-one meetings with direct reports can be regarded as the most important thing a manager does and the most effective way of improving and maintaining performance. The rationale for this can be set out as follows:

One of the key drivers of strong, consistent performance is the level of trust and respect that exists between a manager and their staff. This is not the only factor, of course: staff will have varying levels of commitment, different professional values and be more or less empowered by constraints in the Directorate or College. And yet, for many staff, their manager represents the Directorate and the College they are the day-to-day embodiment of these larger entities. And if they trust and respect that person, they are much more likely to want to deliver for the College and ultimately for the students and customers we serve. The main reason that one person trusts another is that they have a strong relationship with that person. Again, we might trust people for other reasons (for their competence or their experience for example). But over time and across situations, it is the relationship that wins out. Over time, I will be much more likely to trust and have respect for someone with whom I have built a relationship. Importantly, though, 121s are about building a professional relationship, not about being mates with staff. Most of what managers talk about will be work-related and they may never see their direct reports outside of the work environment. That doesnt prevent them building and maintaining a strong bond which will make their working lives (and those of their direct reports) easier and more productive. Building strong relationships of this kind will depend on how much and how well two people communicate with each other: quantity and quality. If we think of anyone with whom we have a good relationship, it is almost inconceivable that this relationship has not been built on relatively open and relatively frequent communication. Communicate often and well with someone and the natural outcome is a strong relationship. Hence communication is central to encouraging effective behaviour. And this is the primary reason for holding 121s with staff: encouraging better relationships and performance through regular, quality communication.

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121s The Basics There are many formats for 121s. The important thing is that, whatever the format, they have as their goal to encourage performance through regular, quality communication. What follows is a suggested format one way that honours this basic principle and which is tried and tested, both by managers in the College and elsewhere. They are held one-to-one Obviously! But the point here is that we are attempting to build a professional relationship with an individual, and that will only happen on the basis of interactions with that individual. When we communicate with a group, we are not building individual relationships in any real way, so team meetings are no substitute for 121s. Regular: every week for 30 minutes Trust is built on quality and quantity of communication. If you have astonishing charisma and charm, then meeting with you infrequently will be good enough, because the quality of that interaction will be so powerful the effect will last. For the rest of us, regular and frequent communication quantity - is important (provided theres some level of quality!). Meeting every few months or (worse) once a year at appraisal time is not enough contact to build any kind of meaningful relationship, and the meeting will probably be awkward as a result. Meeting every week can sound a lot at first. But consider these points: Many peoples image of having 121s with their boss is not positive: long meetings, awkward silences, arguments, completing long forms and a sense of having to defend yourself and your performance. Why would anyone want to do that every week?! This is a completely different approach, and so we need to encourage ourselves to view them differently. Weekly meetings can become a great place to catch quick questions that would otherwise pepper the week with interruptions. It is 30 minutes, not at least 30 minutes. Both people need to be disciplined and keep to the agenda. The formality and focus will make them productive and meaningful; make them informal and open-ended and we will waste time and start to wonder why were doing them. No interruptions of any kind These meetings are an opportunity for managers to show their staff how important they are. That means that 121s are more important than a phone call, than email, than texts and certainly more important than someone who walks up to their desk or office. If the buildings on fire, or its the Principal interrupting us, fair enough. For any other reason and for any other person, the manager should politely ask them to come back later. 30 minutes go quickly, and they should devote every one of them to the individual theyre with. The focus is on the direct report, not the manager This is not the place for managers to stream information, to update their staff on whats going on in the organisation, to talk about their experiences, their issues and so on. The first 15 minutes is about the direct report: their life, their work, their thoughts, their feelings, their actions, their concerns. They should be speaking and the manager should be listening. When the manager does speak, they should be keeping it short and quickly passing control of the conversation back to the other person. People will start to build a relationship with us when we communicate with them about whats important to them, and when we show genuine interest in what they have to say: this is the quality part of the formula. If that means talking about football or cats or EastEnders fine. If it means talking about spreadsheets or project plans or training fine.

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The second 15 minutes is the managers opportunity to give feedback and coaching on issues that they think are important for their direct report. But the time should still be spent on them as individuals and the aim should still be to listen more than speak. A good 121 will probably see the manager listening lots and talking little. If its the other way round, they probably dont (yet) have the trust of their staff member, or theyre overpowering them. The manager takes notes in the meeting The 121 is not a chat, it is a professional meeting. That means it follows an agenda and key points and actions are noted. There is a very simple template form available on the website which may be of use. The idea of taking notes is for the manager to communicate that they are taking the meeting seriously, that they are taking the decisions and agreements made in the meeting seriously and that they are taking their staff member seriously. Having said that, the notes should not be secret in any way, and the approach should be main points only: it is not about collecting witness statements, but merely giving both people a record of whats been covered and what has been agreed. The manager should keep their sheets in a file where they are easy to pull out, refer back to and review (e.g. when it comes to appraisal time). 121s The Agenda The first 15 minutes are completely set aside for the direct report to talk about what they want This always comes first The manager focuses on the staff members interests, no matter what they may be The managers goal is to listen, understand, empathise, be curious, learn The second 15 minutes are set aside for the manager They follow up on actions either person had from last time (or from other meetings) They will almost always ask about progress on key projects and tasks They will always use this time to give feedback They will also consider using this time to delegate a task or to coach the direct on improving their performance

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FAQs
As a manager, these are some of the questions you may have about 121s. If you have others either as a manager or as a direct report please contact Carl. What if my staff member doesnt want to have 121s? You should still have them! There are lots of things we are obliged to do in return for being paid, and its perfectly reasonable to include structured conversations with your line manager in that category. Having said that, you of course need to be mindful of your staff members feelings about 121s. If they dont want to meet with you, it almost certainly means that they are suspicious either of you personally or of the value of meeting with you. Over time, that will fade and their trust will grow, provided you follow the principles outlined above. Be prepared for a long journey, but stick with it. I manage staff who just come in for the money how are 121s relevant for them? Interestingly, by far the most common comment on appraisal forms in our Directorate amongst manual staff is that they would like to have more communication with management. So we should be careful as managers to assume that this group of staff or any other is only here for the money. Nonetheless, it would be silly to deny that people have different reasons for doing the work they do, and that for some, working is something they do for money and not much else. But these people will still perform more effectively, on average, if you build a relationship with them, understand their concerns, give them feedback, follow up on goals etc. And for that reason, you should still carry out 121s with them. Im interacting with my staff all the time. Why have a meeting on top of that? The reason is that the communication that we have all the time with staff is rarely high-quality communication, where your direct report has complete control over what they talk about and where you really listen to whatever they have to say. Day-to-day communication is vital but it almost always revolves around one thing: what I want you to hear. This is true whether youre talking about work or personal issues. The first part of a 121 is dedicated to the other person; the starting point is I want to listen to what you want to tell me, and thats communication of an entirely different kind. Does it have to be every week? No. The key thing is to observe the principle of regular, frequent and quality contact. In productivity terms, weeks tend to be very useful units of time: long enough for people to go away and do things but not so long that you lose touch with their flow of work. The 121 also represents a time when you can guarantee giving feedback to your staff, and giving feedback less than once a week is really not ideal. Im a supervisor and I dont have an office. How do 121s work for me? Luckily we work on campuses where there are lots of places to have 121s benches, cafes, restaurants, meeting rooms, libraries, open spaces. You might even consider striking a deal with your manager to use their office, if they have one. Going for a walk with a member of staff can work well, even if it means you dont take notes. Any way in which you can have a high-quality, uninterrupted conversation is worth considering.
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Can a 121 be less than 30 minutes? Absolutely. If your staff member and you have covered everything you need to cover in 15 minutes, dont feel as though you need to drag it out! Having said that, if they are regularly less than this, it probably means either that (a) your relationship isnt so great or that (b) one or both of you isnt putting enough effort into making these meetings work. As the manager, you should at the very least make sure that you are covering all your bases: following up on actions, checking their progress towards major goals, giving feedback, delegating and coaching. For supervisors, things might be different, due to the greater number of staff reporting directly to you (see below). Ive got many direct reports. Am I really supposed to have 121s with all of them all the time? Yes. But you may need to make them shorter and/or less frequent. For the average manager in Student and Campus Services, 30 minutes a week on average should be perfectly doable, especially considering the benefits that flow from this kind of 121 meeting. 30 minutes a week on average will equate to less than 3 days a year in total. Are we really prepared to say that we cant afford to spend that amount of time with someone we are paid to line manage? For supervisors with 15-20 direct reports, the situation is different. Someone in this role might want to spend 20 minutes with everyone once a month, for example. It is an investment of time, to be sure, but one which has really substantial returns. Im a manager in a busy operational environment. When am I supposed to do 121s? There is a trap of thinking of 121s as a waste of time, time that you are not devoting to the operation. Viewed as an investment, it should be the case that every manager in any environment can spend a little time communicating well with individual direct reports. If you feel that your situation is different and that you simply cannot afford to integrate 121s of any kind into your schedule, please speak to your line manager or to Carl to see if they can think of another way of approaching things. What about part-time staff? Or long-term contractors? Anyone who reports to you and whom you are working with to get results is someone you should have a strong professional relationship with. And that means having 121s with them. With part-time staff, you might consider devoting less time to each session and/or having your 121s less frequently. With contractors, you would spend less time on coaching, probably. But the fundamentals are the same. My staff member isnt saying much what do I do? Give them time. If they talk to other people and then clam up when they meet with you, it means they dont trust you (either personally or managers generally). You will win their trust over time by showing interest in them, modelling professional behaviour and respecting their boundaries (see the next FAQ). If they regularly have nothing to say, you accept it and move on to your agenda. However, remind them that you will always allocate 15 minutes of time to them and that you dont want the meeting to be a one-way street. You might also take a look at the way you come across to them. Are you genuinely interested in them or are you just filling in a form? What is your body language communicating? Are your questions open, curious and friendly or closed, hostile, indifferent? The power relations inherent in a manager-direct relationship are such that you have the responsibility to work harder to get things going.

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What if my staff member doesnt want to talk about their personal life? Fine. This is not an interrogation, its a meeting designed to build and maintain a professional working relationship. Overall, your staff will be more productive and engaged if you understand them, their lives, families, interests, motivations etc. But you are trying to build trust through 121s and that wont happen if they feel you are being insincere, manipulative or mechanical. Just start the meeting with What do you want to talk about today? or So, how are things? or Whats on your agenda?. You might then try asking them about specific things that they themselves have shared with you e.g. You mentioned on Friday that your son had a match at the weekend how did he get on? You should never be manipulative any question you ask needs to come from a place of genuine interest and concern and must respect the boundaries of the other person. Just like in real life! My staff get nervous about me taking notes is this really necessary? No, not if it really gets in the way of building a strong professional relationship. But there are good reasons to take notes (see above) and you should think carefully about not doing so you may lose more than you gain. For example, by not recording actions or agreements, you increase the chances of those things not getting done.

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