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Committing to 121s

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I have had a some interesting conversations in the last week or two with managers about 121s. There are a couple of issues that are probably worth a reminder.

The first is that you should be scheduling 121s well in advance with your team members and then do all in your power to keep to the slot you have booked. If you change the slot for another commitment your team member will believe that you have ‘bumped them for something more important’. If you ‘bump’ them regularly enough they will believe that most things are more important to you than their 121. Providing regularly scheduled and protected time for 121s sends out a powerful message. Once you start regularly re-scheduling then the likelihood of them being missed and the routine being lost increases significantly.

The second issue is about when to hold 121s. I personally find it best to avoid early mornings. This is when your brain is at its best for concentrating on issues that require deep thought. I try to keep these times for jobs that need concentration, analysis and focus. While 121s require active listening skills for me they fit ideally into the afternoon slots when the brain has started to slow down a little. It also means that if nay 121s in the day do HAVE to be moved then I can always bring them forward to a morning slot on the same day. Bringing 121s forward in the week rather than moving them back – or worse still postponing them sends out another powerful message.

I also try to avoid Mondays (although this is great for team meetings). This means that if we need to re-schedule I can always bring them forward to Monday. I also try to avoid Fridays so that if I have to move them back I have some slots available.

121s should as much as possible be scheduled in blocks of time – 2 or 3 in a row with perhaps 5 minutes between each. This way you may spend 10 minutes getting ready for a session of 121s and 10 minutes ‘washing up’ after the session. You will find that you need the same ‘set up’ and ‘wash up’ time for a single 121. So scheduling them in blocks of 2 saves 20 minutes; blocks of three saves 30 minutes and so on. You will also find that your 121s are generally better when done in blocks like this as you can really get into the groove’ – and stay there.

Don’t under-estimate how much this stuff matters. Your team members will make judgments about your commitments to and faith in them based on how you maintain your 121 commitments to them. It may not be very rational – but that’s humanity for you!

Something for Nothing in Halifax

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Would you like to learn a management tool that is guaranteed to:

  • Save you time
  • Increase levels of trust in your team
  • Improve communication
  • Make you a noticeably better manager
  • Get more done – more quickly
  • Accelerate the professional development of your team, and
  • Reduce the pain of performance reviews?

Then come along to a free introductory session of the Progressive Managers’ Network at the Elsie Whiteley Innovation Centre on March 26th from 13.30 to 16.30.

At the event you will get a free gift to help improve your management worth more than £25.

Places are strictly limited so please book your place online here. Or call me for more information on 0113 2167782.
If you know of a manager who might be interested please forward them a link to this page.

Listening, 121s and Tom Peters

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I have been an avid reader of Tom Peters since in Search of Excellence.  Must be almost 20 years!

He put a post on his blog today that for me captures the purpose of weekly 121s.  It is about establishing a relationship in which you can listen respectfully- and in which the person you are managing can tell you important stuff.  Tom says:

“Listening may or may not be an “act of love” or way to “tap into people’s dreams,” but it sure as hell is:

  1. an uncommon act of courtesy and recognition of worth from which
  2. you will invariably learn amazing stuff if you can just keep your damn mouth shut and ears open with an expression of interest on your face and
  3. it will build-maintain relationships beyond your wildest dreams. “

Courtesy, respect and recognition.  Learn amazing stuff.  Keep your mouth shut.  be interested.  Build relationships.

Not a bad set of outcomes for a managers who is willing to put in the effort.

Getting the Message Across

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McKinsey’s have just published a great interview (free registration required) with a guy called Chip Heath.  Chip has spent much time, effort and money researching what makes ideas ‘stick’ in a business.  So his interest is in sticky ideas.  His research suggests that sticky ideas share six basic traits.

  1. Simplicity. Messages are most memorable if they are short and deep. (Good feedback fits this description)
  2. Unexpectedness. Something that sounds like common sense won’t stick. Look for the parts of your message that are uncommon sense.
  3. Concreteness. Abstract language and ideas don’t leave sensory impressions; concrete images do. Compare “get an American on the moon in this decade” with “seize leadership in the space race through targeted technology initiatives and enhanced team-based routines.”
  4. Credibility. Will the audience buy the message? Can a case be made for the message?
  5. Emotions. Case studies that involve people also move them. “We are wired,” Heath writes, “to feel things for people, not abstractions.”  (Again the feedback model provides us with the opportunity to talk to people about emotional impacts of their behaviour as well.)
  6. Stories. We all tell stories every day. Why? “Research shows that mentally rehearsing a situation helps us perform better when we encounter that situation,” Heath writes. “Stories act as a kind of mental flight simulator, preparing us to respond more quickly and effectively.”

This is all sound advice.  However sometimes the message that the managers needs to get across is not especially sticky.  In this case I think Chip underestimates the importance of repeating the message frequently and clearly.  This is one of the reasons why weekly 121s are so effective in building relationships.  The non-sticky message can be given repeatedly until behaviour starts to change.

What Could a Management Makeover Do for You?

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Here is a ‘Management Makeover’ recipe to improve organisational culture and performance – fast.

  • Significantly increase the quality, quantity and frequency of communication throughout the organisation. Do this through effective 121s, team meetings, project meetings and ‘skip level’ meetings. Train people to make these meetings REALLY work. Make sure that the communication regime works both ways – that managers listen as well as they talk.
  • Significantly increase the quality, quantity and frequency of feedback in the organisation. Train everyone how to give, receive and act on feedback. Train managers how to escalate feedback if it is not acted on effectively. Once everyone knows how their performance is perceived, what is working well and what needs further development, they will start to develop – fast. Make feedback a part of every day work – not a quarterly event!
  • Train every manager to coach every member of their team, every week, to improve their performance. Use coaching to establish learning firmly in the workplace and focus it on providing a better service. A weekly coaching routine provides a great tempo to learning and performance improvement. Train managers to use coaching for performance improvement – helping good people to become great. However also equip them to coach under-performers – if necessary as part of a formal performance process.
  • Train managers to delegate prodigiously. Train them to use delegation as a tool to provide opportunities for those who are hungry to learn and develop their contribution to the organisation. Use delegation, supported by coaching, feedback and great communication to significantly increase the capacity of your organisation.

Communication, Feedback, Coaching and Delegation. Managers who do these four things consistently well stand head and shoulders above their peers. Their teams perform better and keep improving.

All four are relatively easy to learn – requiring more commitment, courage and discipline than skill. For most people a three hour training session on each gives them the basics. They then just need to practice and learn perhaps with some additional advice and support along the way. The challenge in implementing this ‘Management Make’ over is in developing a new set of management habits. And this takes, time, courage and discipline.

But don’t rush it. If this recipe is going to work managers need time to develop and put into practice what they have learned.

Start with better communication through 121s. As soon as 121s have bedded down, after 4-6 weeks introduce training on feedback. Let this have a month to bed in before developing coaching, and a further month before training in delegation.

Within 6 months you will have transformed the culture and performance of your organisation. And this Management Makeover will be much more than skin deep.