The one-on-one template that helped reveal my blind spots
The one-on-one template that helped reveal my blind spots
Over the course of the last 20 years, I’ve had the pleasure to perform hundreds of 121s.
Throughout the years I have met leaders and colleagues that were hyper-structured and also encountered the opposite of the spectrum in equal volumes. As a leader, a lot of your time is spent in meetings, many of which are 121s. It doesn’t really matter if you do them weekly or every two weeks with your team or with your leader. What matters is that we try to remain as efficient as we can with our time, whilst maximizing the value we can get from these recurring meetings.
I am aware of the movement that removes all pre-planned, recurring meetings in favor of more result-oriented short calls when there is an actual need. I feel that the template below has helped me optimize the recurring meetings, and also allows the colleague to clear the meeting time after they provide the preparation.
In the past, and more often than I would like to admit, I have had problems either building an authentic human connection with members of my wider team or keeping absolute clarity on strategy and direction. As I have a tendency of following frameworks, academic approaches, and formatted structures to keep as efficient as I can I have a short template that I now use and want to share with you.
It has helped me understand my colleagues better, keep the focus on clarity of communication, and retain a healthy level of empathy, even when shit hits the fan and I felt the business pressure soaring.
Before we dive into the template, we need to make sure we have our semantics aligned. A 121 — for me — is a meeting between team members in a typically hierarchical relationship between the leader and the direct report. Preferably in a physical setting, but a videoconference setup can work. It works in matricial organizations as well, but rapidly becomes less efficient as clarity on the real targets is a hard challenge for most senior leaders in these setups. Without clear KPI’s and OKR’s in those setups, most of the great results will come from personal relationships and trust in the absence of processes that provide the needed clarity.
For me, a 121 serves multiple purposes.
- Check in with my colleagues to make sure I don’t overlook the really important things happening in their life and allow/help my colleagues to balance life and work adequately.
- Verify that there is clarity on expectations and a shared sense of (strategic) direction and progress.
- Allow upward feedback to flow naturally.
It is not about the leader following up on task progress.
- To follow tasks/progress I tend to rely on result dashboards or task tools (Asana, burndown charts, …) and try to build a team culture in which problems are surfaced in bi-weekly team meetings (non-urgent) or in a direct ping on whatever tooling is used on the job (slack/teams/WhatsApp/…).
With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the template.
- Well-Being Check-In.
Example: How are you feeling (at work) this week? Scoring from 0–10 and why? - Progress on our Priorities.
Example: What has happened since we last connected? Share your current top [max 3] priorities and what is your view on progress on them. - Upcoming goals.
Example: What are your top goals [max 3] for this coming week? - Current Challenges.
Example: What clarity can I provide? How can I assist to move things forward? - Upward feedback.
Example: What do you want to share with me, regarding my behaviors or actions that you want me to address? - Company Pulse Check.
Example: How confident are you in the organization’s ability to be successful and thrive? Score 0–10 and why?
The idea behind this template is that the direct report prepares the meeting with this template and sends the preparation at least half a day before the meeting by e-mail to his/her leader. The preparation shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes (except for the first time) yet provides a lot of value to both the sender and recipient.
If the sender after the preparation feels that the (physical) meeting is not needed and a simple follow-up by e-mail suffices they can request the cancellation and get their 45-minute block back. The leader however should make it a personal priority to foresee the 121 timeslots and not cancel them unless requested by his/her colleague.
For full transparency, I’ll explain below why the template works well — for me.
- Well-Being Check-In
One of my personal pitfalls is engulfing in the company targets and the pleasant rush of stress as deadlines approach. Without this part in the template, I would, in periods of perceived high stress, forget the human and personal side of my colleagues. As soon as I get blinded to this part, I effectively stop being a leader and become their manager at best. At worst, I effectively become an additional source of stress and confusion for my colleagues. So that is why I always start with this question and allow it to fill up the whole 45-minute meeting time block if need be. - Progress on Priorities
It gives an indication of the perceived priorities and allows me to see if we have absolute clarity on them to start with. The reason to ask for max 3 is to help people to reflect and choose. Some colleagues will always deem they have at least 5, and this helps me identify a development area early on. Progress is not about ‘I delivered tasks x, y, z’. It is about the perception of whether we are going to hit our big target / OKR / our deadline for a project bigger than our own tasks. It asks the colleagues to open up their views, in preparation for the meeting, to see the end-to-end value they are a part of. - Upcoming Goals
Depending on the day of the meeting (if on Monday the ‘what happens this week’ schedule is fine, else you’ll need to adjust to ‘before our next meeting’). Here the intent is to check whether colleagues are able to prioritize to-do’s based on the priorities or if there are roadblocks that prevent them to make these decisions. (It also helps to identify if colleagues struggle with busy work vs priorities in general) - Current Challenges
Much like the work of a scrum master in any agile process, this is where a lot of my listening/understanding as a leader focuses. What can I do to help them remove impediments that in turn will allow them to work more efficiently? This can range from helping them push for a needed technical effort, all the way to providing more clarity on priorities or helping them with interpersonal issues within the company or with other stakeholders. - Upward Feedback
Truth be told, this will remain blank for many weeks (or months even) as people need to first trust you to be able to positively accept and process feedback. What helps is making sure you provide frequent feedback to them, and make it a personal point to work in team meetings on building a culture where there should be no discussion on ‘positive intent’ when giving feedback. - Company Pulse Check
When colleagues start voicing their doubt that we as a company are on the right trajectory we are able to unlock what makes them doubt. This allows us to provide context, feedback, and our own reflections. It is a tool to help remediate the ‘violence in the corridors‘ we often see in bigger organizations. It is also an easier formulation of upward feedback in an indirect form. More often than not, I am able to identify communication issues stemming from within the leadership team from these responses.
Curious to hear/read your thoughts on 121’s and the template I provided.
