When you want to maximize your team meetings: 5 ideas to try
I am always shocked when I hear from people that they don’t hold or attend team meetings on a regular basis. Some managers I have spoken to say they don’t know what to talk about while their employees say they feel disconnected from the company, the team, and/or their manager.
Then, there are managers who hold teams meetings and never have an agenda. They do round robins from everyone to share what they were working on. This used to be me. When I was a younger manager, I rarely had agendas except to ask everyone to share their project status. Not that there is anything terribly wrong with this — sharing is always good. However, if meetings are only round robins, they tend to lose their value, become pretty rote and start to become that appointment on your calendar that you sigh over before clicking “Join Meeting”.
Especially today, staying connected as a team to the company purpose and vision and to each other is critical to keeping people grounded and engaged. We all have a love-hate relationship with meetings. Some are amazing and some are snoozers. Some could have easily been an email, others are too aggressive to solve a complex problem in one setting while others have a cast of thousands where you all talk over one another.
Team meetings are an opportunity to pull together your direct reports (hopefully, you don’t have more than seven; more than seven can be challenging to manage) in a more intimate setting to drive work and create a sense of camaraderie. To keep your team meetings something people look forward to, try the following ideas:
Have an agenda or some preparation.
It is important to establish a purpose for team meetings. They don’t have to be weekly. They can be monthly or even quarterly if you are a diverse team. I personally think team meetings can be monthly while one-on-one meetings should be weekly or bi-weekly. The agenda for your team meetings can be the same every time with just different content. For example, start with accolades - formal and informal, share key strategy or high-level updates that only the manager would know, followed by having someone share a key project/win/challenge with the team. I used to take for granted what I knew and my team didn’t know. If you get updates on major initiatives, strategy, etc., don’t think that your team also knows. If you are able to share (make sure the information is not confidential), use your team meetings to share these bigger picture items. It will help your team stay connected to where the organization is going.
Infuse some fun and appreciation.
Team meetings don’t have to be all work. I try to acknowledge anniversaries or other major milestones for people. I am always amazed how many people don’t acknowledge work anniversaries. Some of these can be a big deal like 5-year, 10-year, and should be celebrated. Promotions, new projects, earning of external certifications or degrees…there are many items to celebrate. Note: Be careful with birthdays. Not everyone likes their birthday acknowledged or celebrated. Ask first. Sharing fun, personal tidbits can also help build team. Play a game. Play around with different backgrounds in virtual meeting tools for a new setting. Adding some fun activities can help keep it light. Just be careful to not leave people feeling like it was a waste of their time. Fun is fun but should help tie people together and relieve stress. Silliness on its own may lead to eye rolls so have fun with a purpose.
Balance updates with work.
Again, it is tempting to just have everyone share one key update. Sometimes this is helpful if everyone does not know what the others are doing. To make meetings more fruitful, try to balance pure updates with decisions, input collection, problem solving, advice. More than likely, someone may be stuck on a problem. Instead of the person solving it alone or even with the manager, throw the problem out to the group for input and advice. Maybe they have faced the same or similar problem. Someone may be solidifying an approach to a project, ask that person to share their proposal to get input from the team. Of course, anyone can drive their own projects but soliciting feedback will help people feel connected and like they are adding value beyond their current role. I have always found diverse perspectives to be helpful not a waste of time.
Ensure the topics are relevant to everyone.
With all of the above, make sure that the agenda appeals to everyone. How many of you have sat through a team meeting that was really a one-on-one between the manager and one of your teammates? I can definitely raise my hand. Things come up during group conversations. No doubt a very specific scenario, challenge or task might arise that only relates to one or two people. Park that car in the parking lot! Note it for another time and move on. Nothing pushes me to put my headset on mute and multi-task as when the entire team meeting is around one project that no one else has a role in. If you would benefit from others’ opinions or you think others need to know, then share it. Otherwise, table the one-on-one discussion to the appropriate time.
Ask someone else to take the lead.
Speaking of diverse perspectives, ask someone else to take the lead in planning the next team meeting. Give them free reign to plan a mix of fun and work…or just fun. Honestly, everyone is working so hard lately that a break in the action could be a nice re-energizer! One of the biggest lessons I have learned as a manager is that you don’t have to carry the burden around by yourself. People love getting an opportunity to lead and create. The burden should not have to be on you to come up with every agenda, drive every decision or facilitate every conversation. Share the love!
There are a few more best practices to simply running an effective meeting like being on time, documenting actions and setting deadlines and responsibilities. For team meetings, there should be no shortage of topics on a monthly basis. Too many things are changing and so much work is being done, there should be a long list to fill an agenda. Find the right rhythm to keep them purposeful and engaging.
The most important tip is to realize that, as a manager, you don’t have to do everything. Delegate meeting responsibility from time to time to engage your teams and allow someone else to lead. You will feel a lighter load and your team will be grateful.