Making team meetings work

How do you make your dreaded team weekly meetings work well? That's a question I often get asked and this is what we'll be talking about today on How to Lead, the podcast for CEO, founders, and leaders who want to find the perfect balance of empathy and authority.

I'm Kate Waterfall Hill and I'll be sharing some ideas from over 30 years of working in business and leadership development. Before we start the show, quick reminder if you want to stop screaming into your pillow every time you think about team management and you'd like to learn how to become a better leader, sign up to my free weekly newsletter at waterfall hill.co,uk.

So let's kick off with Linda's way of running a weekly team meeting. Linda, being my alter ego on social media, who is simply a bad manager. She inspires us to great leadership by showing us how not to lead. So Linda's weekly team meeting is called a Job Justification Meeting and you'll find out why:

"We're going to have a new weekly meeting, it's called the Job Justification Meeting. We'll go around the table at 9 o'clock every Monday. It'll last about 2 hours. We'll ask each person to talk through their main priorities for the coming week. It's likely that most people will just repeat themselves, talk about the same thing each time, and it won't make any sense or be of any interest to the rest of you, but we're doing it anyway so it saves me time reading any emails or reports that you've sent me and, um, so I don't really have to know where you're up to on your projects. It's a total waste of your time, but very useful for me, uh, when it comes to updating William on what you're all doing. That obviously assumes that I remember what you said in this meeting and, um, thinking about it, I'll probably ask you to send me a report afterwards anyway. yeah yeah"

oh poor old Linda and actually poor old Linda's team can you imagine being stuck in that meeting just going round and round telling everyone what you're doing might be quite useful for the manager to hear what everybody's up to, but certainly nobody else in the meeting cares I imagine sometimes they do but not always so let's take a closer look let's hope that your weekly team meetings if you have them are not quite as bad as Linda's job justification sessions they're neither productive nor inspiring but it might feel like this to your team members now if the thought of your weekly team meeting makes you want to crawl back to bed with a cup of hot chocolate or something then you're definitely not alone I get lots of messages on social media from people screaming about how they run their weekly team meetings or the ones they have to attend sometimes daily but what have I told you that these team meetings can actually be productive engaging and even something that your team looks forward to doing.

Stick with me for the next 10 minutes and I'll share some tips on how to transform your weekly meetings from dreaded to Dynamic. First off let's address the elephant in the room for many weekly team meetings just feel like that job justification session a time where everyone goes round the table justifying why they have a job so it might be vaguely useful for the boss to keep tabs on everyone but there are better ways to do this and meetings like this often seem like a waste of time for everybody involved, particularly if people have had to prepare reports for it. They're using up time preparing a report for a meeting when they could actually be getting on with some work so how do we change this narrative.

First of all set a clear purpose for every meeting not just your weekly team meetings. You need a clear purpose without one meetings become you know directionless and just plain tedious. Start by defining what you want to achieve in your weekly team meeting is it to align on goals is it to solve pressing issues and relieve bottle necks, or is it to innovate come up with new ideas.

Whatever it is make sure everyone knows the purpose beforehand and has a chance to bring some ideas and thoughts to the meeting. It sets the stage for a focused and efficient meeting if everybody knows why they're there.

Secondly create an agenda and stick to it. An agenda can be your best friend when it comes to meetings if you distribute it ahead of time everyone knows what to expect and can come prepared so an effective agenda should include some simple points at the bare minimum a review of last week's action items, the current week's objectives, any key discussion points, and then an open floor for questions and ideas. You can add any other items to the agenda as needs be but really try to avoid overdoing it, you don't want an agenda with a hundred things on it. Focus on the issues that really need the team's combined attention.

Sticking to the agenda really helps the meeting Keep On Track and ensures all important topics are covered. It's amazing how many people go to meetings without an agenda and don't even know why they're there.

Keep it short and sweet nobody likes really really long meetings that drag on forever. If you can aim to keep your meeting short ideally 30 or 45 minutes this really forces everyone to stay on topic and makes the best use of everyone's time. Remember the longer the meeting the less productive it usually becomes.

This is also an important one that often people forget I really encourage you to encourage participation from everybody. A good meeting is where everyone feels they have a voice. Encourage your team to participate by asking open-ended questions and actively listening to their input. This not only makes the meeting more engaging but also Fosters a sense of collaboration and inclusion.

If you've got somebody that dominates the meeting have a word with them in private and suggest to them that they leave some airspace for other people to speak. If that person continues to talk over the top of somebody else for instance then have some sort of code word that means you can interrupt them without offending everybody and making everyone feel awkward. If you have people that are naturally quiet whether they're introverted or tend to process things more slowly and come up with the ideas after the event and don't say it in the meeting, then give them an avenue give them a way of contributing to the meeting that feels comfortable for them.

Might be that you ask people to write their ideas down on Post-it notes in the meeting or they submit their ideas afterwards in an email, whatever feels good for them is a good idea, but whatever you do encourage participation from everybody.

Next one is focus on problem solving use your meeting time to address and solve real issues this makes the meeting valuable and ensures action items aren't just discussed but acted upon. When team members see their concerns and ideas are being addressed they're much more likely to engage positively.

Importantly end with clear action items. Every meeting should end with a recap of what was discussed and clear action items assigned to specific individuals. This ensures accountability and follow through. When everyone knows their responsibilities it's much easier to track progress and achieve goals.

I'm interrupting myself briefly to let you know that my new book how to lead is out now. It's filled with simple proven methods I've gathered over my 30 years as a managing director, and then coach of over 200 leaders. So if you're ready for straightforward real world approaches to Leading with purpose this book is for you. You can grab a PDF or a Kindle version from my website or a paperback edition from Amazon both links are in the show notes. Now let's get back to the show.

Right now let's talk about the human element. Meeting things aren't just about ticking boxes and moving projects forward, they're also an opportunity to build team morale and strengthen relationships. Here are a couple of tips to keep the human touch in your meetings.

Start if you can with a positive note so kick off your meeting with a quick round of positive news. It could be a personal win a professional achievement or even a funny story. This helps set a positive tone and makes the meeting feel less like a chore. But don't get sucked into just sitting around gossiping for ages, make it short and sweet. Could just be that everyone volunteers a word to describe the emotions they're feeling today or how they're feeling about their client or something. Rotate the leadership you know don't always have the same person chairing the meeting. This gives everyone a chance to develop their leadership skills and see how difficult it can be. But they also get to see it from a different perspective it keeps the meetings fresh and dynamic.

So there you have it eight tips to make your weekly team meetings not just bearable but actually useful and engaging. Here's a quick recap: Make sure you set a clear purpose create and stick to an agenda. Keep it short and sweet. Encourage participation. Focus on problem solving. End with clear action items. Start with something positive and rotate the leadership. Remember the goal of these meetings is not just to keep everyone busy but to truly drive your team forward.

Implement these tips and watch as your meetings become a powerful tool for productivity and engagement, rather than just another obligation on the calendar.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of how to lead. Please Subscribe or follow to ensure you don't miss out on future episodes. Like, leave a review and share with your fellow leaders to help spread the word I really do appreciate your support. If you have any suggestions for future episodes I'm all ears so please do let me know. My contact details are in the show notes.

And remember you don't need to feel like you're on your own anymore. You too can enjoy being an authoritative and yet empathetic leader it just takes a decision to be more intentional about your interactions with others, have some great tips on your side for how to influence positive change, and of course a good guide. Listen more, advise less, lead well. Until next time thank you for listening.