Team meetings and training are for the success and growth of your practice.
Leading effective team meetings and training can transform a team of any size into a motivated, cohesive group that stays on purpose. Not sure how to be effective?
FPC Coach Mindi Webb developed 10 tips to help revive your meetings and leave your team feeling valued and ready to take on the week.
While it is your responsibility as the Leader to set the agenda for the meeting, it’s still all about the give and take. Ensure that every attendee has something to contribute and something useful to take away, by making it “safe” to share and be heard without fear of criticism.
To hold an all-inclusive team meeting, then you must open up the discussion to everyone. The best way to do this is to ask for team members’ thoughts and opinions. And here’s an important tip: Hear them out, and never shut anyone down because you hear something you don’t agree with. Everyone has a right to an opinion and it’s perfectly okay if not everyone agrees with it.
A team meeting shouldn’t be just talking-shop. If there is an issue that concerns the team, don’t move on until the issue has been assigned to an “owner” and a deadline. If the issue is going to take more than the allotted meeting time to develop a solution, then set a date/time for a separate, shorter meeting.
Show that you’re listening to your team by eye contact, the occasional nod and a confirmation that you have listened by repeating what you have understood. Use this an opportunity to ensure there is clarity about what’s said.
A serious meeting from beginning to end can be dull for those involved. Let your sense of humor come through, and feel free to interject a little humor when appropriate to lighten the mood (sensitively, of course!).
If you’re just in “broadcast-mode,” then you’ll see expressions of glazed-over eyes. People stop listening if they can’t engage. If you want to effectively share information or influence, then you must allow your message to be discussed and often challenged. If you don’t, I can promise you it will be challenged, passively, outside of the meeting.
If you have to say something like ‘well I am the boss, so that’s what we’re going to do,” then you’re on a slippery slope. Use of positional power will shut people down. Your team members will disengage, and you’re on your own. It’s much better to persuade to get buy-in. And if you can’t persuade, then is there something you’re not listening to?
It’s so tempting to think just because you’re the leader, and you’re the one running the meeting, that you’re always right (or have the power to close down opportunities that expose you being wrong). Don’t let ego rule. Realize that you do not have to be a role model for perfection. Rather, you want to be a leader who engages in truth and reality. Sometimes that means exposing some of your mistakes or vulnerabilities as the leader, and that’s okay. Own it and ask for the team’s support where it’s most needed.
Implementing or tightening up the agenda will help with your discipline and time management so you can stick to time, and don’t allow one point to hijack the meeting.
Minutes are a record of the meeting. It gives everyone a basis to remember what was discussed, what actions were agreed (and who will do them and by when) and a record to go over in your next meeting. You don’t need to go overboard on this – keep the minutes concise and accurate. This is a great task to have a team member volunteer to do, or you can delegate it to someone who you think would do a good job. If you have more than one team member, you could have them rotate this task every meeting.
Implement these tips as the meeting leader, and you will find your meetings to be more engaging.