Good leadership doesn’t happen without engaging your workforce. There are many ways to drive employee engagement but one of the most important methods in your toolbox is the old-fashioned staff meeting.
Staff meetings often have a reputation of making people grimace. Instead of being productive and getting their work done, they have to take out a good chunk of their day listening to a boss talk about things that aren’t necessarily related to what they’re currently working on.
The thing is, staff meetings are vital to any company and keep employees engaged and in the loop. Managers and leaders also get to find out what their people are worried about and what challenges they face. In general, it is the oil that keeps the company machine running properly.
But how can you lead a good meeting? There is a right way to do it and a wrong way. Let’s talk about how to get it right.
Set a Time in Advance
Make sure that you have a convenient time set aside for everybody involved. Some leaders like to have a meeting at the start of the day, as a way of getting everyone on point from the get go. Some do it in the middle of the day, some towards the end of the shift.
What matters is for you to pick a good time that everyone won’t have problems with and set it in everyone’s calendar ahead of time. If it’s a regular meeting, even better. Begin on time and stay on track. If you can finish earlier, even better. People can then get on with their day.
Have a Plan
The most crucial thing about a meeting is to have an agenda prepared beforehand. Winging the meeting doesn’t cut it. Meetings should be short and not waste everyone’s time. To facilitate a brisk, meaningful meeting, the agenda should be planned ahead of time. Prepare a checklist of things that need to be discussed and use these as talking points.
Practice the Agenda
After making a plan, the next step is to rehearse what you are going to say. Unless you’re a master of extemporaneous speech, public speaking might not come naturally to you. Presentation matters. The better you can capture your audience’s attention, the better the meeting will go.
Prepare Your Presentation
People have different learning styles. You should take note of the visual, auditory and kinetic learning styles of your people and prepare for all three. Rehearsing what you say helps with auditory people but visual people need things like Powerpoint slides to get the most out of the meeting. Prepare these ahead of time, so it’s easy to share data and other important things with your team.
Use the Meeting to Celebrate Success
One of the keys to a well-motivated team is coming together to recognize everyone’s efforts and wins. A staff meeting should start with a positive note that can include how your team hit the monthly metrics or who deserves a pat on the back for those that did well.
Give Your People a Voice
The meeting should never be a unilateral message from the leadership to the team. Give agents a chance to voice any concerns and issues they might have. This is also a great way to get kinetic people to tune in. Let everyone have the chance to speak up and be sure to listen.
Any concerns you can’t address then and there should be noted down and parked for the next meeting. Be sure to work on any outstanding action items you uncover in this manner. Nothing encourages an employee more than knowing their boss is looking out for them and working to make their time at the office better.
As part of developing your team, you may also want to give a few of your team members a part in the presentation. If you delegated a task to one of your agents, you can give them time to present their findings. This prepares your people for leadership roles and strengthens the expertise of your entire team.
Check for Satisfaction
A good leader serves their team and checks if they got the most out of the meeting. During the meeting you need to carefully observe your people and see if any of them are checking out or not really getting the discussion. Control the flow of the meeting and ask people to repeat or rephrase certain points to ensure they understand what’s happening and help everyone focus.
At the end of it all, ask the team what went right, wrong, and what they would like you to do moving forward. This is also known as the “Stop, Start, Continue” method and is a great way to wrap up your meeting.
Staff meetings can take up a big chunk of your team’s valuable time, but when done properly are an invaluable tool to connect everyone and keep everyone on the same page. As with all things, practice makes perfect. If your meetings aren’t going smoothly right now, just keep at it with the best practices above. Before you know it, you’ll be running fun, productive, and engaging meetings that make the best use of everyone’s time.