Regularly scheduled staff meetings with employees in the workplace can be one of the most powerful business tools. When managed effectively, staff meetings will build trust, increase productivity, build moral, provoke new ideas, and resolve open issues. However, most meetings fall short when it comes to these goals. Oftentimes staff members feel meetings are a waste of time. When they are not engaged, they spend their time doodling or just watching time pass. These things can be avoided with the creation and execution of a proper agenda. When planning your next meeting, use the following tips to hold a more effective staff meeting.
Create a schedule and agenda. It is important to schedule your meeting and give the attendees an agenda ahead of time. Everyone attending should have time to prepare. You do not want to catch anyone off guard. Your staff is supposed to work together as a team. Not giving them time to prepare for your meeting can lead to defensiveness and ultimately, decreased productivity.
Set a conducive meeting time. Asking staff to come in early or stay late is often not conducive for a productive meeting. Find out from your staff what works best for them. While it is impossible to keep everyone happy, if your staff is in the right mind and ready for the meeting, your results will greatly improve. If you have to meet before or after hours, compensate your employees; they will feel more appreciated and be more willing to give input during the meeting. If you have the meeting during lunch, provide food. These are small investments that will greatly improve your staff’s attitude.
Set a time limit. Setting a time limit will force you to come to conclusions or create action items and move through the agenda quickly. If necessary, schedule follow-up meetings. It is more important to finish on a positive note than have the staff watching the time, waiting for the meeting to end. If you manage the agenda effectively, you can allow for feedback while still moving along in a timely manner. Also, watch their body language. If necessary, take a break and allow people to come back refreshed.
Stick to the agenda. While it is important to get feedback from your staff, you have to stick to the agenda, make decisions, and move forward. It is easy to get distracted and off topic. Stay in control of the meeting and discussions. If a topic that needs to be addressed comes up but is not on the agenda, you can either add it to the end of the meeting or schedule another meeting.
Discuss staff issues. Use staff meetings to get feedback on what is affecting employees’ work and productivity. Be sure to remain calm and manage the conversation. Never allow emotions to arise and turn conversation into arguments. Focus on coming to a decision that resolves the issue while leaving everyone still feeling positive.
Do not allow staff meetings to be gripe sessions. These meetings are for business problems, not personal problems. While it is important to address an employee’s personal issues, staff meetings are not the time or place for this. Set aside time to address these issues specifically with the parties involved rather than with the entire staff, which can often cause the staff to turn against each other or take sides with one party over the other.
When issues arise between employees working together, make a decision. You can either solve the problem and enforce your solution, which can often lead to frustrated staff or rebellion, or you can introduce the problem and ask your staff to take responsibility. Listening to their concerns and sitting back and allowing them to work through the issues, then coming to an ultimate solution will empower your employees to have control over both their problems and outcomes. With a self-motivated staff you will be able to trust them to make smart decisions and work through their issues.
Avoid interruptions. If you have an agenda in place and a strict time limit, it will require you to focus on moving the meeting along. Ban cell phone usage from the meeting. Incoming calls, e-mails, or texts are very distracting and should be avoided.
Less is more. Having meetings too often can bring on its own set of problems. Having fewer but better, meetings is more important to making sure the staff meetings are productive and not wasting valuable time.
Be action oriented. When action items arise, be quick to assign them and give them deadlines. After the meeting, spend a few minutes compiling a summary, the tasks, and deadlines and send them out via e-mail. This affirms the verbal discussion and leaves everyone clear about their responsibilities and when those tasks are due.
Change the environment. Periodic meetings outside the normal work environment can spark creativity and new ideas from your staff. These alternative locations can be anything from a local restaurant to an outdoor park.
“When issues arise between employees working together, make a decision. You can either solve the problem and enforce your solution, which can often lead to frustrated staff or rebellion, or you can introduce the problem and ask your staff to take responsibility.”
Maintain a positive approach. It is key in the team building process to phrase your question in a positive manner. For example, look at the difference between asking the question “How can we better work together?” versus “What can we do to stop the tension and manipulation between each other?” The first one takes a positive approach to the situation; whereas, the second one leaves them blaming each other and taking a defensive standpoint.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Allowing playfulness in your meetings can help keep overall attitude light and positive. Do not allow your meetings to be serious and tense 100 percent of the time. It will wear on your staff over time.
Acknowledge the small things. In the struggle to motivate your staff, be sure to take time to give praise when it is deserved. Acknowledge the small things to show staff that their efforts are not going unnoticed.
Rotate leadership. Changing who leads your meeting on a volunteer basis allows your employees to learn about different aspects of your business and is great for team building.
Match merit increases with performance levels. Keep your employees motivated by giving awards based on performance. If lower performing workers are receiving the same compensation as your top performers, you will begin to see a decrease in productivity from your top performers. You want to send the message that performance matters. Award those who work harder and are more dedicated.
Get feedback from staff. While you want your staff to participate during the meeting, you also can benefit from getting feedback about the meeting itself. Maybe you spent too much or too little time on a particular topic. Your staff can provide valuable insight as to how you can help them during these meetings as well.
Balance the discussions. If you are getting too much feedback from some and not enough from others, ask for others to give their ideas or thoughts. It is important to make sure everyone is participating and that one or two people do not dominate the majority of the discussions.
Avoid using meetings to just check in on your staff. While staff meetings are great for getting progress reports of what is on everyone’s plate, do not limit your meeting to just that activity. A good boss does not use meetings just to check on his/her staff. There is nothing strategic about this method. You and your staff need to both understand the big picture and understand how everyone working together can help achieve the business goals.
Establish ground rules. Setting ground rules for your meetings helps your staff understand the rules of engagement. As mentioned previously, feedback from your staff is important. However, if there are no boundaries, your meetings can quickly get out of hand and off topic. Set ground rules for how to handle new ideas or topics that may not be on your agenda. This way both you and your employees will know what the process is when these situations arise.
Start your meeting with a member check in. By doing a member check in and asking a simple question such as “What do you wish to accomplish today?” or “What issues have you had recently with any of the items on the agenda?” This prompts immediate engagement from your staff and allows everyone to contribute from the start.
Assign roles. Along with creating structure with a well planned agenda, you also should create a leadership structure within your meetings. Every meeting should have a time keeper to assist in keeping the agenda moving along, a person taking the overall meeting notes, and a facilitator who provokes engagement from those not contributing, keeping the discussion focused towards the goals. If you have a smaller staff, sometimes these roles can be consolidated. You want to avoid your staff feeling like your meetings are a dictatorship. Giving some authority and roles within a meeting can bring out leadership from your employees and help them be motivated to contribute more.
Positive results are achievable when your meetings are planned and ran properly. The effectiveness is determined by organization and encouragement from the management staff. It is your responsibility to get the employees involved and excited about attending meetings. Implementing the tips above may take some time, but you will learn to maximize the effectiveness of your meetings.
Mike Lewis is the managing partner and internet strategist at Perfect Circle Media Group (PCMG). He has been developing websites and e-commerce sites for 10 years. He is a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) consultant for many companies around the world. His expertise lies in developing online communities, professional and social networking, SEO, SEM, and custom web applications. mike@perfect360.com
