It’s not unusual to find that businesses don’t have regular team meetings. Some don’t even meet at all. They consider their business too small or too busy.
Another common excuse is that it’s “too hard” to get everyone together in the same place at the same time. Getting your team together might seem impossible at first. Especially if everyone is running from A to B, getting the sales coming in and keeping the business going. But never overlook the benefit of regular team meetings.
Regular team meetings (weekly if possible) will help drive results. It will also provide a common purpose and keep morale high. All these things can have a big impact on the success of your business.
If you don’t make your team meetings a top priority, they will always get shuffled to the bottom of the list. That’s not good for you, your team, or your business. Team meetings provide a valuable forum for keeping up-to-date and communication. You can handle any issues and set the scene for success and achievement in the business for the week to come. Once the habit is set you’ll find yourself and your team beginning to look forward to the meetings.
It’s a good idea to schedule your team meetings to occur right before a deadline (eg. lunchtime or 1 hour before closing). This reduces the chance of running overtime. It doesn’t need to be a long meeting – anything from 30 minutes to one hour at the most.
You can use these 7 points to help you and your team get the most out of every one of these meetings:
1. Prepare An Agenda
If it’s to be a productive and effective meeting, you must have an agenda, and stick to it. This may entail making sure you’re aware of what you need to cover ahead of time.
2. Set The Meeting Up
Often these meetings can be about addressing challenges. What wasn’t done last week; What needs doing next week. Because this can sometimes feel like hard work, it helps to set the meeting up by starting “upbeat”. Have everyone share one specific good thing that happened during the week. This could be personal or business related. Not only will this offset any negativity, it’ll help to get to know each other and give everyone a pat on the back. At first this can feel a bit uncomfortable, but stick with it and make sure everyone takes part.
3. Report The Results
Go over the results for the week. Standardise your statistical reports and make them visual. Graphs are a great way to do this. Your team will be able to see the trend and whether they’re hitting targets or not.
NB: Be careful around targets that haven’t been met as this can cause a reaction within your team. It’s a great idea to acknowledge the breakdown and look at what you can do to remedy it. It’s key to remember that this is not the place for “beating up” a team, or a team member who is under-performing.
4. Recurring Problems
Review any recurring problems that your customers or your team are dealing with. If there’s an easy solution you can handle this on the spot, or you may need to investigate it later. Make sure everyone knows the outcome.
5. Brain Storm
If there’s a problem or something your business is grappling with – use the combined brainpower of your team. Your team will feel pretty good about contributing in this way. And the good, new ideas you’ll end up with will surprise you.
6. Keep A Record
Make sure you keep a record of who said they were going to do what and by when. Keep a note any other items that need putting in place.
7. Be On Time
Start on time. Finish on time.