Make Your Team Meetings More Effective

You’ve heard it before, “That meeting could have been an email.” or “What was that meeting about?” or “Meetings like these are such a waste of time.”

Expressions like those are a good indicator of a poorly run team meeting. One that lacks direction and focus, and leaves your employees questioning your leadership ability.

What can you do about it?

At Akramoff, our goal is to help you make your work, work and that includes being able to effectively run team meetings. We’ve put together 4 Ways to Make Your Team Meetings More Effective:

1. Have an agenda and stick to it. A meeting without an agenda often results in chaos, disorganization, lack of productivity, and a feeling of time being wasted rather than well-spent. Craft an agenda that includes different categories like informational items, discussion topics, and action items. Group similar items together to create a cohesive flow through the meeting and make sure everyone involved understands the process beforehand, which will help keep everyone on track. There are times, however, when the agenda needs to be pushed aside as noted in point four.
2. Begin each meeting with a statement of gratitude. Starting off on a positive note will yield better results and co-operation from those involved. If there are important, but less positive topics that need to be addressed, work them further along in the agenda. 
3. Give everyone a chance to speak at the beginning. The start of each meeting usually has more energy, is lighter, and is more apt for sharing from each person involved. Employees can share what they are doing and its progress, or a big win or success they recently experienced. As a leader, make sure you are protecting this time for others to speak. When an individual is truly listened to and given the space to express themselves, they are more likely to be a team player in the long term.
4. Sometimes you have to throw away the agenda. As a leader, if something is brought up off the meeting agenda, but is really important, you need to be ready to throw the agenda away and focus on what’s more important at that time. 

Whether you’re in a new leadership role or have been in one for some time, there’s always still more to learn, ways to improve, and growth to make. 

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” —John F. Kennedy

By implementing simple changes, like those above, you’ll be making the ever-important shift towards a positive and productive workplace for all. Keep learning, keep improving, and keep striving for building a workcenter that works!