How to Hold Staff Meetings

from Able Leader, July 2010

by Steve Kaye

Is this you in a staff meeting?

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Are you reporting on news (or worse, giving a pep talk) to people who aren't paying attention?

In this dynamic, competitive business environment, no one can afford to waste time on bad meetings. Here are nine things that you can do to make your staff meetings a valuable part of running your business.

1) Be Deliberate

Sharpen your approach by answering these questions: What is the purpose of your meeting? How does the value of the meeting compare with the cost of the meeting? How would your CEO (or major stockholders) evaluate your last staff meeting?

2) Be Efficient

Prepare an agenda driven by questions that lead people to the results you want. Recognize that people work best when they focus on single issues for brief lengths of time. Ideally, meetings should last less than 50 minutes. (This also allows people to refresh and travel to their next meeting.)

3) Be Equitable

Design staff meetings so that everyone participates. Maintain a safe, positive environment that facilitates candid, creative thinking. Thus, avoid criticism, ridicule, or other aggressive nonsense that causes some to withdraw. Insist on respect for all. Recognize that amazing ideas can lead to brilliant innovations.

4) Be Generous

Delegate the planning and conduct of these meetings to members of your staff. This frees you to work on other (often higher value) tasks. It also allows you to participate in the meeting. Then you can observe the leadership skills of the person in charge and the team dynamics of your staff.

5) Be Motivational

Use public progress reports to facilitate accountability. Give each member of your group one minute to report on their progress since the last meeting. Follow each report with a brief (e.g., one minute) round of comments, questions, and suggestions by the others. If possible, restrict people to expressing these ideas in a single sentence. Important: Seek a positive tone for the commentary because this builds relationships.

Benefits: People will learn how to deliver clear, concise accounts of essential information. People will refrain from unproductive talk, such as philosophizing, complaining, and story telling. People will remember more when they receive logically organized information.

6) Be Brief

If you must convey news: a) Send the news in an e-mail before the meeting, b) Summarize the news briefly (e.g., less than a minute) in the meeting, and c) Have each person report on how they will respond to the news.

Benefits: a) This makes everyone an active participant in responding to news. They may, for example, be able to offer innovative ways to take advantage of the news. b) This guarantees that everyone understood the impact of critical news. And c) This sets a standard for news worthy of being reported upon in a meeting.

7) Be Educational

Have members of your group deliver brief tutorials on topics that benefit the group. Or, invite a guest expert to give a short (e.g., 10 minute) presentation on some skill or technology that benefits your group. Make this a rotating assignment and include one such session in each staff meeting.

8) Be Creative

Include a special learning activity in each meeting. These might include puzzles, quizzes, or skill practices. Follow this activity with a brief recap where group members report on how they will use the new ideas to improve their work. Use this as a rotating assignment to help you evaluate each person's creativity.

9) Be Positive
End the meeting with each person stating one sentence of good news. This demonstrates that you are in the Good News business, encouraging everyone to work toward creating success for the next meeting.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

Call if I can help: 714-528-1300

P.S. Want to know more? I've written three books and one booklet on how to hold better meetings. Find them here: Steve Kaye's Books.