Early on in my professional career, I found myself managing a team of peers. Each week we had a team meeting where we would discuss what is on our plates and figure out how to divide and conquer. As a young leader, I quickly realized managing these team meetings was a huge undertaking. My meetings were often disconnected, unorganized, and all-out frustrating.
Unfortunately, my story is not much different than many leaders and presenters today. We have every good intention of leading an effective meeting, exciting our team and inspiring them to be more productive. However, despite all our best intentions and big dreams, our meetings turn into boring spreadsheets and disconnected team members.
With all this in mind, our team has put together 3 tips for leading an effective team meeting.
Send Ahead an Agenda
While agendas may seem constricting for a creative, they are vital to an effective meeting. By creating an agenda, you force yourself to think through every step of the meeting. In many ways, this agenda is more about your preparation than informing your team. When creating the agenda be sure to include a time for each topic so that you can easily keep on track as the meeting progresses.
Leave Time for Discussion
The quickest way to lose your audience to the dreaded phone break is by running a meeting where only you talk. It is important when planning your meeting to specifically build in opportunities for your team members to discuss. Not only does this allow you to gain valuable insight from your team but it also gives your team a sense of ownership and pride. It is important to remember when planning the timing of your meeting that you build in 1 minute on either side of the discussions for your team to settle back in.
Send Any Prep Material Ahead of Time
Many team leaders show up to a team meeting hoping to jump right into a discussion and be productive. However, many of us fail to send vital information ahead of time to our team. This leads to them hearing our content for the first time on meeting day. In many ways, this limits your team’s ability to participate in any discussion or conversation. At Ethos3 we recommend sending ahead all relevant material that will be covered to your team no later than 48 hours ahead of the meeting. This will ensure maximum efficiency during the meeting.
Using your time with as a leader effectively is vital to creating a highly productive team. One of the quickest ways to kill morale and lose your effectiveness is through meetings that are inefficient. So, before your next meeting consider implementing these three tips to your next team meeting.
Did you know leading team meetings are no different than delivering an excellent presentation? Contact us today to find out how we can help!
