Staff meetings can be a highly effective tool, or a soul-draining snore-fest. There doesn't seem to be any middle ground. Often employees dread the tedium, the showing-off, or the just plain waste that goes on in pointless staff meetings. If you suspect your staff meetings are the latter, here are some tips from The Corner Office blog on improving your staff meetings.
1. Be Consistent – A good suggestion is for you to have your staff meetings weekly and for an hour at a time. Less time is not enough and more is too much. However, it is imperative that you tailor your staff meetings to your staff. Is there enough ground to cover to fill-up an hour? Do you really need to meet every week, or would twice a month be better. Don't have a meeting just because it's on the calendar. Nothing kills morale faster than getting trapped in a pointless meeting.
2. Manage the Meeting – This is your meeting with your approved agenda. Your employees need this information, or you need information from them. Do not let your meeting get derailed or sent off on a tangent. That is when your meeting becomes their meeting. You can halt discussion after an appropriate amount of time. You can write down subjects for other meetings. You can even schedule a special post-meeting meeting. What you cannot do is not have your meeting.
3. No Theatrics – A staff meeting is not a badge of power, nor a rank perk. A meeting is not there to make a manager look good or feel important. It's not a place to air grievances, gossip, or push personal agendas. A staff meeting is to update or inform the troops, assign projects, or get status reports. If you stick to the purpose of the meeting, it will go faster and be more productive.
4. Debate CAN be Good -- There is a time and a place for arguments and debate, and that is at your discretion. Getting other people's opinions is an excellent way to improve ideas and plans, but don't let the arguments take control of your meeting. Stop arguments after an appropriate amount of time or if people descend to name-calling, personal attacks, or other unhelpful tactics.
5. Record Decisions – Meetings can be used to resolve issues, but there must be follow-through. Designate someone to keep the minutes of your meetings, or at least record decisions made. Publish the decisions to the company as soon as possible so that everyone is on the same page. Include who is now responsible for what and when it needs to get done. A good idea is to use conferencing calling for your meetings – or at least a speakerphone dialed in to a conference call. Conference calls can be easily recorded, easily retrieved, and easily listened to. With a conference call recording, you'll never have to worry about losing information due to bad or incomplete notes and memories.
