It’s important to have good communication with your staff, and meetings are generally the best way to do so. The standard weekly meeting is a great start, but have you ever considered holding a morning meeting on the daily?
“Daily meetings keep team members together and help leaders stay in touch with their people,” says Lisa Kaplin, a psychologist and professional coach for corporations on everything that has to do with company culture.
Kaplin says having daily meetings, versus weekly or monthly meetings, will help leaders pick up on their staff’s energy better, catch issues quicker, and address them in the blink of an eye (or a better chance of doing so, anyway). Now, here are five tips to make these meetings as efficient and effective as possible.
As told to Abby Patterson
The most important reason to hold daily meetings is for just a quick check on your people and seeing how everyone is holding up. Through these meetings, you can usually pick up some energy and figure out what’s going on. It’s great for employees to share what is working and what’s not. Maybe a process isn’t working so well, and employees can bring it up at the daily meetings to discuss.
Keep a very strict start and end time. Keep it short. There shouldn't be a lot of detail involved. A quick safety tip to keep it top-of-mind, and discuss any issues that have come up. It should be at most 30 minutes. If you can make it 15 minutes, all the better. Even have a stand-up meeting so your staff know they aren’t staying for long.
If you go over on time, you’ve just taught your people to not trust you on time, and people aren’t then not as willing to participate. So before the meeting, have an agenda and let everyone know what’s going to be covered in the meeting so there are no surprises.
If you’re going to have a longer meeting, have them on an as-needed basis. For example, if a process is in place that isn’t working, then you can schedule a time to go over solutions.
Make the meetings fun. A lot of times people dread meetings. If they know there’s going to be a positive at the end, or there’s donuts for them to munch on, they won’t dread going to them. It’s almost like the vibe of a football team huddle versus moans and groans at the thought of attending another meeting.
Vary up the meetings sometimes. For instance, one time have a special guest speaker or add in a little video that will make your team laugh. Add a little something into the mix periodically so it’s not the same thing every single day.
Always end a daily meeting with what’s going right. End on a high note. Talk about work anniversaries, how good sales are doing this week. That way, employees will walk away from each meeting feeling encouraged and ready to tackle the day.
