There is nothing worse than spending precious work time in a meeting to end up feeling confused, bored, or mentally drained at the end. Meetings are a natural component of business that most employees working in a team will have to face, but it doesn’t have to be something they dread. Today, we are sharing the top leadership skills for effective team meetings you as a manager can employ.
Leadership Skills for Effective Team Meetings
One of the easiest leadership skills for effective team meetings to develop is meeting planning. Before calling a meeting, we highly recommend considering the following:
What is the goal of the meeting?
What are you looking to accomplish by calling this meeting?
Who needs to attend?
Don’t waste the time of those who are unnecessary for the meeting.
What is each person’s role in the meeting?
Does each person know why they are in the meeting and their role?
What is your role in the meeting?
Are you sharing new information, or are you stepping back to hear new ideas? Make sure that you and your team understand your role for the meeting, so they don’t make incorrect assumptions.
If you need to cover multiple points in a meeting, there should be a shareable agenda for everyone to have access to and refer to. Your agenda should cover every topic that needs to be discussed, and it works well as a reminder if the meeting goes off course.
One of the best leadership skills for effective team meetings is distributing the agenda before the meeting. This will allow teammates to think about the points beforehand and submit additional topics that you may not be aware of need further discussion.
The whole point of conducting a meeting is to fulfill a specific purpose, but it can be easy for you and your teammates to go down an unproductive rabbit hole. As the leader, it is your job to balance keeping the meeting on track and productive and allowing free space where teammates can creatively brainstorm new ideas. We recommend using the first part of the meeting to cover the quick, vital agenda points. The second part should be dedicated to any brainstorming that needs to be completed. By structuring the discussion this way, you won’t feel pressured for time.
Every meeting should end with actionable items for team members to accomplish with specific timelines. With these tasks in hand, employees will walk away with a sense of purpose and a mission to accomplish.
Developing leadership skills for effective team meetings is terrific, but the same monotony of meetings can grow tiresome even for the most dedicated employees. We recommend taking the time to mix up your sessions now and then. Whether providing a fun snack, taking the meeting outside, bringing in a guest speaker, delegating team members to take turns leading the discussion, or more, it helps keep the mood fresh and fun!
The last thing we want to note on building leadership skills for effective team meetings is the age-old saying, “monkey see, monkey do.” If you attend each meeting with a positive, upbeat attitude, your team will likely follow suit. So, keep it positive!
Want to learn more about improving your leadership and management skills? Check out our blog!