Is your team running and hiding?

By MollyandLaney

Our recent, ongoing discussion has been about the blessing and curse of being a leader.  We’ve discussed how necessary leadership is to any growing company and how it can be overwhelming for a leader to balance the needs of their team with their own.  We’ve shared how the strategy of “Leading by Example” can provide leadership for your team, in a leveraged, structured manner. Here is another strategy to produce results, while allowing you to maintain a balance between the demands of your team and your own needs.

The Set up for a Productive Week

Team meetings often seem like really bad episodes of the TV show Survivor;  half the team arguing about HOW to do something, while the other half is day dreaming, at least one person is upset and at least one is just sitting there shaking their head “YES” to everything to keep the peace.  However, with the blur of day to day noise in a small firm, its impossible for a team to be effective and avoid miscommunication without checking in once a week, as a group, on goals and things that impact the team (firm).  It also makes sense to make group announcements ONE TIME to everyone, versus FIVE TIMES to each person individually, or worse getting stuck in a email game of “Communication Ping Pong”.

Most team members run and hide from any mention of a “meeting.”  They simply want to get their work done.  They don’t want to talk about it, or strategize about it—they just want to do it!
As much as we can commiserate about sitting through long, drawn out useless meetings with endless discussions and nothing accomplished, it’s imperative that you set your week up to be productive with the following HOUSE RULES for running a concise, effective weekly team meeting:

1. You must start your week with a team meeting, whether Monday or on your company’s first business day of the week.   Who needs a meeting at the end of the week to discuss what’s already happened?  Monday team meetings help plan for the week and get everyone on the same page.  It MUST be the same day, the same time each and every week, so everyone can plan on being there. This meeting is sacred and should never be postponed.

2. The meetings should be no longer than an hour. 

3. Everyone attends the meeting—from the boss to the receptionist. No exceptions.  That’s why it’s called a TEAM meeting.

4. All phones are turned off! Office phones go to voicemail with a recording that let’s callers know that you’re in a team meeting from X am to X am, and will return calls at X am.  No cell phones, no Blackberrys. (We know this little device makes you feel very important…but it is a blatant display of disrespect.  And we promise your listserv email responses of “me too” can wait an hour.)

5. A predetermined, consistent leader should run the meeting with a standard agenda.   The leader should never, ever be the owner of the business. Everyone should be made aware of the agenda prior to the meeting, and come prepared and organized.  If the team leader is you, take responsibility for bringing the necessary implements (current schedule, copies of tools/worksheets, pencils, etc.). You can prepare for it at the end of the day Friday, or come in early Monday morning—whatever works for you. (You don’t want to have to say, “I don’t have that” five times during one meeting.)  The key is to be accountable. The result is an effective Monday Morning Meeting and respect from your boss and team.

6. Keep “Monday Morning Meeting” agendas and worksheets in front of you all day Monday, until you have all action steps calendared for the bigger strategic items.  The easy “Gottas” go right from one list to the next until you can knock them off your list, typically by Tuesday. The result is a focused, planning day.

7. At the end of the week, hold a quick meeting to summarize what was accomplished for the week.  We call this “The 10 Minute Team Huddle.”

For a Sample “Monday Morning Meeting” agenda – email us.
SIDEBAR

Mondays are “Grounding Days” and that’s okay! Give yourself permission for Mondays to be the day to do nothing but attend effective, productive meetings in the morning and recover from the fall out of them in the afternoon. Return calls, emails, and accomplish all the “little” things that are delegated to you during your Monday meetings.  Call it a huge WIN! The result is that you’ll be able to hit the ground running Tuesday, which will create a productive, kick butt week, because there’ll be no little things hanging around. It also shows efficiency as you complete all those little things right away.  Completing all the meeting fall out by end of day Monday also ensures that little follow ups not immediately handled don’t become major disasters later in the week.

Destined to Repeat the Same Mistakes?

By MollyandLaney

In our last blog, we talked about the blessing and curse of being a leader.  We discussed how necessary leadership is to any growing company, and how it can be overwhelming for a leader to balance the needs of their team and their own.  Let us share the first of several simple strategies to provide leadership for your team, in a leveraged, structured manner. These strategies produce results, while allowing you to maintain a balance between the demands of your team and your own needs.

Always Lead by Example

This is cliché, so cliché it’s overlooked in every single company we have worked with.  It’s fundamentally simple.  If you are late to meetings, so will your team.  If you listen to hearsay, so does your team.  If you don’t complete projects on time, neither will they.  If you don’t come to meetings prepared, don’t be surprised when your team schedules over them.  Be very aware – as this rarely shows up to yourself as obvious or “no duh”.  You’re a professional and your intent clearly is not to declare, “Oh to heck with it, I’ll just wing it.”  Instead you have a client emergency that morning, show up to the team meeting five minutes late out of breath, unprepared and frustrated that your team isn’t already in the thick of The Monday Morning Strategy Experience™.  Think about it – if you allow client emergencies to happen on Monday morning and fashion havoc on your team meeting, then make certain to carve out time at the end of your day to prepare on Friday.  Emergencies happen.  Don’t cut your preparation time so close to the meeting that one emergency can blow your day.  Whenever there are habits or a culture in your team you don’t like, look to how you may have given permission for this to happen and become the new standard.  Just take a moment and look that you may have opened the door for the perception that the team now has a really valid reason for being late and unprepared.  If you don’t stop and evaluate your behaviors, your team will not only repeat the same mistakes but it will quickly become the “norm”. 

We know you may be thinking, “This is silly…I already know this”. Chances are you probably do.  But can see you see it and rectify it within your own team?  We encourage you to just pay attention over the next few weeks to situations or team’s actions that irritate or disappoint you.  Just check in and see if there was any example you may have unintentionally set or allowed other team members to set.  Again, the purpose isn’t to blame yourself or others, it’s simply to recognize the cause and effect of behavior.  Try intentionally leading by example in a certain area that is really bugging you.  You might not see results the first time, but keep at it, and soon enough quality team will rise to the standard you set.  This is a simple, but devastatingly effective, way to provide leadership that produces positive results.

Stay tuned for our next blog, where we will continue to share strategies to lead in a leveraged manner.