September 2020 - Cameron Herold

It’s likely that everyone has been part of a meeting where practically nothing gets resolved. If you make big decisions for a company, that shouldn’t be the norm.

It’s important to find ways to get your meetings back to how they’re supposed to be—productive and informative.

Here are just a few ways you can get back on track with your meetings.

Create an Agenda

It’s important that you write down a clear, solid agenda before your meeting. It’s far too easy to go in with a broad idea of what you want to accomplish and then end up getting off track or circling around the same ideas for far too long. The meeting will end and you’ll realize “Wait, what did we actually decide on?”

“It is no question that every productive meeting absolutely needs a solid agenda ahead of time. Everyone attending needs to know that the meeting has a purpose and, to keep it productive, the meeting needs to stick to that purpose—get rid of the chance for stray topics to get you off track.” – Cameron Herold

Start your meeting with a clear purpose that’s also been written down in the agenda for extra measures. You should also create a bulleted list of action items when you send the agenda to your team. They need to be clear on what is being accomplished by this meeting, too.

Invite People Who NEED to Attend

It’s easy to invite more people than you need to a meeting “just in case.” Don’t do that. Think about who you’re inviting and if they really need to be there. With people attending that aren’t vital, you’ll find it’s a lot easier to lose track of what needs to be done.

“Google caps attendees at 10 and Amazon has a “two pizza” rule (i.e., never have a meeting where you can’t feed the whole group with two pies). It all serves one purpose: only invite essential personnel, and you’ll find things stay on track.” – Forbes

By inviting people that aren’t essential, not only are you risking the meeting’s productivity but you’re also just wasting that employee’s time. Everyone attending the meeting should have a specific purpose if you want to get your meetings back on track.

Be a Leader with Purpose

Getting meetings on track and keeping them on track requires a strong leader. As a leader, you need to lead every meeting with purpose and confidence. Just being confident about what needs to get done does increase the chances of it actually getting done.

“Great meetings happen when you have great leaders. It’s not always easy to be the one ensuring things are moving along, but someone has to be accountable for running meetings that don’t suck.” – Forbes

As the leader, you set the tone for the meeting. It is ultimately up to your skills and leadership abilities as to if things are going to get done or not.

The leader is required to keep things on track, even when conversations are starting to stray. You want to be liked by your employees and coworkers and that sometimes means being tempted to join them in straying from the topic of the meeting. It’s up to you to be the one who steers the conversation back, even if that means being the bad guy.

If you have questions or would like more information, I’d be happy to help. Please send an email, and my team will get in touch with you!

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in December 2009 and had been edited for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Some managers rarely check in with their employees. If things are running smoothly and everyone is doing their job then they might think “What’s the point?”

Even the perfect team needs regular check-ins and here is why.

Avoiding Miscommunication

One miscommunication can make a mess of even the most smoothly running team. By checking in with your team you can avoid those miscommunications, or fix them before they truly mess something up. If you don’t check-in regularly, you might not notice a small miscommunication until an entire project has been done the wrong way!

“When the employees are checking on a regular basis, the[y] can compare notes and make sure that the employees understand exactly what they are supposed to be doing on the job. If the employees are not checking in, there can be some misunderstandings or misinterpretations about directions on the job.” – Thrive Global

Miscommunications are tiny things that can turn into messes. Taking the time to quickly check-in on your employees is a whole lot easier and less time consuming than trying to backtrack from a miscommunication that’s been left long enough to cause chaos.

Providing a Safe Space for Concerns

It’s a lot more comfortable for an employee to air their concerns when you’re seeking them, versus if they had to come build up the nerve to find you and tell you unprompted. During a check-in, you can sit down and ask them outright for feedback and concern. That’ll make them feel a lot more comfortable being honest—which also means you need to be willing to hear and act upon those concerns as well!

“Employees should feel like their one-on-one are a safe place to speak freely. Whether they want to know more about [the] direction of the business or their own personal performance, they should never be afraid to ask a question or share concerns.” – Entrepreneur

Without those regular check-ins, there are some employees that you might never hear from. If you can do something that will actively encourage your employees to be open and honest, then you should do it!

It Keeps Projects Moving

Check-ins tell your employees that they’ve got your attention, which means they can’t be slacking off. It increases their self awareness. Not only that, but you get the insight into the way your employees work which will help you know which kind of projects are best for them.

Here are things from the COO Alliance blog that indicate what check-ins facilitate to encourage your employees to continue moving forward:

Let team members refocus lost attention
Encourage understanding through good communication
Give[s] everyone a voice and lets them know their input matters
Build trust and lets everyone feel seen and heard
Reminds us we are human and need connection in order to do good work

The reassurance that a manager is taking notice does wonders for an employees drive to get the job done and get it done well.

Remember, when you’re checking in, don’t do it aimlessly. Make sure you know what you want to talk about beforehand and have expectations of what you want to hear from your employees about their progress, concerns, and goals. Ask them questions and keep them talking. You want your employees to feel comfortable talking to you.

Most important of all, keep them regular. Setting specific times and days for check-ins will ensure that you get them done and, by having them scheduled, employees can prepare for them so that it doesn’t interrupt their workflow. Regular, structured check-ins can do wonders for your company.