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Now, onto Issue 22.
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7 simple tips for better team meetings
Team meetings are a staple of work life.
If you lead a team, they’re one of the most effective management tools you have.
That’s if you do them right.
At their best, team meetings:
Drive alignment
Develop your people
Improve team production
At their worst, they:
Lack focus
Lack structure
Waste your time
I’ve run many good ones and many bad ones over the last decade.
Today, I want to share 7 simple tips to help make your meetings better.
(Note: I’ve battle-tested all of these with teams I’ve lead, so they’re not coming from theory. That said, you’ll need to find what works best for your team.)
1. Rotate ownership
When I first started leading teams in business, I thought I had to run every meeting.
As the leader of the team, I thought it was my job to always be in control.
But over time, I learned a powerful lesson: The leader doesn’t always need to lead.
It’s empowering to put other team members in the leadership seat.
So I started rotating who ran our team meeting each week, and the benefits were immediate.
This approach:
Kept the meeting fresh
Helped the team build skills
Encouraged new ideas + voices
Drove engagement + ownership
Among other benefits.
My team meetings immediately improved when I relinquished control of leading it each week.
Instead, I communicated what I expected of the person leading our meeting and then I worked behind the scenes to help the person leading the meeting that week prepare.
I wish I would have started doing this earlier.
2. Educate beforehand
One reason so many meetings are a waste of time is too much meeting time is spent educating.
Meeting time should be reserved for discussion and making decisions.
Education should be done in writing beforehand.
Require an email 24 hours prior that covers:
Topic
Context
Why it’s being discussed
Desired outcome of discussion
This alone can cut your meeting time in half.
3. Focus on outcomes, not time
Most meetings are time-focused.
The agenda looks something like this:
Leadership updates (15 mins)
Review new product (30 mins)
Discuss marketing budget (15 mins)
The problem with this approach is it’s designed to fill the allotted time.
A better approach is making meetings outcome-focused.
With this approach, an agenda may look like this:
Determine marketing budget
Make decision on product feature
Decide how to implement new leadership strategy
All relevant information and context should be shared prior to the meeting (back to No. 2).
Schedule enough time to cover the items, but then focus on outcomes.
When the outcomes are achieved, the meeting is over.
4. Batch agenda items
Structure goes a long way in improving meeting efficiency.
Different topics require people to be in different head spaces.
Some topics require deep thought and discussion, while others just need quick decisions.
It can be helpful to batch items.
As an example:
Start with “rapid fire” decisions
These are items that are quickly resolved
This creates positive momentum in the meeting
Then switch to the deeper agenda items.
5. Mix tactical with development
One overlooked opportunity in team meetings is development.
These are a great time to help people build their skills and confidence.
My favorite idea:
Dedicate one meeting per month to development.
Each month, have a different team member teach their best skill.
The other team members get to learn a new skill every month.
The teacher gets to share their strengths and build their leadership skills.
Plus, it keeps the team meeting fresh.
Win-win-win.
6. Invite guests from other teams
The best organizations proactively break down silos.
One tactical way to do this that every team can contribute to is by inviting people from other divisions to your team meetings.
If you’re in Sales, invite someone from Product.
If you’re in Marketing, invite someone from Operations.
Give them 30 minutes to present on something they’re working on.
The benefits:
Keeps your meeting fresh
Keeps your team informed
Helps build key relationships
Fosters further development
I'd do this at least twice per quarter.
7. Experiment and iterate
Lastly, audit meetings at least once per quarter.
Do this by asking each member of the team on what they think is working and what could be improved.
Then iterate on the team feedback.
A few levers you can adjust:
Cadence - try multiple, shorter sessions
Duration - try different meeting lengths
Format - try various styles
The main thing: don’t let inertia take hold of your team meetings. Continually optimize.
BONUS: If it can be an email, do it
The most important point of all: hold meetings only for the things that must be meetings.
A good practice to build is asking yourself before every meeting, “Can this be an email?”
If it can, send the email and don’t schedule the meeting.
A great example of this is updates and information sharing.
Ruthlessly eliminate all unnecessary meetings, and your team’s performance will skyrocket.
Summary
To recap, 7 tips to make your team meetings better:
Experiment
Rotate ownership
Batch agenda items
Educate beforehand
Spend time on development
Invite people from other orgs
Focus on outcomes, not time
And the golden rule: If it can be an email, don’t schedule a meeting.
Hope these are helpful.
Teddy’s Recommendations
(1) I’m reading the 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership right now and would highly recommend it for any leader. It gives simple and practical advice on how to build a culture of curiosity and learning, not blame and excuses. I’ll be writing more about this book soon.
(2) I recently came across the podcast “How Leaders Lead with David Novak” and have been enjoying it. David is the co-founder of YUM! Brands (which operates KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and others restaurants). David has done impressive things in business and gets an incredible list of guests on his show. If you like leadership, check it out (Apple Podcasts + Spotify).
(3) If you want to build your business writing skills or your personal brand, you’ll enjoy my newsletter The Daily Creator. I share simple tips each week to help you build online and be more successful in your career. Join 2,000+ others here (it’s free):
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