I was listening to a Brene Brown Podcast, and her guest was Priya Parker, who wrote the book The Art of Gathering. How We Meet and Why It Matters. It was highly thought-provoking on post-pandemic how we will gather together and Why we gather. A deeper discussion centered around meetings in general and the Purpose of those meetings.
Well, you know, it grabbed the attention of the girl who wrote the Book Three Word Meetings. So I thought to myself, What a great time to think about all the meetings I attend or lead and think about how they could be better and if they needed a Makeover.
What is a meeting? It is where people discuss issues, improve communication, share ideas on improving processes, ideate on how to generate revenue. One of the main reasons I like our weekly team meetings is that the team is together! It’s time to connect, collaborate and create conversations and Inspiration.
Whether you’re still working remotely or back full-time at work, you’re still meeting, so let me ask you a question? Could your meetings be better? I would think most of us would say yes! So how do you begin to Makeover Your Meetings? We attend various meetings throughout our week, Sales meetings, Department Head meetings, One on One coaching meetings, client meetings, brainstorming meetings, team collaboration meetings, etc.
Five questions you can use to help guide you in Making your meetings better.
Step One: What is the Purpose of the meeting?
The most critical question you need to ask yourself. What is working, and what needs a makeover? What is the Purpose of the meeting and the outcome you are looking for in your meetings? Every gathering should have a result. When invited to a Dinner Party, you know the Purpose and what to expect. Think about your meetings. For example, is it to gather your team to educate them on new products or services? Is it to have them work together to solve a business challenge? Is it Team Building? Educational? Inspirational? If you’re struggling with the Purpose of your meeting, then I recommend asking yourself, Why are you meeting?
Step Two: When and How often should you meet?
We have our Leadership meetings every Tuesday at 8:30 am for an hour. The question to think about is it necessary to meet every week? You may discover that meeting Bi-Weekly or monthly makes more sense. As a management team, we made a decision only to have meetings with Purpose. The length of the meeting matters as well, and we don’t force content to fill up the hour if we don’t have the material or content. If the content is 30 minutes long, then the meeting ends early! Imagine that as a salesperson, more time to develop your business or spend more time with your clients.
Step Three: Name your meetings.
What you title your meetings set the tone for your time together. Most people name their meetings – sales meetings. We call our weekly meetings Leadership Meetings. Yes, we sell marketing solutions to our customers, but the Purpose of the meeting is to think like a Leader. The word Sales feels very different than Leader! The importance of naming your sessions is that the people attending have a better idea of what they can expect. An Off-site meeting feels different than a meeting in a conference room. For example, guest Speaker, Breakfast, brainstorming, or grow revenue meetings creates a picture in the minds of those attending.
My Leadership Meetings – I use 3 Words to frame every meeting. There is a purpose behind those Three Words. The words reflect the Purpose behind our gathering.
Step Four- Engage your team.
Ask your team for feedback. Remember this meeting is for the team. In your next Leadership meeting, I recommend breaking your team into small groups. Ask them what they find helpful to share during your time together. Would they like guest speakers? Do they want Inspiration or collaboration during their time together? What needs to go and no longer serves a purpose to the meeting? How often should you meet? What could we Makeover to help them? Learn trends in your industry? Do they want music when they walk into the room or on Zoom?
Step Five – Be open to the team’s feedback.
We walked our Leaders through the process I shared with you. It gave us insights on what needed to go and what new concepts would benefit our team.
So here’s to your meetings and gatherings having more Purpose and engagement. I would love to hear your experiences in Making Over your meetings
Learn more about how to Simply Your sales meetings using 3-word topics at http://www.threewordmeetings.com .