The Weekly Leadership Team Meeting

The Week­ly Team Meet­ing can be the most hat­ed, bor­ing event.

These fall-asleep, get-your-email-done, ram­ble-on-reports meet­ings hap­pen because the per­son in charge has failed to remem­ber the pur­pose of a week­ly meet­ing and to bring the most impor­tant con­ver­sa­tion to the table.

Done right, the week­ly team meet­ing is where the real momen­tum and trac­tion hap­pens. It can moti­vate, ener­gize and help your team to stay aligned and focused on what mat­ters most.

The pri­ma­ry pur­pose and struc­ture of the meet­ing is to refo­cus or recal­i­brate to make sure you hit the goals set at your quar­ter­ly meetings.

Here’s the frame­work to make that happen:

Keep it tight

• 60 to 90 min­utes, max­i­mum two-hours.
• Assign some­one to run the meet­ing and man­age time.
• Use a timer to make sure every­one report­ing stays suc­cinct and has equal time.
• Close on time.

Note: The length of the meet­ing depends on the size of, and what works for, an indi­vid­ual busi­ness. Set a time for each sec­tion of the meet­ing and don’t go over.

Set a pos­i­tive tone

• Start with a win. What’s a high­light? How does it relate to the core values?
• Con­nect and check in with each oth­er. Tell the truth and rate where you are from zero to ten.

Track the numbers

• What are the num­bers and crit­i­cal KPIs?
• What’s red? Amber? Green?

These results may cre­ate oth­er ques­tions for the col­lec­tive intel­li­gence part lat­er in the meet­ing. e.g., Why are sales dropping?

• Review quar­ter­ly pri­or­i­ties. and com­pa­ny-lev­el goals and pos­si­bly, exec­u­tive- or team-lev­el goals.

Review progress against quar­ter­ly priorities

Are you on track, in terms of the top three-to-five quar­ter­ly pri­or­i­ties set for the company?

• What progress have you made on that quar­ter­ly priority?
• Where are you be stuck and need some assistance?
• What are you going to do next?

If you have no progress to report that means noth­ing hap­pened in the last sev­en days.

Review cus­tomer or employ­ee data

Pay atten­tion to infor­ma­tion. Even if you don’t have sophis­ti­cat­ed qual­i­ta­tive and the quan­ti­ta­tive sys­tems or eNPS, this should be a best practice.

• What have you heard in the marketplace?
• Do you hear any­thing dif­fer­ent from cus­tomers or employees/​new hires?

Review col­lec­tive intelligence

These are strate­gic team dis­cus­sions or debates and at least 30 min­utes of a 60-to-90 minute meet­ing when you use the smartest brains in the room to trou­bleshoot or fig­ure out the crit­i­cal things you need to do to move ahead. For example:

• Gath­er feed­back on a new mod­el around peo­ple and strategy.
• Address short-term tac­ti­cal issues
• Address items in the park­ing lot or things held for a future time.
• For exam­ple, a dif­fer­ent team mem­ber presents a top­ic (per­haps every sec­ond week).

Tune up regularly

• Be dis­ci­plined. Refine and update your week­ly agen­das to make sure they stay effi­cient and fresh.
• If they get a lit­tle rough, don’t wor­ry about it. Get a cou­ple peo­ple to tight­en up and reset the agenda.

The Chal­lenge

• What can you do to make your week­ly meet­ings one of the most valu­able meet­ings of the week?

For more, lis­ten to Episode 93 of The Ghost Whis­per­ers podcast.

And for more tips on deliv­er­ing great meetings:

Blog: 12 Tips for Bet­ter Busi­ness Meetings

Blog: Team Meet­ings, Debates and the Pow­er of Bowl­ing Balls

Pod­cast: How to Lever­age Col­lec­tive Intelligence

Pod­cast: The Sev­en Best Prac­tices for Week­ly Meetings

Lawrence & Co’s work focus­es on sus­tain­able and enhanced growth for you and your busi­ness. Our diverse and expe­ri­enced group of advi­sors can help your lead­ers and exec­u­tive teams stay com­pet­i­tive through the use of var­i­ous learn­ing tools includ­ing work­shops, webi­na­rs, exec­u­tive retreats, or one-to-one coaching.

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