The Monthly Leadership Meeting
In many companies, there’s often a gap between their highly functioning quarterly planning and the weekly meetings. So, let’s talk about a specific structure for the Monthly Leadership Meeting. A half to full-day opportunity to do a deeper dive into important tactical or strategic discussions, that you don’t get to in weekly meetings or in overloaded quarterly meetings.
1. Calibrate and catch up
We often forget about what’s going on and get lost in the problems of the day, so the monthly leadership meeting forces you out of that day-to-day to get back on track.
It’s a chance to get support and insights, and then recalibrate. In order to achieve what you need to by the end of the quarter.
Properly done, these meetings keep you in touch with what’s really going on in the business and are a check-in to see if you are on track with your quarterly, company-level goals.
2. Deep financial review
A line-by-line, grind-through of the income statement, the balance sheet, and the cash flow. Ask a lot of questions to figure out what to do in order to perform better next month. There should be a notable number of action items after this review.
- What’s working, what’s not working?
- What are you going to do differently going forward?
- Who is going to do what by when?
3. Department-level review
People in departments often run on their own, so this is where everyone comes back together to give updates, and to keep things in sync between departments. This benefits the CEO and executives, and creates peer pressure to do well. This closes any gaps between what people are actually doing versus their commitments.
Depending on the size of the business, you may invite three to six people from each department to join you for a specific time, to report on how they are doing with their priorities, answer questions and make decisions.
4. Customer & employee feedback review
Zoom out to look at what’s really going on with key stakeholders:
- What are customers saying that’s good? What’s not good?
- What are you hearing from employees?
- What might you need to tweak in your plans right now?
Qualitative and quantitative data is needed to be in tune with the environment, internally and externally. For example, a net promoter score (quantitative) and 4 Questions for customers (qualitative) for one-on-one feedback.
5. Collective intelligence
Dedicate two to six hours of the meeting to tap into the collective brainpower in the room, to push a project forward, solve a problem, make a decision, or get resources and support.
- Ask a team member to make a presentation.
- Dig into projects that you’re working on or need to figure out.
- Brainstorm stuck points, or whatever is needed to do to make a project successful.
- Get realigned.
One client in India flew 40 people in from across the country for full-day monthly meetings to tap into collective intelligence. It’s a time when middle managers get to grow and develop, to work with directors and executives, to understand what’s going on, to see different things and work with peers on projects.
The Challenge
- What can you do to either start or notably enhance the monthly meeting with your key people?
Want to hear more? Listen to Episode 92 of The Growth Whisperers.
And for more tips on great meetings:
Blog: 12 Tips for Better Business Meetings
Blog: Team Meetings, Debates and the Power of Bowling Balls
Episode 93: The Weekly Leadership Team Meeting
Podcast: How to Leverage Collective Intelligence
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