The Agony of Boring Staff Meetings

A constant frustration I’ve heard from Entrepreneurs has been their experience of “the unproductive and boring staff meeting.”

As a business owner, can you identify with that?  Ever think….

• I have no idea how to run them
• I can tell everyone dreads them
• I have no idea whether or not they make a difference for my staff or customers
• I am afraid that if I stop doing them, I’ll have to micromanage them to get the info I need

It could be that your first reaction is to blame yourself for the lack of productivity – and that is common.  Blaming your team or lack of time to prepare is also common.  Spending time and resources each week dealing with this frustration shows a negative financial reality to the cost “boring meetings” –

I promise, you are not alone.

When we take little time to drill down to the root cause of these unproductive meetings, it’s usually a focus on one of two main things:

Their meetings lack purpose, or

Their meetings lack structure – or sometimes BOTH.

In his book, Death by Meeting, Patrick Lencioni suggests that owners embrace the idea of having more meetings – not less!  And specifically, meetings with structure and purpose – and not to try and ditch them or ignore them because they feel uncomfortable to you as the leader.

Here are the four types of meetings he suggests planning for your company on a regular basis:

Having systems around designing, executing and measuring meeting results are critical to the success of sales, staff morale and and overall company direction.

How do you get started?

My suggestion:  To not have boring staff meetings, start with the Daily Check in’s and the Weekly Tactical first.  Give it a chance – as with any new habit or change, give it at least a month before you decide if right for you or not.

• If you had only 5 minutes each day to check in with key staff, what would you want to know about their daily schedules and activities?
• If you only had 90 minutes each week to meet with your key staff, what would you want to know about their weekly activities, goals, and any obstacles in their way of success?

What will your system look like that creates the structure and the purpose for successful company meetings?  

Enjoy your Entrepreneurial Journey,

Rem