Do Your Leadership Team Meetings Have a Clearly Defined Purpose?

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

One of the most common complaints we hear in our work is that there are ‘too many leadership team meetings’ and that they are a waste of valuable time. This more often than not is a reflection of the lack of effectiveness of these meetings, rather than the number or length of the meetings. Properly organised, focused meetings can save significant time.

One of the first and most fundamental steps in improving meeting effectiveness is for the leadership team to have a common view of the purpose of meeting. Simply put, if this meeting (or series of meetings) were outstandingly effective how would we know?

Having established an agreed outcome for the meeting it is important to ensure that the meeting is designed to achieve that one outcome, and deviation is not allowed. In order to achieve that purpose, a particular type and style of team meeting with a specific format and attendees is required.

We often note that in the interests of saving time, meetings attempt to achieve a number of purposes at once (a ‘catch up’, a tactical discussion, strategic planning and long term planning). In trying to achieve a mix of these within the one meeting format none of the objectives are adequately addressed and the meeting is viewed as a ‘waste of time’.

Set the purpose of the meeting beforehand; avoid deviation from the agreed outcomes and your leadership team meetings will become much more effective.

Find out how Leadership Team Coaching can benefit your team or your organisation or contact a Stepshift partner to discuss your leadership requirements.

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