In order to improve the communication between teams and managers, managers to directors and directors to CXOs, meetings focusing on productivity and performance are important. These types of meetings need to give every party the opportunity to say their piece about their specific matter and be expressive in order to reach their metrics.
PLAN
Most meetings like these are set up in an interrogative way which are very traditional – you simply answer that which the manager has asked.
In a productive meeting you need to open the door of communication in order to:
- Allow yourself to see the bigger picture in terms of status vs. goals, obstacles / risks vs opportunities, projections and what resources are requested to get there.
- Be there for your team: set up next steps or actions that allow you to help them and tackle their challenges head on with 100% accuracy and in line with their needs.
- During the meeting, create clear action points and take notes to show your team that they are important enough to end-up on your agenda!
- Let your team understand and see your hard work in action – talk about a boost in motivation.
DO
During the meeting have a calm voice and just keep it simple. If there is something your team can’t report to you on, give them a grace period in which they can come back to you with the information you request. This is to promote the fairness between managers and team. I mean, in all fairness, there will be things that will remain unanswered from management level as well.
Just say “Based on what we currently know....” with a forgiving tone that doesn’t make anyone in the meeting uneasy about a matter they might not even be able to control. The point is to focus on progress and to always move forward!
REVIEW
After the meeting, show your team that you are taking the notes and actions generated during the meeting seriously. Make your efforts visible by keeping the communication barrier to a minimum. In connection with the template posted below, we have a trial where this template and several others are available for both you and your team to use.
Lastly, in case you have any actions assigned to other colleagues or contacts in any vertical or horizontal level inside or outside of your company – you don’t have to go hunting to remind anyone of actions needing completion as the Stratsys Meetings trial will act as your personal follow up assistant.
To help you get onboard with this, we have created a Productivity template that is in line with all that has been mentioned in this blog. This productivity meeting agenda template has been built so that you can customise it as well. Download it now and thank us later!
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