Rose Training talks great business leadership

Meetings! You either love them or dread them. But they are, without a doubt, a vital part of ensuring the longevity and success of your team. In this blog, we are going to take you through 4 things that you should do at your next meeting in order to make the most of the resources and people you have working with you!

1) Make sure everyone knows the agenda

A great business leader is one that keeps his team informed, updated, and in-the-loop. Make sure everyone has a copy of the agenda prior to the start of the meeting, and that everyone has been given an opportunity to voice their opinion about an issue, if they so wish, within the allotted time. An agenda keeps the meeting running smoothly – the best agendas outline estimated times for each discussion topic, who is leading that discussion, and most importantly…what the topic of discussion is!

2) Create a safe space

They key to successful meeting is creating a safe environment where no one feels belittled, patronised, victimised, bullied, or intimidated. It is your role as a business leader to ensure that no one person monopolises the conversation, and that everyone in attendance feels confident enough to vocalise their thoughts, opinions and ideas.
This may take the form of using your role to actively ask for the input of colleagues, and also includes paying attention to the body language and facial expression of each attendee – this can say a lot about what a person is truly thinking!

3) Actively listen

On top of taking minutes, a great business leader knows that it’s important to find additional ways to actively listen in meetings. Active listen can be manifested in a variety ways. This includes, but is not limited giving the speaker eye contact, and using positive supportive words like ‘sure’, ‘of course’, ‘go on’, ‘we’ll take that into consideration’ rather than outright negative communication indicators like ‘I don’t think so’ or ‘that won’t work’. This can potentially shut down the communication pathways between different colleagues at the meeting, and hinder your overall ability to reach a resolution about a certain issue.

4) Action your discussion

If you want to see positive results within your team,  action your meetings, always! Make sure every issue is followed up on after the meeting ends, and isn’t just logged away in a minutes document, soon to collect dust. Actioning your meeting with your team members builds respect, credibility and positivity for you as a business leader, and boosts the overall productivity of the team. Actioning your team’s issues can take the form of further discussions over coffee, a quick email, or even taking time to work with your colleagues to implement a new action plan to resolve the issue!

Meetings can be a great way not only to bring issues to head within your team, but a way to make for a more cohesive, understanding, analytical and constructive workplace. With the right tools, strategies and business leadership skills, meetings can continue to be the place where long-lasting positive change begins and takes root. If you want to know more about making sure your next team meeting is a success, call us now on 3038 3048 or talk to Jessica Rose on LiveChat! Also, while you are at it, don’t forget to ‘like’ us on Facebook.