Why you should be having meetings!

Every single time I speak to a potential new client, one of the first things I ask is “what meetings do you have as a business?”, and 99% of the time, it essentially boils down to “we have meetings with clients”, but that’s it.

No internal meetings with the rest of management.

No meetings with the staff.

No REAL internal communication.

Then, when we do an employee engagement survey, to work out whether their staff are actually happy or not, 9 out of 10 times one of the main bones of contention in the business is “not enough communication” and “not enough direction from management”. And really, you can’t blame people for feeling this way.

And the sad thing is, it becomes a company wise cultural problem, because the top are not leading from the front on it.

But as business leaders, we want to be communicated with and moan when we’re not… awks!

And you know how quickly this can be fixed?

Very. Bloody. Quickly.

All you have to do is start talking to your team.

Start off slow. Once a month, get a meeting in with your management.

Set an agenda. Allow each person to go through their current most pressing issues, then look to provide solutions in that room and set actions for the coming month, while someone takes notes.

And then, when you’re out of the room, send the notes to everyone in the meeting, with the actions and their deadlines for the next meeting.

When you’re next in the room, go through the actions, provide accountability to each other and then repeat for the current most pressing issues.

At first, it will be messy as f*ck.

But, as long as you are consistent, and intentional with it (so you’re not going round and round in circles with each other and you’re moving forward each week), it will get less messy, and you’ll start to see real change in the business.

You’ll start communicating with the rest of the business effectively. You’ll start to see a change in the culture of the business. Your team will start to see some real direction in the organisation, and you’ll start working towards one common goal.

Changing the way business owners communicate with their teams can be the one biggest, and quickest to implement, positive change to their companies.

Give it a go, see what happens!