Jul/090
10 Steps to Improving the Effectiveness of Your Team Meetings
Everyone has heard the funny stories or have seen spoofs on NBC’s The Office…
You know… those lame team meetings and brainstorming sessions.
Team meetings are an absolute essential part of the success of an organization, if and only if, they are effective.
Otherwise, they can be one of the biggest and most ineffectual drains on your store resources.
To help you make your meetings a little more effective, I have compiled a list of meeting “must-haves”.
10 Steps to Improving the Effectiveness of Team Meetings
Appoint a discussion facilitator
Make sure there is someone overseeing the entire discussion. Otherwise, you will have an absolute free-for-all. If no one is in charge, then everyone is in charge, and that leads to chaos.
Agree to the objective of the discussion
When your team enters a meeting it is helpful to have extreme clarity on your objective. Not only do you have to know what you want to accomplish, but you have to be able to tell your team in eight words or less so they can follow.
Decide on the decision making mechanism
Choose how you will reach your final decision before you get to decision time. If there is going to be a vote, good, let them know first. If you are getting feedback and opinions so that you yourself can make the decision, good, let them know ahead of time. If your team puts in a bunch of feedback with certain expectations in advance, and that is flipped on them, they will frustrated and ignored.
Insist that everyone contributes
Team meetings are just that, team meetings. The power of your store resides in the collective whole, or the combined brainpower of your team. There may be some members of your team that have great ideas but they’re just not as loud or outgoing as others. The job of the facilitator is to make sure that everyone is contributing.
Capture all relevant information
If you write ideas down as they come to you, you won’t miss a thing. Many a team member has come up with great ideas, only to lose them because the moment of genius was never captured.
Be creative
When you enter a discussion on a certain topic, remember to be creative and free. Some of the best ideas come when you think completely outside of the norm. Genius has never been copied from the “same-old, same-old” so encourage your members to be bold. Being creative means there are no bad ideas.
Be critical
Make sure that you promote healthy argument in your team meetings. Nothing ever gets accomplished and you never grow if you’re surrounded by yes-men. If your team member’s ideas are good enough, then they should be able to defend them.
Review your discussion to date
At the start of every meeting, review past discussions if your topic is an ongoing one. Some members may have missed the last meeting and often times a quick refresher can spark instant creativity.
Apply decision making process to what you know
Now is the time to take all of the ideas, thoughts, and data, and put them through the ringer of your decision making process. Pair down all of the ideas into bullet points that are simple, clear, and direct. That way the final product will be easier to achieve.
Review, confirm, and adapt the decision
After you have reached the decision, open it up to review and constructive criticism. Once the ideas have made through confirm them and put an action plan into place for speedy implementation.
Now stir, cool, and eat:)
I hope this list has given you some good tips and ideas. Happy meetings!
Josh Long
Jul/090
6 Tips for Pulling Your Team Out of Recession
The recession is everywhere these days. It’s like a virus. Few companies have escaped it’s evil clutches. This downturn has made it difficult to manage morale and take care of employee needs. Workplace motivation is at an all-time low, and things are only forecasted to get worse. It is important to keep your team engaged and happy during this recession. Here are six great tips for motivating your team in the face of adversity.
Tell the Truth
Honesty is the best policy when it comes to motivating your team. Employees will be worried about losing their jobs and their lives will be impacted by the recession. Don’t sugarcoat the information that you provide. Be transparent and honest about what is going on in your company. Your team will love and respect you for it.
Talk to the Elephant in the Room
Gossip is the number one killer of workplace motivation. We all know how some members of our team are experts at spreading negativity. Rumors about layoffs, cutbacks, or pay freezes can set your employees’ mouths in motion. When you hear rumors floating around the workplace, address them as quickly as possible. If something becomes parasitic and problematic, you might have to hold a special meeting to get your team back on track.
Get Out of the Store
Motivating your team will be much easier if you all get out of the store and relax. Organize an off-site lunch or special outing as a means of renewal and stirring up creativity. This type of team activity may be costly, but the positive return and ideas will be worth the investment.
Hear Them Out
Workplace motivation during a recession will also be impacted by things that are happening to your employees outside of work. Listen to the challenges they face and be sensitive to their needs and concerns. Everyone likes to be listened to, but few claim to have worked for anyone that cared.
Avoid the Fear Virus
Whenever there is a crisis of any kind, fear is often times a killer. With the threats that recession poses, your employees will be extremely susceptible to fear. Don’t let fear have a negative impact on your company and team. Tell them to focus on the things which can actually be controlled, and forget about those which cannot.
Say “Thanks” and Reward Accomplishments
Motivating your team with recognition and rewards for accomplishments is the most effective means of keeping things moving during a recession. Recognition can be tangible rewards, a certificate of recognition, thank you note, or pat on the back. They all go a long way in employee motivation.
Implementing a combination of these strategies can enhance team motivation in your workplace. The most important thing to remember during this recession is that people and relationships need to be managed with care while it is upon us. Keep the lines of communication between you and your employees open so that you can be successful in stopping the spread of fear and encouraging teamwork. While you cannot control the economy, you can exercise some influence over workplace motivation. After all, our team is everything to us.
Josh Long
Jun/090
Listen and Succeed
It’s amazing how the best answers to problems can come from those who are the closest to your daily operations…your employees.
With their ear to the street, they may actually know more than you in their personal piece of the business. (scary thought huh?)
One of the most important things you can do as the leader of your store is to make full use of the experience and resources that fall under your roof.
All of the solutions to your challenges already exist… they’re locked in the heads of your team members.
Next time a member of your team comes up to you and suggests that you try putting an item in some premium space or they suggest putting a combination dinner special together, listen to them. Try it out.
Your team will take personal pride and satisfaction from seeing their ideas put into place. The more your team has a say in the store, the more engaged they will feel and the more they will contribute.
If you engage them in the conversation, you will see a shift from people asking you stupid questions to them offering you great suggestions. Of course not all of the ideas will be great, but you will have a nice pot of them to choose from.
Once they see you care and listen, they will give you idea after idea on how to make the store better and make your very own paychecks go up.
May/090
Your Secret Power… May Even Be Secret To You
Is it possible…
…that no matter how hard you work…
…no matter how many years go by…
… that your parents still never tell you that they’re proud of you?
How are you feeling now? Happy? Sad? Tired? Unappreciated? Unfulfilled?
The truth is, we all like to feel recognized and fulfilled for what we do.
Don’t you?
Your employees, your work-related children, need the same “good job” and “thank you” from you…
…even if they won’t admit it.
From a young age, we have a need in our hearts to feel appreciated, to contribute, and to feel a sense of accomplishment.
You possess the power to fulfill this need in your team members. You possess a power, that if used and practiced properly, can lead you to becoming the best leader they have ever known.
To illustrate this power to you, I’ve created a concept.
This concept is called “The Moment of Impact”.
Let me explain…
Imagine you’re in line at the gas station… the person in front of you turns to speak to you…
They either compliment you… or they tell you you’re being obnoxious and to get the heck out of their personal space…
…in one single moment… that person has the power to change your whole day… for better… or for worse.
That one single moment… that one second of instance… is the moment of impact.
Have you ever been cut off in traffic? What did that do to your mood the rest of the day?
It’s like a small pebble that can ripple out into an eternal lifetime… for better… or for worse.
Imagine you were cut off in traffic. You get home, obviously ticked off, your little girl then comes up to you, with a drink in her hand, begging to sit on your lap.
As she’s trying to get up, the glass tips, sending Kool Aid all over you. You’re are already mad from the moron that cut you off, so you blow up at your daughter. Your wife (or husband) then comes in and decides that they have had enough of your attitude and the way you yell at your daughter. Next thing you know, you are in a two week argument.
The driver that cut you off threw a pebble in your pond that rippled through the rest of your life.
Extreme I know…but…
Know that one small moment of impact, over the lifetime of a person… could be the difference between a happy and successful life… or a dark, dismal existence.
Now think back on your own life… were there not moments you remember in your childhood, high school, or career?
Did you not have your own “Moments of Impact”?
Think about the effects. Think about the power those moments have over your life.
Imagine that power…
Now realize, understand, that you create those moments of impact in the lives of your employees.
You harness the power to impact thousands of moments in the life of your team members… after all… who sees them more than you? Not their family, not their children, not their spouse… you!
You harness power that will ripple through lifetimes… for better… or for worse.
Imagine you recognize someone…
They are positively effected… they’re happy… they positively effect everyone they come in contact with… they’re happier at home… their children grow up to be great… their children’s children grow up to be great.
Now imagine you don’t recognize them…
They leave work unappreciated, unfulfilled, dismal… they pull out a negative pebble that tears and ripples through everyone they come in contact with…
Your team members need you to positively impact them in their moments of impact… they need someone that will recognize them… recognize them for who they are and who they hope to become… openly… honestly… proudly.
Make a positive difference,
Josh Long
... your program boosts morale, not only for the person getting the actual recognition, but also for the rest of the employees because they see that the company values their contribution."
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FedEx Home Delivery #3327
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