6 Reasons Why Team Members Hate Your Meetings
Recently we were working with a new retail training consulting client and, as is often the case, we spent some time visiting their stores and talking with their leaders. On one of our visits a district manager told me that he thought having regular store meetings was a waste of time.
As part of our Top Check Retail Sales Management system we often talk about the importance of having effective team and one-on-one meetings – with the key word being “effective.” Meetings are the perfect way to keep your team aligned and informed and they need to be held regularly. With that in mind, here are six reasons why you and your team members may view your meetings as a waste of time.
1 – Meetings That Are Too Long – Since you and your team members have a limited amount of time and a limited attention span, limit most of your meetings to one-hour or less. If you have to have as longer meeting, make sure you have plenty of breaks.
2 – Failing To Have a Clear Agenda – You are paying your people extra money to attend your meetings and that makes their time valuable to you and them. If your meetings are not productive in terms of teaching new skills, establishing new goals or communicating new information you are wasting everyone’s time and money!
3 – Trying To Do Too Much – Because of the lack of frequency in their meetings, many retailers feel the need to pack more into those meeting they do have. Therefore they run over the allotted time or fail to cover everything. The solution? More frequent but shorter meetings that have an impact!
4 – Wasting Time On Unessential Matters – You will want to stick to your pre-planned agenda as much as possible, but it is inevitable that other items will come up. Instead of letting those take you off track, use a “Parking Lot.” When someone brings up an issue that isn’t on the agenda, put it into the “Parking Lot” so you can address it individually or in a later meeting.
5 – Letting Meetings Become A Way To Publicly Air Grievances – The purpose of your meeting is to train, communicate and motivate. So if one of your team members decides to use the meeting as an opportunity to publicly complain – as they inevitable will – tell them that you respect their view ant that you will be happy to discuss it with them individually. Remember…it is your meeting!
6 – Ignoring Your Team Member’s Needs – The purpose of any meeting should be to solve problems and build the skills that are necessary to grow the business. And while the meeting is for the business’ benefit, that won’t happen if you do not help your team members grow as well. Make sure that part of every meeting is designed to help them do their job better!