Whether it’s a monthly management meeting, an annual leadership summit, or an executive offsite, these meetings can become predictable and stale over time, and the price of misused management time is high. Most of us can relate to the frustration of a poorly run meeting, where a few vocal participants monopolize the time, the same issues are never resolved, and you leave with no progress made on the business.
To overcome these meeting challenges, try using one of these templates or tools to bring new life into your management meetings and ensure they run smoothly and are truly valuable to all participants.
There is a simple benchmark for running effective meetings; they have a purpose, are productive, and are valuable for attendees. Use one or all of the following templates to ensure your management meeting hits the benchmark.
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It may go without saying if you want your meeting to stay on track, ensure the critical topics are addressed, and everyone comes prepared; you need an agenda for your management meeting. Yet, it was found that only 37% of meetings at work use a meeting agenda.
To start using a meeting agenda, or upgrade your current one, read these ten meeting agenda best practices and try using the free leadership meeting agenda template at your next management meeting.
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Meeting guidelines are a list of expected behaviors that all participants agree to before the meeting. Having meeting rules can be the linchpin for a management meeting to run smoothly. The goal for these meeting expectations is to ensure management is on the same page regarding how the meeting will operate and to mitigate unproductive or negative actions that will derail the leadership meeting.
If you’re looking for examples, this PDF contains 10 meeting guidelines that you can copy as is or edit and make your own for your next meeting.
Every management meeting should conclude with a recap of the decisions and the actions that must be taken, which needs to be documented, shared, and revisited at the next management meeting. Stefan Falk, author, executive coach, and human performance expert, shares why management meetings need action items, “There is a lot of time invested in discussing issues, but when it comes to concrete next steps—who should do what, when, how, and with what result—the focus is lost.”
To avoid meetings being a waste of time, with little to no progress being made, ensure every leadership meeting has a list of action items with accountability assigned to ensure they actually get done. To get started, here’s an editable meeting action items template to use.
Do you know your participant’s opinion of what’s working and not at management meetings? Shockingly, a survey of senior management by Harvard Business Review
uncovered that 71% of those surveyed said the meetings are unproductive and inefficient. Conducting a survey is an excellent way to get feedback from all involved to ensure the valuable components stay and needed changes are made.
If you don’t know what survey questions to ask or need help creating your own survey from scratch, read this article and download the meeting survey template.
These management meeting activities are not another list of icebreaker questions; they are productive activities that strengthen alignment, focus, and consensus, as well as uncover how well leaders are working together.
HBR uncovered in a survey of 182 senior managers that 62% agreed that meetings miss opportunities to bring the team closer together. Yet the importance of team cohesion and alignment at a management level cannot be overstated.
Jen Roberts shared why in her article for ATD: “A management team that is aligned in terms of communication, decision-making processes, modeling core values, and working with a common vision and purpose can positively affect many aspects of the work environment. These behaviors lead to greater respect, trust, and productivity within the team.”
Use this team alignment template at an upcoming management meeting to facilitate discussion on goals and milestones, leveraging team strengths, barriers to success, values, and commitments to staying connected.
Every leadership team should be taking conscious steps to ensure they exhibit the right behaviors to be effective, as there are many benefits to a high-performing, effective management team. McKinsey uncovered through their research 22 behaviors that contribute to team effectiveness, which can be distilled into four categories.
So, does your management team exhibit the right behaviors to be effective? Take this quick team effectiveness assessment to uncover your management team's effectiveness and share your results, feedback, and areas of improvement with your peers.
Periodically, it is worthwhile to implement start-stop-continue exercises for a management team to step back from immediate needs and critically assess the next actions for the organization. Management teams are no exception in getting comfortable with the status quo, which may no longer serve the company.
Use this editable start, stop, and continue template to facilitate the discussion and capture the decisions made.
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