Leadership FAQ - January - Holding effective Meetings

One Friday each month I dedicate the post to looking at some questions I have heard recently from developing leaders. Sharing those questions and my thoughts for them is a way for me to spread the information to as many leaders and future leaders as possible. If you have a question about leadership or just a situation you would like some additional insight on, please email me at Effective Retail Leader. Let’s take a look at this week’s question.

I want to ensure I get my team excited about what we can accomplish in the new year. How do I ensure I have an effective kickoff meeting.

Plan ahead and have a well-defined agenda. What do you want to accomplish with the time you have scheduled - regardless of whether you have a meeting for a few hours, a day, or more?Start with a lot of energy about what you just accomplished in the previous year. It doesn't matter how successful it was financially - find the efforts and behaviors that made a positive contribution. If you did have a big win financially - connect the dots for the teams. What behaviors led to the success and celebrate all of it. Make it about more than just the numbers - it is about what the team DID to deliver those numbers, not the numbers themselves.Get the team engaged with their participation. A start, stop, and continue activity is always a good way to get everyone involved and get feedback. I have even added an extra step and used the KISS method for engaged dialog and feedback.Frame it up as, “What should we…”K - Keep doingI - Improve uponS - Start doingS - Stop doingCreate an activity around what actions or behaviors will be necessary to achieve the new year's target. What does that look like? Make it a group working session to get everyone talking and working together.Invite guests who can share additional pieces of the company vision. Perhaps a regional or corporate leader can join a portion of your meeting to share what they are working on for the new year. This is also an excellent opportunity to have a questions and answers session for the team to get to know more about the areas that matter most to them.Make sure to address the realities of the next day. Every meeting has the luxury of uninterrupted discussion. You can share all sorts of ideas and possibilities of WHAT COULD BE, but then everyone gets back to their location the next day and the reality of the day to day hits - that can deflate everything that was so positive just 24 hours before.Finish with something that reinforces your message from the meeting. A video, an audio recording, a TEDTalk - anything that leaves the team feeling as though they can accomplish everything they just discussed.Good luck with your meeting and a successful year ahead!Join other retail leaders in continuing their development journey with Effective Retail Leader.com. SUBSCRIBE today to receive leadership tips directly to your inbox and monthly newsletters that provide many tools to help further develop your leadership skills. JOIN NOW!No spam ever - just leadership goodness.