Are you joyful when you receive an email calling you to a team meeting with your boss?
It’s no secret that most people at work in the UK and USA are unhappy and under stress. Life is short and for many people, it is made unacceptably shorter by time wasted in meetings.
I’ve been interested personally and professionally in workplace happiness, since 1986 when we published our first book “How to Prevent Managers Strangling the Business?’
Our latest book ‘The Happipreneur’ explains why business owners and their teams are often happier and less stressed than their corporate and institutional equivalents.
Controlling, paternalistic and, sometimes, bullying managers and the meetings they hold are major reasons for the stress and unhappiness.
Some executives, even on Zoom, regard it as another opportunity to show off. At least on zoom you can mute the sound and blame dodgy broadband on why your camera doesn’t work.
So, how can we #makemeetingswork?
Here are my top eleven tips: The first five relate to leadership and it doesn’t matter where the team members are working from.
Find a leader who:
1. Trusts every member of the team.
2. Can ask the question ‘What do you think?’
3. Will listen to the answers and is happy for team members, individually and collectively to make decisions.
4. Understands that happy people are the most productive and that if that means getting out the way with as few team meetings as possible, so be it.
5. Knows through individual discussion how each team member likes to participate in meetings and what information they need before the meeting takes place.
Then it’s about every member of the team treating the meeting as they would a one to one meeting to make a deal. We used to teach our DIDBAB model for one to one and groups.
6. Deliberate – allow time at the beginning to plan the purpose and agenda.
7. Introduce – more than just breaking the ice. Is everyone up and ready for this?
8. Diagnose – what are the facts, interests and attitudes on each issue? What are the leader’s guidelines – most people like the freedom to take decisions but like guidelines first.
9. Bridge – can any conflicting opinions be resolved or compromises made? If consensus isn’t wise then how will the differences be handled?
10. Agree – take time to ensure that every single person knows what has been agreed and is committed to the actions.
11. Build – when and how can we look forward to the next meeting of the team? How can we ensure that we #MakeMeetingsWork
5.7 million #MicroBizMatters and 3 million #ExcludedUK matter most.
For more on happy workplaces and great #leadership please google the #rocking Henry Stewart
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