The 5 Meetings Every Leader Needs To Save Time
- Brainz Magazine
- Feb 17, 2023
- 6 min read
Written by: Marguerite Thibodeaux, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Many new managers get inundated with a wave of new meeting requests along with their new titles. Some of these meetings feel productive, some don't. Some of the ones that should be critically productive don’t turn out to be (like one-on-ones) and suffer deprioritization for it.
In this article, I want to share with you the five meetings every manager needs and how to set them up in a way that will save you hours every week rather than drain precious time. Ultimately, your purpose as a manager is to help your team to succeed. One of the core ways any leader does that is by getting the right information to the right people at the right time. That means you need regular, reliable channels to get the information you need and then share that information back out to the right people. If you set up these five meetings correctly and stick with them, you'll have recurring high-ROI time investments each week to set yourself and your team up for success.
1. Stand-Ups
A stand-up is a short, 15-20 minute meeting for project and backlog status updates. There should be a tool that helps you visually organize things quickly and easily. Each person’s update should be no longer than, “Here's where I'm at. Here’s a challenge I'm having (if any).”If that challenge can be resolved in a quick 1-2 minute discussion, tackle it. If it's going to be a longer discussion, then add that to an ad hoc, offline conversation or your following one-on-one. Within minutes, you know what is going on which each deliverable on your team and have a plan to tackle any obstacles currently blocking progress. Another added benefit of the stand-up is not just for you to get the information you need but also an opportunity for everybody else on the team to hear, too. In case there's an emergency, everybody is generally up-to-date and can jump in to help. It also provides you an opportunity to build trust with your team. You also need to give status updates. This provides a crucial ingredient for trust: a window into how you spend your time. Often, teams mistrust their managers, because they don’t understand what their leaders spend all day doing behind closed doors in meetings. Share the projects you are working on and the work you are doing to advocate for and support them.
2. Team Meeting
Team meetings provide a place for your team to come together as a whole, celebrate wins, share new learnings, and get team-wide updates together. I recommend a weekly cadence, especially for remote teams who rarely, if ever, otherwise get the chance to all connect at the same time.
Create a standing agenda to keep preparation to a minimum, reinforce key team culture norms, and ensure a high return on time invested. For a previous team that I intentionally cultivated a highly collaborative, highly iterative, highly inclusive culture, I set the following team meeting agenda. Feel free to adapt to fit your own target tea culture. Sample Team Meeting Agenda
Welcome: About 5 minutes for social chatting at the top of the hour
Shout Outs: 5-10 minutes for teammates to share recognition and appreciation for each other or partner teams, elevating each other and providing implicit feedback on how best to engage each other and partner teams successfully. As a leader, I consciously tried to shout out to each team member at least once a month to lead by example and ensure each teammate knew they were appreciated.
Coming Soon: 5 minutes for coming key dates such as project milestones, organizational deadlines like annual reviews, and birthdays, and heads up about coming out-of-office time for teammates to flag that they’ll be unavailable.
Team-Wide Updates: About 15-30 minutes to share any news that impacts the entire team. This could be system updates, process reminders, organizational updates, announcements, or a monthly review of time priorities and highlight any recent changes, which I highly recommend.
Learning/Connecting: 15-30 minutes to share learnings or connect. Teammates can request others share insights about key projects they’re working on or unique expertise they have. Teammates can demo new tools they’ve found helpful or share learnings from recently attended conferences. You could also do a quick team-building activity like Guess Who or a quick trivia game.
After leading the team meeting yourself for several weeks, delegate by rotating who owns the meeting and have the meeting owner prepare the materials.
3. One-on-Ones
Invest in one-on-one time with each teammate every week. Hold this space sacred and you will both learn to rely on it as a thoughtful touchpoint to build trust and minimize ad hoc Slack and email requests throughout the week that interrupt the flow and reduce both your productivity.
The intention is to provide your undivided attention for discussion, not rehashing the project updates you already shared in stand-up. This is dedicated time for the two of you, so as long as the meeting focuses on discussion, topicscan span projects, office politics, and professional development to personal updates and concerns. To facilitate these conversations, I recommend having a single source of truth, running notes document both of you can add to and access at any time. This should include a Professional Development Plan that gets referenced at least once a quarter to support your teammate’s development. Here’s a sample template to get you started.
4. Connection Point with Your Leadership
Part of getting the right information to the right people is sharing information up the ladder. In these meetings, you're giving status updates on your team’s projects, the impact of those projects, and any help needed to address challenges in delivering those projects. Ideally, you get this face time with senior leaders weekly. If not, at least touch base with your own direct manager in a weekly one-on-one or email update. It's very easy for any leader - your leaders included - to accidentally take teams for granted if things are running smoothly. Out of sight, out of mind. Staying top of mind keeps both your team and you appreciated, appropriately resourced, and more likely to receive the promotions they deserve.
5. Connection Point with Your Peers
You also need to carve time to talk to your peers, and the leaders of other teams that your team works with regularly. Being up-to-date with what's going on in their world, their priorities, their projects, and their systems provide you context to help your team get work done. Friction between groups is often about processes or team priorities that don't align. Whether it's a regular one-on-one with each peer or a bi-weekly group check-in, invest the time to build those relationships and context outside specific deliverables before something difficult happens. Ask, “How can I help you and your team succeed?” and share how they can do the same for your team.
Even with a team of five direct reports, holding all of these meetings every week takes less than 20% of a 40-hour work week. That 20% investment unlocks the other 80% for truly meaningful work, rather than feeling like you have to wait until after hours to do your “real job”.
Want to start using your time more effectively but not sure where to start? Click here to snag a free 30-minute session with the author. Every leader deserves support.
About the Author: Marguerite Thibodeaux is an executive coach and talent management consultant dedicated to changing our relationship with work. Work should be a place where each of us gets to enjoy the challenge of contributing to something bigger than oneself. She focuses on helping leaders at all levels create habits, skills, and environments that empower teams to thrive.
Every leader deserves support.
Follow her on LinkedIn for leadership tips and discussions.
Check out her website for free leadership resources like a Professional Development Roadmapping Worksheet and Attrition Risk Matrix.
Want one-on-one adapting these strategies to your team? Book a complimentary call with Marguerite. Every leader deserves support
Marguerite Thibodeaux, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Marguerite Thibodeaux, a leadership coach, and talent management consultant, helps leaders and organizations bring the best out of people with courage, compassion, and clarity. After building development programs and leading a talent transformation at a Fortune 100, she became increasingly aware that not all leaders had access to a Fortune 100 Learning & Development team. To do something about that, she started Magnanimous Leadership, a leadership coaching and consulting firm that's on a mission to make resources and support available to every leader.
