How to improve team meetings

15 Resources to help you run better team meetings

12/2/2020

If you are like most leaders, you struggle to run effective meetings. In this post you’ll discover 15 resources to help you run better team meetings. The urge will be to scroll to the bottom and grab them.

To make those resources even more effective, take a moment to step into Cindy’s kitchen….

Imagine a young girl, Cindy is in the kitchen with her grandma, who is teaching Cindy how to bake buns. Cindy hopes to learn how to make buns that the whole family raves about as they do her grandmas.

As the older lady hovers over Cindy’s shoulder, she guides Cindy through the process.

Do you see how you’re measuring cup is heaping with flour? Take your knife and level it off first.
A good thing to remember is to take your eggs out of the fridge an hour before. Here’s why…
Let me show you a couple of ways to knead the dough, and you can see which you like better.
Here is a tip to always remember when you are letting your buns rise…
This is how you know when the buns are done …

Yet, after all that guidance, Cindy’s buns flop!
What the heck!

Cindy then...
Go back to that movie in your mind of the scene in the kitchen. Look a little closer at Cindy as she was being taught how to bake. Did you notice she had earplugs in her ears? As her grandma was teaching, mentoring and coaching her, Cindy never heard a word her grandma said! Cindy just did it her way.
If you could get into Cindy’s head, you may have even heard her say: Hurry up, Grandma, I’ve got things to do outside!

It’s no wonder Cindy struggled to learn how to bake stellar buns!

Cindy now...
Cindy now leads a team of frontline workers in a small nonprofit. Instead of trying to figure out how to bake buns, Cindy is currently struggling with team meetings.

Each go-around, Cindy brings her agenda and stacks of handouts to the meeting. As she works her way through the items, the room is relatively quiet. No one participates. They don’t volunteer ideas or add value to the conversation. Team members don’t offer to help out when she asks for volunteers, so Cindy assigns tasks.

When Cindy gets to the sensitive topics, she feels everyone tense up, and Cindy prays that no one will push back today as has happened during the past.

Cindy hopes things will change
Each go-around, Cindy goes in, hoping something will be different.

She prays that the employees will be more motivated to be involved.
She wishes the team members would be more enthusiastic.
She longs to have them be way more effective.

But nothing changes. After the meeting, Cindy tosses her stack of notes on her desk and lets out a sigh. Another one done. Cindy doesn’t have to worry about team meetings again until the next one.

Hope without action is futile!
Here’s the problem, if Cindy wants something different, she needs to do something different.

If Cindy desires increased team engagement, buy-in and action, she would need to change something she is doing. Last week, we talked about hoping things change. And we learned that without action, hope is futile. Hope alone won’t make the difference.

Are you like Cindy?
Cindy is like many women leaders. They don’t take the time to learn new things. Despite tons of resources, guides, coaches and mentors available to them, many leaders tune the learning opportunities out.

I get it...Nonprofits are tough!
Nonprofits are notorious for being crisis-driven. There is always something demanding your attention. If it isn’t a client crisis, it’s team drama, the fundraising event, a shortage of staff, proposal or grant writing, year-end or accreditation time. Stress, busyness and crises never end.

2 beliefs that don't help
Therefore, most women leaders believe they don’t have the time to step back and learn how to run better meetings, create more engaged employees, improve team culture or find improved work-life balance.

What’s more, they often don’t believe nonprofit specific resources and training are readily available.

Let me provide insight on both of those points.
1) You won’t find the time. You need to make time.
What’s more, it won’t take a lot of time, just intentionality.

2) There are a plethora of nonprofit resources available.
There is no lack of training, books, courses, blogs, podcasts, trainers, coaches or mentors available to nonprofit leaders. But if the podcast is never listened to or the course never worked on, you won’t learn.

If you don’t invest the time (action) to learn and then the energy to practice (more action), all the hope in the world won’t change the outcome of your team meetings.

To improve your team meetings, you need to do 3 things:

1) Take responsibility for improving your team meetings.
No more waiting, hoping or blaming.

2) Commit to growing yourself.
In this week’s video I talked about how to think your way to thriving. In the video you will learn how to use your growth mindset to organize your learning and growth.

3) Add action to your hope.
Start with the resources below.

When you commit to ongoing personal and professional development you’ll find more success leading highly engaged and effective teams.

Oh, and bonus….you’ll be happier!

15 resources to help you run better team meetings

Beth Kanter’s Blog

The Small Nonprofit Podcast