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The golden rules for meetings
- If you have a concern about an individual staff member, their behaviour or their performance, a meeting is NOT the place to bring up your concerns. It is extremely destructive to morale and should be avoided at all costs.
- If you have a vocally critical staff member on your team, make it clear in advance who is in control of the meeting and ensure the meeting stays on track. Staff with strong characters can sometimes change the meeting to suit their own agenda, so ensure the point of the meeting is clear and you don’t get off track.
- Never schedule meetings outside of practice hours unless it is absolutely essential and urgent. Work meetings should be done in work time.
- Advertise what the meeting agenda is prior to the day, so staff can think about these topics and have input ready. This will avoid topics being raised again after the meeting has adjourned, when staff has ‘had a chance to think about it’. Staff who have not attended the meeting or offered input or suggestions should be exempt during the decision making process.
- Stay on time! Don’t let the meeting run overtime. If you start the meeting late, still finish at the time scheduled. Make it clear to staff that the meetings are important and time management is essential. Don’t ask yourself what it’s costing to hold these meetings, ask yourself what it’s costing to NOT hold meetings. I can guarantee you that inefficiencies in the practice are costing you a lot more than a 15minute meeting. Don’t get so bogged down working in the practice that you forget to work on the practice.
- Beware of the chatterbox! Stay on focus and don’t let the practice chatterbox take up everyone’s time. At the start of the meeting remind everyone that there is only 15minutes to cover all the topics on the agenda so it is imperative that this be the focus. If you have a few chatterboxes at the clinic (and we love the chatterbox as they keep things light) implement the ball system. The only person who can speak is the person holding the ball. If you want to speak, you have to ask the person holding the ball to toss it to you. This will alleviate small conversations starting which are not on the agenda and waste time.
- Don’t cram too much into your meetings. Keep them brief or you’ll end up going overtime and this will only frustrate staff. On the other hand, if you finish your meeting early, don’t waste time. When the meeting is finished, encourage staff to get back to their daily duties.
Most importantly, look out for the meeting sabotages, especially if they are senior staff. The worst thing possible is when senior staff members display a negative attitude in regards to meetings and therefore make little or no effort. This negative attitude filters down to the rest of the team and sabotages your meetings. I’ve been witness to this attitude and it didn’t take long before the rest of the team (including some veterinarians) started asking ‘why should we make an effort if the managers don’t?’ Have you heard of the phrase ‘Actions speak louder than words’? This scenario is a classic example! You lead and they will follow.
If you can’t convince your senior staff/practice manager on the importance of working on the practice and not just in it, I would consider a team restructure and find someone who is goal focused and team focused, not just task focused. Managers focus on the near-term tasks and activities but leaders stress the promotion of long-term team effectiveness!
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