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Team meetings are often planned with the best of intentions, but unfortunately, many fall short in terms of productivity. Attendees often find themselves having committed a significant chunk of time to sitting in meetings, only to leave with no clear takeaway. Use these tips to make your staff excited about your next team meeting.

Be Selective with Invites

Having too many attendees at a meeting makes it difficult to keep everyone focused and the discussion on track. Also, if members of your team are regularly invited to attend meetings that aren’t applicable to them, it can make them unenthusiastic about meetings in general – even the ones they should be excited about. Only invite people whose input is needed or who is closely affected by the topic at hand.

Adhere to an Agenda

Meetings tend to earn a bad reputation as not being useful because they aren’t structured in order to accomplish a clear objective. Determine what the meeting should accomplish, and create an agenda with an accompanying timeline for each topic of discussion. This ensures that everyone will leave the meeting having gained valuable information, and make them look at meetings in a new light.

Provide Recognition

Make your team look forward to your meetings by using it as a time to publicly recognize employees for their accomplishments. An individual compliment or expression of appreciation is typically well-received, but it can be especially motivating for employees to have management provide recognition in front of their peers. Schedule in time in the agenda to give out kudos to those who are especially deserving.

Stay Positive

Use your meetings to encourage your staff by sharing what the team and company as a whole are doing well. If you only focus on shortcomings, it won’t be very helpful because it may demoralize your team and make them dread coming to meetings. Even when major work needs to be done performance-wise, make it a priority to mention what is going well in order to maintain their motivation and confidence.

Communicate Improvement Needs

What many employees find frustrating about meetings is when they are informed about deficiencies and weaknesses, but without any additional context. Don’t assume that your team only wants to hear the positives and will be resistant or defensive about areas that need improvement – this attitude tends to arise out of frustration or confusion when there isn’t clear communication. Discuss openly why something is an issue or what specific actions everyone can take to improve them.

The effectiveness of your meetings is largely influenced by the engagement levels of your staff. Find qualified and highly motivated employees to join your team with Ethan Allen Workforce Solutions. Our main priority is fulfilling our clients’ unique hiring needs by determining the traits necessary for success, and only delivering the candidates that are the best fit.  Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you succeed with your employment service needs.