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Qualities Of a Team Leader: How To Maintain Leadership In Meetings
Qualities of a Team Leader Series

Qualities Of a Team Leader: How To Maintain Leadership In Meetings

By Trina M.
Qualities of a Team Leader Series
Qualities of a Team Leader Series

Have you ever struggled with being a good team leader? If you aren’t one of those lucky Type B personalities, it is likely you have. Being an excellent organizer and assiduous worker has nothing to do with leadership which is the measure of how we can inspire others to give their best and collaborate to achieve a common goal.

Workzone over the years has had the privilege of interacting with dozens of fantastic leaders worth getting inspired by and thus has decided to encapsulate its experiences into a series of short articles to help managers develop leadership capabilities. We will focus on the key elements a team leader needs and elaborate upon each requirement over a week.

This week’s issue has to do with the all-important team meetings – where stakeholders and clients come together with the individuals in charge of execution. These meetings are potentially volatile and rarely end up being as productive as managers would like them to be. Learn some simple steps which can help you avoid arguments get work done and keep all the involved parties satisfied.

Are you ready to transcend those boundaries of being a project manager into the realm of true leadership? Let’s begin!

 

 

WHAT DOES A SUCCESSFUL MEETING LOOK LIKE?

The preparation for a successful meeting should start well ahead of the actual meet-up. A team meeting is a congregation of egos. Clients who expect to be catered to and pandered come together with experienced skilled star performers who view them as minor annoyances. This isn’t always the case though – there are instances when both parties get along superbly.

Or there might be friction within the team itself. If you have had to step in resolve conflicts frequently, you may find our #ManagementMonday article on the topic very interesting and insightful.

In short a good leader ensures that a meeting:

  • Focuses on the agendas of import to the project/campaign and doesn’t meander to include extraneous affairs
  • Doesn’t become the hostility mitigation ground of team members or clients
  • Culminates in the production of a unanimously approved blue print for the next phase of the project

There are strategies which can help achieve the desired result and they are employed by competent leaders from all industries and verticals.

 

 

PRE-MEETING STRATEGIES:

 

  • The individuals participating in a meeting decide exactly how the meet-up will progress. Hence it’s best to invite people who do not harbor grudges or have had unpleasant experiences with each other. You can organize several rounds of meetings with smaller, conducive groups than aim to manage a large assembly of hostile individuals. Do yourself a favor and invest a little more time to buy peace of mind.

 

  • Agendas are of utmost importance. After all they act as roadmaps guiding the attention and intention of the group. We are strong advocates of writing down project plans and we also recommend taking time out and using the Agenda Development Chart given below to flesh out the discussion points for the meeting.
Agenda Development
Agenda Development Chart

 

  • Once the agenda is clear, send out Pre-meeting Communication Sheets to all attendees. This communication sheet discusses the:

 – Agenda

 – Relative importance of the agenda items in the context of the short term goals of the project. This will reiterate the fact that the meeting has been organized simply to facilitate successful achievement of project milestones.

– Issues which will not be discussed in the meeting and your reasons/justifications behind choosing the issues.

– Participants list

– Meeting ground rules

– Tentative outcome that is expected from the meeting

 

  • Once all the sheets have been sent out, give the participants at least 24 hours to assimilate the information and then call them up to request confirmation of attendance. This is where most managers fall short. Do not delegate this task to your secretary. If potential trouble makers read the communication sheet, chances are the difficult conversations around ego and wish gratification will take place on the call itself. Participants who do not agree with the agenda may choose to refrain from attending the meeting. It is a major victory for you.

 

  • As a fail-safe measure, try to include an experienced neutral party in meetings that need to bring up contentious issues. Be prepared for contingencies and they will not catch you by surprise.

 

 

MEETING STRATEGIES:

  • Always open meetings by stating the purpose of the gathering and the maximum time allotted for the meeting. As far as possible convey the fact that busy people have given up their precious time to participate and hence it is your duty to steer the meet-up towards its end result. This will nip any desultory talk and digressions in the bud.

 

  • Affect a step-wise approach. Take up each agenda item and first discuss the project objectives the item will satisfy. Then move on to the creation of a possible to-do list with clear scope of work for each member present in order to wrap up the agenda item before proceeding to the next.

 

  • Before the meeting ends, you may open up a discussion to acquaint yourself with the views of the participants. This is a show of faith and speaks loud and clear: “You are valued and your suggestions are welcome” without endangering the meeting. Since this open discussion is apparently impromptu, attendees will not have had the time to ponder and dig up buried hatchets. They will stick to inputs which boost the productivity of the team.

 

Once a meeting concludes, it is your duty to ensure that the respective to-do lists are followed diligently and progress is made. If you master these strategies and mold them to suit the dynamics of your team, people will gradually realize that the meetings you set up are strictly for business and will not attempt to drag in personal issues or generate friction.

We think being an excellent leader is 90% heart and 10% smarts! Feel free to comment with your ideas and share with your network.