376. Everyone Hates Your Weekly Team Meeting
Your weekly team meeting sucks. Everybody hates it but they won't tell you why. I will. Here's how to create a weekly meeting that people care about.
Your team isn’t going to tell you this directly, so I will.
Everybody hates your weekly team meeting.
There. I said it.
And now that I started, I have a few more things I’d like to get off my chest.
You ready? Good.
Because you’re the only one who actually likes that weekly team meeting. You’ve convinced yourself that it’s a great idea.
But it’s not.
Do you really think the meeting keeps everyone aligned?
If so, you’re nutso.
Maybe it’s the only time of the week where you get to hear the updates - but that doesn’t mean everyone else is out of the loop too.
Your team knows the truth.
The meeting is a joke.
And the joke’s on you.
How Your Team Actually Feels About Your Weekly Team Meeting
If you canceled your weekly team meeting tomorrow, nobody would care. In fact, I bet your team would secretly celebrate.
Not because they don’t like working with each other or don’t care about the company. But because they’d get back that weekly waste-of-an-hour.
If you don’t believe me, here’s a dare for you:
Tell your team that next week’s meeting is canceled. Then see what happens.
Nobody is going to ask to reschedule. Nobody is going to panic. They’ll just remove it from their calendar and go about their day.
You know how I know?
Because when you can’t show up, the meeting doesn’t happen.
Think about that.
If the meeting were actually for the team, they’d hold it without you.
But they don’t.
Because everyone knows the meeting only exists for you.
What's Actually Happening In The Room
Your weekly team meeting probably follows the same cadence as most leadership meetings.
You go around the room. Each person gives their update. Most of the updates are things their colleagues already know, because they actually communicate during the week.
Go figure.
Their heads nod politely and they’ll secretly check their phones under the table so you can’t see. Every now and then someone asks a clarifying question, mostly to make you think they’re actually listening - which they’re not.
And then you wrap up by saying something trite like, “great meeting everyone, let’s make it a great week.”
Everyone goes back to their work, and they’re relieved the damn thing is over.
What Your Team Does All Week To Survive Your Meeting
I hate to tell you, but your weekly team meeting is probably doing more harm than good.
You don’t see this, because everybody hides it from you. They even hide it from each other. But I see it happening all the time.
People hold back sharing information from each other because of that meeting.
If a problem comes up on Wednesday, they think “I’ll bring it up in Monday’s meeting.”
When they have a good idea on Thursday, they save it for the meeting.
When they finish something on Friday, they wait until Monday to mention it.
Not because they’re trying to be tricky, but because they know that the meeting needs fresh content to stay interesting and keep everybody awake.
If problems get solved in real time (like they should be), there’s nothing new to say on Monday. So they bank their updates. They store them like a chipmunk stores nuts in its cheeks. But not as cute.
Because of this, decisions get delayed. Problems last longer than they should. It’s not good.
Your weekly team meeting isn’t making your team faster and more communicative. It’s slowing them down and creating a communication problem.
And you’re blind to all of it.
The Reason You Need To Change Your Meeting
The thing is, the meeting isn’t broken because you’re running it wrong (which, by the way, you probably are - hashtag leadership team coaching). The weekly team meeting is broken because it was designed for you, not for them.
You’re the one who needs the meeting. You need to hear from everyone to ease your anxiety, or make you feel powerful, or however you play out your unhealthy patterns.1
Your team doesn’t need any of that. They already know what’s happening. It turns out they can solve problems in real time.
What they need is for the meeting to actually benefit them. Which means restructuring the whole damn thing.
Not adding more agenda items.
Not better facilitation.
I’m talking about a full restructuring of what the meeting is for.
What The Weekly Team Meeting Should Actually Be For
If you’re going to hold a weekly leadership meeting, why don’t we make it one that benefits everyone. Here are 5 ways for your weekly team meeting to be more meaningful.
1. Discuss metrics that matter to the team
The numbers that matter are the leading indicators that help the team make better decisions. If the numbers you share don’t change how your team views the week ahead, you’re sharing the wrong numbers.
2. Make decisions, not updates
Most weekly team meetings are stale status reports.
You should change that.
Have each person bring one decision that they can’t decide alone. Then transform the meeting to a place where decisions get made together.
3. Address their real problems
Your problems don’t matter the most.
Ask the team what’s blocking them. What’s slowing them down.
Then actually do something about those problems.
4. Create firm commitments
Each person says one thing they’re committing to deliver by the next meeting. Not a list of priorities - just one important commitment.
Out loud.
In front of everyone.
5. Celebrate the little wins
The big wins are easy. Everyone already knows about them.
The wins that matter are the ones that usually aren’t acknowledged.
Hard conversations someone had. Silent customer wins. Teamwork above and beyond the usual expectation.
When you celebrate those, you’re defining excellence.
The Real Question
Think of your last weekly team meeting.
If you weren’t there, would your team have had it anyway?
If the answer is no, the meeting isn’t for them. It never was.
So maybe it’s time to ask yourself this important question: “what should happen in this meeting to benefit the team that wouldn’t happen anywhere else this week?”
If you can’t answer that with something specific, cancel the meeting.
Your team will get an hour back.
You’ll get the discomfort of having to trust them to do their jobs.
And both of you will be better for it.
P.S. The meeting isn't the problem. You are. The meeting is just where it shows up.
There are patterns that make you run your weekly team meetings the way you do. You don’t see the patterns. I do. Check out the free Leadership Diagnostic Workshop to see into your blindspots.
Uncover the unconscious patterns that are holding back you and your team. Check out the free leadership diagnostic workshop.
FYI everyone hates that third-party motivational consultant that comes into their workplace and lectures on how to improve productivity when the employees have been telling their bosses for decades.