Meetings are a part of most people’s working days, but are they really the most productive way of working? Geraldine Dolan suggests stepping away from the traditional “talking shop” and considering alternatives.
Situational Leadership Theory, a leadership model developed by Dr. Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard, is predicated on the belief that there is no one best style of leadership.
The best style of leadership will depend on the task at hand and the makeup of the team performing the task. In a nutshell, a single leadership size does not fit all, and this has never been more apparent than right now.
A meeting isn’t always the solution to every problem. Over the course of the pandemic, virtual meetings became a way of not only exchanging information with colleagues and team members, but also a means to connect with others outside our homes.
Now that some of us are back in the office, we have returned to the tried-and-true meeting to solve every problem, but are we right?
Be mindful of your working environment systems
From a systems perspective – meaning the working environment – leaders may be dealing with a combination of working models.
Some team members may be returning to the office and others hybrid-working, while others have been coming into the office for the last two years.
As a leader, resourcing oneself and being mindful of this ‘flux’ in our systems of working is important, particularly when you consider the external environment of war as well as a challenging and changing economic future.
These challenges can impact people’s roles, the business in which they are working, and their day-to-day activities. Others for whom there is no professional impact may instead be dealing with personal challenges affect their performance – which can, in turn, impact team and business results.
It is important to make the time to connect with your team in-person. Everyone needs feedback on their job, but it’s important to consider when is best time to give that feedback – could it be given in the moment, as a response to an email or message sent? Or does it need to be in a bi-weekly, one-to-one catch-up? Are the one-on-one meetings more important for brainstorming?
What model works best for your team?
As a leader, you are accountable for the productivity of your team. This doesn’t mean you are responsible for all of the work, however. The structure of your environment means your responsibility is delegation and people management – what does the team need to meet the collective goal?
Keeping all this in mind – the different working models, the outside stressors and the workload – you have to ask yourself: could this team meeting be an email? Could a weekly status update serve my team better than a meeting?
It’s important to give your team the opportunity to take ownership of their tasks and become mentors to other team members.
This encourages collaboration, learning and growth while, at the same time, helping to get things done, supporting development opportunities, and enabling the team to be more agile — and, none of this needs a team meeting headed up by management.
When done right, meetings can be very beneficial for everyone. They can help to build rapport, promote collaboration and encourage creative thinking. Done wrong, however — without mindfulness or situational leadership — unnecessary meetings can do little more than cost everyone their precious time.
Geraldine Dolan is an Executive/Organisation Coach and Consultant.
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