As regular readers of the blog know, I have been doing a series of videos since the beginning of this year on how to amp up your virtual leadership skills. One of the biggest challenges that comes with virtual leadership is that it is harder to communicate with your people, it’s more difficult to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Which is why my strategy in today’s episode is to hold regular team meetings.
Hold weekly team meetings
Ideally, you should be holding team meetings weekly, but depending on your organization, you may choose to do it every two weeks. Now often, when I suggest this, I get pushback from leaders. “Merge,” they say. “I used to have a team meeting once a month. What do you mean, weekly? This is not a good use of time. My staff are not going to be pleased.”
But hold on a moment. Recognize that if your staff are now all operating virtually, your team meeting is the single most important opportunity for you to convey consistent and timely information to your team members. While a lot of information can be communicated through individual email notes and phone calls, there will always be situations where you will need to ensure that everyone receives the same message … and from you. If you think about your team meeting as being your single chance to convey important well-timed reliable information, that comes from a dependable source – you, then regular team meetings take on a whole new level of magnitude and significance.
It’s up to you to make sure the meetings are relevant and engaging
The other opposition I usually get to this strategy is that my staff are tired of online meetings, should I really subject them to another one? And my response is that it’s then up to you to ensure that your team meetings are relevant and engaging. Now, in future instalments in this series, I will share more specifics on things you can do to make your team meetings more relevant and engaging. But for now, remember that any concerns you have about too many meetings does NOT outweigh the benefits that come from regularly and deliberately choosing to meet with your staff members with the singular focus of keeping them all in the communication loop.
One final thought on this. A regular team meeting is also your opportunity to create a team spirit, build morale and excitement, and encourage good working relationships, all very necessary components of good virtual leadership. More ideas on that to come in future videos as well.
So I’d love to hear your reaction to my suggestion that you have a weekly team meeting. Do you agree? Or do you have good reasons why they should be less frequent? If the latter, I’d love to hear them. Please share your perspectives below.