I was having a conversation with one of the business coaching clients that I have the privilege of coaching every week, and she was telling me about a situation within her organization that she could not figure out a solution for. She has a successful accounting firm and stays quite busy. Within the context of her busy life managing her team and her clients, her organization gets calls all the time from clients who need answers to important questions. This is completely normal, however, when you already have a full schedule, trying to squeeze in numerous “quick calls” in the middle of non stop days can be quite challenging. Additionally, these calls typically turn into a much longer discussion. What this owner was trying to figure out was how to get her person answering the phones to be able to answer some of the more simple questions. However, this person was not a CPA. She was considering hiring a CPA to answer the phones, but did not want to foot that expense. She was stuck.
When she brought this dilemma to my attention, we processed through it and I took the information to Clay Clark to see what he would recommend doing. His answer was quick, and now looking back, so obvious. He said that she did not have a staffing problem and did not need to hire a CPA, he said she had a coaching problem and needed to be more intentional with her team development. What we did was create a very intentional agenda for a daily team meeting that she would implement and use to start coaching her team on the needed information. The results have been incredible. Not only is her front desk person starting to learn the necessary information so that she can better determine which calls need to be turned into a business coaching meeting, but also her culture and team camaraderie have gone to the next level. Her team is coming to these meetings prepared, they are tracking key performance indicators, gaps in communication are being identified, and the overall effectiveness of her organization has increased. See her testimony here https://youtu.be/2PajWmxUGsM.
You need a daily meeting with your team that has an agenda.
What I want you to take away from this story and testimonial is that you need a daily meeting with your team that has an agenda. Now, I hear all the time all of the excuses and challenges different business owners give for not doing this meeting. I want you to know that those won’t cut it here. Don’t be lazy and make excuses. Have a daily meeting with your team and follow an agenda. You can use a shared document on Google Docs to accomplish this. Here are the recommended sections to have on the agenda.
- Wins
- Burning Fires
- Key Performance Indicators
- Action Items/ Logistics
- The Bosses Section
It is very simple, start every meeting with wins to boost the energy and celebrate what is going well. From there make sure you are aware of any burning fires, or time-sensitive items that must be addressed in that day’s meeting. From there, move into the key performance indicators that show not only the individual where they stand in their job performance, but that also shows them how they stack up to the team. Yes, you want everyone to see everyone else performance. This “inspires” your team to make sure they are always on their A-game. From there move into the action item/logistical section. This is where questions are put and assignments are tracked. Finally have a section specifically for the boss so that you can focus on any needed training or notes that you want to make sure you communicate to the team.
This agenda and meeting will evolve as you do it consistently. You should expect your team to add information to this business coaching agenda before the meeting starts. It should be a living document where you don’t create a new document for every meeting, but you add to and delete from the existing document as you go. What you will find as you implement this daily meeting and utilize the agenda is that your team will raise the bar and start to work better together. Communication issues that had been missed in the past will start to be caught. Inefficiencies will improve and your organization will get better and better. Create your team’s agenda today and start the daily meeting immediately. For more help on getting this process going, contact our team today by going to www.thrivetimeshow.com.
