A Guide to Constructive Employee Feedback: Examples & Tips

Giving feedback to employees and receiving manager feedback are two core responsibilities of your role as a manager. If you’re looking for ideas on how to give and receive feedback in more efficient, engaging, and effective ways, then we’ve got you covered! Let’s dive in… 🏊 Why Employee Feedback is ...

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Why Employee Feedback is Important

Employee feedback is the process of managers, supervisors, and peers giving constructive criticism and suggestions for improvement to an employee. Employee feedback is a two-way street—it also includes an employee giving feedback to his/her manager, peers, or the organization as a whole.

Giving feedback to employees (both when things are going well and when they aren’t) is one of the most crucial responsibilities of a manager. It can help them identify areas of opportunity to develop new skills, improve job performance, and promote their personal and professional growth.

Receiving feedback from your employees can help you improve as a manager while simultaneously bettering the organization as a whole. The result? Happier, higher performing employees and more effective leadership—all working together to meet the goals of the business 😍!

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How to Get Feedback From Your Employees

One of the primary roles of a manager is giving employee feedback—but what’s often overlooked is getting employee feedback. Many businesses rely on exit interviews to gain insight into a manager’s effectiveness, but what good does it do to uncover how an employee feels about you as their manager when they’re leaving the company?

If you have a way for your leadership team to receive frequent employee feedback, you could get ahead of the issue and improve employee retention. Seeing as a Gallup study found 50% of Americans have left a job to “get away from their manager at some point in their career,” having these insights sooner can help your organization reduce costly employee turnover 💰.

So, you want to be sure you’re regularly asking for feedback while your employees are still your employees and you can actually make changes to benefit them! This may involve asking for feedback during regular check-ins, team meetings, or 1:1 meetings, or sending out monthly or quarterly surveys 📝.

No matter how you get the feedback, here are a few major things you should always do when asking for manager feedback from your employees:

Make it clear you value manager feedback 🤗. When you’re the boss, it can be awkward to ask your direct reports to tell you what they think of your performance—and it can be even more awkward and intimidating for the employee. So, make sure your employees know you actually value their feedback so they feel more comfortable giving it. You're not perfect, and letting your team members know you’re always looking to improve makes you a more transparent, approachable boss.
Ask specific employee feedback questions ❓. Asking “do you have any feedback for me?” is simply too vague. Instead, ask specific yet open-ended questions to help your direct reports come up with more relevant, helpful answers. For example, instead of asking, “Do you like our team meetings,” you could ask questions like, “What’s something I could change about the way I lead our meetings to make them more engaging,” or, “Do you think our team meetings are well organized? If not, how do you think we could make them more efficient?”
Lead by example 🚶‍♂️. If you want your direct reports to listen to and apply your employee feedback, then you need to be able to do the same. Accept manager feedback with a positive attitude and work to actually implement the changes and improvements your team is asking for. This shows you’re invested in being a better manager and willing to work on your weaknesses—which will make it easier for them to accept your feedback on their own areas for improvements.

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How to Learn From Employee Feedback

In order to be an effective manager, you need to be able to show your employees that you’re actually learning from their feedback. However, learning from feedback, especially negative or redirecting feedback, can be a challenge 🤯.

Here are a few simple tips for learning from employee feedback so you can actually turn insight into action.

Look for patterns. Try to find patterns or commonalities in your manager feedback. Did a lot of your employees bring up the same concerns or problems in a recent employee feedback survey? For example, let’s say 8 out of 10 of your team members made a comment about your team meetings being unorganized. This is a pattern you should definitely pay attention to!

Address priorities first. As a manager, you won’t be able to address every concern or make every change your employees are asking for overnight. So how can you prioritize? If you do identify patterns or recurring issues, address those problems first. If the majority of your team seems to have the same problem, you’ll want to get it handled as quickly as possible to avoid negative impact on team morale and performance.

Be transparent about changes. When your employees are being vocal about manager feedback, you want to make sure you’re being vocal about how you’re handling it, too. Don’t just quietly make changes and assume your employees will notice—be open, honest, and upfront about the improvements you’re making and why.

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How to Give Feedback to Your Employees

Now that you know the ins and outs of getting manager feedback, the next part is being able to effectively give it to your employees.

It can be hard and awkward to have tough conversations about professional performance 😖—especially with someone you like personally. But as a manager, giving employee feedback is a crucial part of your job role. So how can you do it effectively?

A study quoted in the book First, Break All The Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham says that the world’s best managers share three characteristics. They all tend to:

Exchange feedback continuously 🔄. If you only give employee feedback during annual performance reviews, you may give your team members the impression that you’re giving them feedback because “it’s that time of year and you have to.” On the other hand, when you provide more regular feedback or constructive comments as soon as you notice something your direct reports can improve upon, it makes it possible to nip issues in the bud right as they occur. If left unsaid, issues will only get worse, and by the time the annual performance review rolls around, you’ll have to deal with a whole slew of issues that could have been avoided if resolved earlier.
Focus on employee strengths 💪. As we mentioned earlier, it’s important to stay positive while giving employee feedback. Make sure to give reinforcing feedback and highlight an employee’s accomplishments when they’re doing something well! This boosts morale and shows your employees you appreciate them. When you do have to give negative feedback, use the redirection method to spin it in a more positive light. Don’t just focus on the employee’s actions, but figure out next steps and talk through ways in which you could help. Always try to balance positive and negative feedback—if you have to discuss an employee’s weakness, make sure you also highlight one of their strengths.
Praise in public and provide criticism in private 🤫. If you need to give a team member constructive feedback, make sure to give it in private and ideally in person during a 1:1 meeting. You don’t want to send performance feedback in an instant message or email—this feels impersonal and shows your employee you don’t care about taking the time to meet face to face. You also don’t want to call out an individual in a team meeting or in front of their coworkers. This can make an employee feel incredibly uncomfortable and create a competitive nature amongst your team. Instead, find a quiet space to offer your feedback and advice face-to-face. On the other hand, employee praise or positive recognition can be shared publicly (as long as your report is comfortable with it).

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6 Manager Feedback Examples to Follow

Here are some examples of how you can effectively give both positive and negative employee feedback.

Positive Employee Feedback Examples

“Something I really appreciate about you is your ability to effectively brainstorm and collaborate with your team.”
“I think you did a really great job presenting the latest project to our client. It showed that you have excellent communication and public speaking skills, and the client was very happy with what you came up with. Great work! Let’s keep this momentum going as we start actually executing the campaign.”
“I can see your positive attitude is having an impact on our team morale. Thank you for coming into work everyday with a positive, go-getter attitude and setting a great example for your team members.”

Negative Employee Feedback Examples

When an employee didn’t meet a deadline: “This project wasn’t delivered on time. Was there anything I could have done as your manager to help you meet that deadline? For the next project, let’s make sure you have more time and resources to finish as planned. We can sync up every couple of days to make sure you’re on track and not feeling rushed. Going forward, maybe we can schedule your work in advance to make sure that you’re not overwhelmed towards the end.”
When an employee didn’t achieve a performance goal: “Great job setting your goals this quarter! You accomplished quite a bit, and it’s okay that you didn’t hit every single goal. But, I can see how that might feel discouraging. Do you have any ideas why you didn’t hit particular goals? Let’s meet more regularly throughout the next quarter to track and discuss your progress towards your next set of goals.”
When an employee made a mistake: “I know you feel badly about what happened, but let’s not dwell on it. Instead, let’s focus on how we can make changes to do better in the future! What do you think could have been done to prevent that outcome? Was there something I could have done as a manager to help you? Let’s find a way to learn from this and make sure you have the right support and resources so it doesn’t happen next time.”

The bottom line here? Employee feedback is a valuable tool that can be used to help each and every team member learn, grow, and get better at their job. It also plays an important role in helping organizations achieve their big-picture goals—while developing a better workplace culture along the way. So, when given and received effectively, employee feedback can make all the difference in your organization 👏!

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Give and Get More Effective Feedback with Strety!

Strety, an all-in-one performance management and people management product, makes being a better manager and giving more effective feedback easier than ever before. By giving you all the features you need in one easy to use, purpose-built product 💻, you can:

Set up employee feedback questions, send them to your whole team at once, and gain insight into how your employees really feel
Automate scheduling and following up on 1:1 meetings
Track an individual employee's performance
Track key team and organizational goals
Document employee coaching sessions
And much more!

Are you ready to learn how to give and receive feedback in more engaging, effective ways 🙌? Reach out to a Strety team member today 📲!

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Why Employee Feedback is Important

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How to Get Feedback From Your Employees

No matter how you get the feedback, here are a few major things you should always do when asking for manager feedback from your employees:

Make it clear you value manager feedback 🤗. When you’re the boss, it can be awkward to ask your direct reports to tell you what they think of your performance—and it can be even more awkward and intimidating for the employee. So, make sure your employees know you actually value their feedback so they feel more comfortable giving it. You're not perfect, and letting your team members know you’re always looking to improve makes you a more transparent, approachable boss.
Ask specific employee feedback questions ❓. Asking “do you have any feedback for me?” is simply too vague. Instead, ask specific yet open-ended questions to help your direct reports come up with more relevant, helpful answers. For example, instead of asking, “Do you like our team meetings,” you could ask questions like, “What’s something I could change about the way I lead our meetings to make them more engaging,” or, “Do you think our team meetings are well organized? If not, how do you think we could make them more efficient?”
Lead by example 🚶‍♂️. If you want your direct reports to listen to and apply your employee feedback, then you need to be able to do the same. Accept manager feedback with a positive attitude and work to actually implement the changes and improvements your team is asking for. This shows you’re invested in being a better manager and willing to work on your weaknesses—which will make it easier for them to accept your feedback on their own areas for improvements.

\n\n

How to Learn From Employee Feedback

Here are a few simple tips for learning from employee feedback so you can actually turn insight into action.

Look for patterns. Try to find patterns or commonalities in your manager feedback. Did a lot of your employees bring up the same concerns or problems in a recent employee feedback survey? For example, let’s say 8 out of 10 of your team members made a comment about your team meetings being unorganized. This is a pattern you should definitely pay attention to!

Address priorities first. As a manager, you won’t be able to address every concern or make every change your employees are asking for overnight. So how can you prioritize? If you do identify patterns or recurring issues, address those problems first. If the majority of your team seems to have the same problem, you’ll want to get it handled as quickly as possible to avoid negative impact on team morale and performance.

Be transparent about changes. When your employees are being vocal about manager feedback, you want to make sure you’re being vocal about how you’re handling it, too. Don’t just quietly make changes and assume your employees will notice—be open, honest, and upfront about the improvements you’re making and why.

\n\n

How to Give Feedback to Your Employees

Now that you know the ins and outs of getting manager feedback, the next part is being able to effectively give it to your employees.

Exchange feedback continuously 🔄. If you only give employee feedback during annual performance reviews, you may give your team members the impression that you’re giving them feedback because “it’s that time of year and you have to.” On the other hand, when you provide more regular feedback or constructive comments as soon as you notice something your direct reports can improve upon, it makes it possible to nip issues in the bud right as they occur. If left unsaid, issues will only get worse, and by the time the annual performance review rolls around, you’ll have to deal with a whole slew of issues that could have been avoided if resolved earlier.
Focus on employee strengths 💪. As we mentioned earlier, it’s important to stay positive while giving employee feedback. Make sure to give reinforcing feedback and highlight an employee’s accomplishments when they’re doing something well! This boosts morale and shows your employees you appreciate them. When you do have to give negative feedback, use the redirection method to spin it in a more positive light. Don’t just focus on the employee’s actions, but figure out next steps and talk through ways in which you could help. Always try to balance positive and negative feedback—if you have to discuss an employee’s weakness, make sure you also highlight one of their strengths.
Praise in public and provide criticism in private 🤫. If you need to give a team member constructive feedback, make sure to give it in private and ideally in person during a 1:1 meeting. You don’t want to send performance feedback in an instant message or email—this feels impersonal and shows your employee you don’t care about taking the time to meet face to face. You also don’t want to call out an individual in a team meeting or in front of their coworkers. This can make an employee feel incredibly uncomfortable and create a competitive nature amongst your team. Instead, find a quiet space to offer your feedback and advice face-to-face. On the other hand, employee praise or positive recognition can be shared publicly (as long as your report is comfortable with it).

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6 Manager Feedback Examples to Follow

Here are some examples of how you can effectively give both positive and negative employee feedback.

Positive Employee Feedback Examples

“Something I really appreciate about you is your ability to effectively brainstorm and collaborate with your team.”
“I think you did a really great job presenting the latest project to our client. It showed that you have excellent communication and public speaking skills, and the client was very happy with what you came up with. Great work! Let’s keep this momentum going as we start actually executing the campaign.”
“I can see your positive attitude is having an impact on our team morale. Thank you for coming into work everyday with a positive, go-getter attitude and setting a great example for your team members.”

Negative Employee Feedback Examples

When an employee didn’t meet a deadline: “This project wasn’t delivered on time. Was there anything I could have done as your manager to help you meet that deadline? For the next project, let’s make sure you have more time and resources to finish as planned. We can sync up every couple of days to make sure you’re on track and not feeling rushed. Going forward, maybe we can schedule your work in advance to make sure that you’re not overwhelmed towards the end.”
When an employee didn’t achieve a performance goal: “Great job setting your goals this quarter! You accomplished quite a bit, and it’s okay that you didn’t hit every single goal. But, I can see how that might feel discouraging. Do you have any ideas why you didn’t hit particular goals? Let’s meet more regularly throughout the next quarter to track and discuss your progress towards your next set of goals.”
When an employee made a mistake: “I know you feel badly about what happened, but let’s not dwell on it. Instead, let’s focus on how we can make changes to do better in the future! What do you think could have been done to prevent that outcome? Was there something I could have done as a manager to help you? Let’s find a way to learn from this and make sure you have the right support and resources so it doesn’t happen next time.”

\n\n

Give and Get More Effective Feedback with Strety!

Set up employee feedback questions, send them to your whole team at once, and gain insight into how your employees really feel
Automate scheduling and following up on 1:1 meetings
Track an individual employee's performance
Track key team and organizational goals
Document employee coaching sessions
And much more!

Are you ready to learn how to give and receive feedback in more engaging, effective ways 🙌? Reach out to a Strety team member today 📲!

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{"post_summary":"

There are many types of business meetings: team meetings, 1:1 meetings between managers and their direct reports, distributed meetings, client meetings, stakeholder meetings, and leadership meetings, just to name a few.

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Leadership meetings are one of the most important—but why? How can you run more effective leadership meetings in your own organization? We’re here to bring you the management meeting topics, tips, and tricks your leadership team needs to achieve success 👏!

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Why Are Leadership Meetings Valuable?

The leadership team sets the tone and focus for the entire organization. This means having leaders that are aligned on company goals who are able to work together towards achieving them, creating the recipe for a successful company 🥣.

Essentially, you want your management team to operate like a well-oiled machine… but this can be incredibly difficult to achieve. Each leader within an organization will have different priorities based on their specific job role or department. For example, the CFO may be focused on finances while the HR Director is likely more concerned with how budget changes would affect their staff. Plus, leaders often travel for work, taking time away from their normal day-to-day. With such hectic schedules and so many things to keep track of, it can make getting everyone together a challenge 😩. How can you overcome these obstacles?

The most important ingredient in this recipe for success is consistency and communication 🗣️! Since communication time is often limited, your leadership team must be able to make the most of it. It’s essential to talk openly, regularly, and effectively in team meetings.

The primary goal of leadership meetings is to make decisions, solve problems, and ensure the organization’s day-to-day operations and processes are aligned. Team meetings are also a place to gather, bond, and build rapport as a leadership unit. Participants should look forward to attending these meetings and leave feeling energized and inspired💡!

However, none of this will be possible if the leaders in your organization never talk to each other or are forced to sit through poorly-prepared and poorly-conducted leadership meetings 😣. On the other hand, highly-productive leadership meetings will ensure everyone is always on the same page, aligned on goals, and working towards them together 🙌.

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How to Prepare for and Run a Leadership Meeting

Now that you know the importance of effective leadership meetings, how can you utilize them in your own organization?

Tips for Preparing for a Leadership Team Meeting

They say you can never be too prepared. The same is true when it comes to meetings. Here are five top tips for prepping for an effective leadership meeting:

Create a context driven leadership meeting agenda 📝. A business meeting agenda is a great tool that ensures your leadership meetings stay on track, run on time, and cover all the necessary topics. However, meeting agendas shouldn’t just be a list of things to discuss—a thoughtful agenda will also give context on why each agenda item is being discussed. In your meeting agenda, be sure to add in as many notes or backup documents as possible so all meeting participants can prepare themselves.
Send the leadership meeting agenda in advance 📧. Once you’ve created your agenda, send it to the other meeting participants for input at least 24 hours in advance. There may be something important that someone else needs to talk about or something you’ve forgotten to add. Plus, by sending the business meeting agenda in advance, you give others a chance to prepare—meaning everyone can make the most of their time.
Prioritize the leadership meeting agenda ⌛. On your agenda, highlight the items that are the highest priority so you can be sure to address them first. This way, if something takes longer than expected, you can leave the less important items for next time instead of pushing back something that needs to be addressed urgently.
Determine the goal of each leadership meeting agenda item 🥅. Make it clear whether each agenda item requires a final decision or if it’s simply open for discussion.
Do your homework 📚. Be sure to block off an adequate amount of prep time for each leadership team meeting. Start thinking about ideas you may have and devote time to necessary research so you can add value and lend expertise to the meeting.

Tips for Running a Leadership Team Meeting

Once you’ve got a plan in place, it’s time to execute it. Here are five top tips for running an effective leadership meeting:

Be respectful of everyone’s time ⏰. If you don’t start your meetings on time they likely won’t end on time. This can create a snowball effect and before you know it, the entire day is off schedule. Leaders in any organization are incredibly busy, so it’s important to start and end your meetings on time and be respectful of everyone’s schedule.
Keep it positive 😃. In order for your team meeting to yield positive outcomes and results, you must approach it with a positive attitude. Even if there’s an issue you need to address, don’t be negative about it—have an open discussion and work together to reach a solution. Never bad mouth or make fun of another employee, client, project, or situation.
Eliminate distractions 📵. As a leader with a busy schedule, you certainly don't have time to waste on distractions—like a ringing cell phone or a fellow manager that’s spending the entire meeting scrolling through social media. In order to minimize distractions and keep everyone focused, it’s best to ditch electronic devices in team meetings (unless they’re actually necessary).
Summarize each agenda item after you’ve discussed it 📄. After you go through each agenda item, wrap up what you discussed before moving on to the next thing. Summarize any issues or areas of opportunity that were identified, and confirm the next steps the group has decided to take.
Capture decisions and assign action items ⏭️. You could have the most wildly productive meeting but if you don’t take note of your decisions and next steps, they are likely to get lost in the shuffle and never actually happen. So, be sure to wrap up every leadership team meeting by capturing any decisions and assigning action items to the appropriate people.

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5 Leadership Meeting Ideas to Discuss

Here are five management meeting topics and ideas that you may want to implement in your next leadership team meeting:

Get personal 🤝. As leaders, you’re all busy people, which means you may not get the opportunity to talk about something other than work very often. Try dedicating the first couple of minutes in your leadership team meeting to chat as peers, even if it’s something as simple as sharing what everyone did over the weekend. This allows your leadership team to build deeper relationships which can actually lead to higher quality work, plus sets a positive tone for the rest of the meeting.
Review key metrics and goals of the team 📏. The bulk of your time in leadership team meetings is typically dedicated to tracking progress, metrics, and results for various projects and initiatives. This makes it possible to identify whether each team, department, and the organization as a whole is on track to meet its goals so you can course-correct if necessary.
Use the red, yellow, and green method🚦for goal status updates. If you find reviewing key metrics and results to be overly time-consuming or overwhelming, try using the red, yellow, and green method for each agenda item. Are you feeling red (bad), yellow (so-so), or green (good) about hitting a particular goal or benchmark? If the team consensus is green, move onto the next item quickly. If it’s yellow, make a note to come back to that item at the end of the meeting if you have time (and if you don’t, put it at the top of the next meeting’s agenda). If it’s red, you know you need to focus the discussion on that item!
Identify issues and challenges and work to solve them 🙁. When all leaders from various teams and departments come together, it’s a great time to identify issues and roadblocks to success. Then, you can brainstorm and work together to come up with solutions.
Highlight good news and wins 🎉. Leadership team meetings shouldn't be all negative. Try to have each leader bring one “win” from their team or department to the meeting, then end by going around the room so each person can share their win. This makes it possible for leaders to know what exciting things are going on in other areas of the organization, plus wraps up the meeting on a positive note and boosts team morale.

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Leadership Meeting Agenda Examples

Here are a few leadership meeting agenda examples for various kinds of meetings. Keep in mind that these are simply outlines meant to be used as a starting point.

“The Quick Meeting”

Duration: 15 minutes or less.

Purpose: Often referred to as a “daily stand up,” the type of meeting is more administrative in nature and is designed to keep the leadership team in sync.

Sample business meeting agenda: Participants will assemble for an informal go around where each person shares:

What they worked on yesterday
What they plan to work on today
If any roadblocks are preventing them from completing those tasks effectively
If they’ve made any new learnings or have anything to share that may benefit the rest of the group

“The Weekly Leadership Team Meeting”

Duration: 60-90 minutes.

Purpose: This type of leadership meeting should be routine, and scheduled for the same time and day each week for consistency. The goal is to review what happened last week, discuss any challenges that the organization may be facing, and start planning for the next week. However, it’s important to only focus on a few high-importance issues at a time—don’t lose valuable time talking about less important problems, or think that you’ll be able to discuss and solve everything in just one meeting.

Sample business meeting agenda:

Intro to the meeting (5 min)
Review numbers and metrics
Review goals
Highlight company wins and accomplishments
Identify top issues
Brainstorm ways to tackle top issues
Agree on a solution and implementation plan
Assign action items
Review and confirm actions items
Rank meeting and conclude!

“The Quarterly Strategic Meeting”

Duration: 2-6 hours, depending on the size of the leadership team and the organization. You can break this meeting into two separate sessions, or schedule an off-site planning day. This helps you take a step back from the day-to-day operations and eliminate distractions—plus can be used as a leadership team building exercise.

Purpose: The goal of this type of leadership meeting is to review progress on last quarter's goals, adjust processes as needed, and set goals and priorities for the upcoming quarter. Perhaps more importantly, these meetings keep the leadership team connected to the overall direction the organization is trying to move in. This can get fuzzy as the year goes on, so it’s important to be reminded.

Sample business meeting agenda:

Welcome and chat as a team to loosen up before the long meeting ahead
Go over a high-level review of the leadership meeting agenda and set key goals for the meeting
Look back on the last quarter

Discuss what went well and why
Discuss what didn’t go well and why, and where course corrections could be made going forward
Discuss highlights, key learnings, and wins
Measure success through metrics and KPIs
Identify if goals were met—if not, where can changes or adjustments be made in order to reach them?

Take a break
Start thinking about plans for the next quarter by asking and discussing questions like:

Have any of our organizational goals shifted? If so, what are our new goals going forward?
What do we need to adjust in our approach for next quarter based on what we identified that worked well and didn’t previously?

Put a strategy in place for the next quarter

Define key goals and initiatives
Define metrics for meeting them, such as new quarterly targets, KPIs, etc.
Define an action plan, which includes who will be carrying out each initiative, who is responsible for tracking progress towards each goals, and timelines

Confirm the plan

Review key decisions that were made to ensure everyone is on the same page
Identify what will be shared with the rest of the organization and how that messaging will be delivered
Confirm action items

Close the meeting by asking if anyone has any final thoughts, and thanking everyone for their time

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Run Leadership Meetings with the Tools You Already Use

One big problem with meetings: there are too many things in too many places. One person scribbles an agenda in a notebook, another takes notes in Google Docs, another shows up totally unprepared because they didn't realize they needed to review something in advance.

The problem isn't necessarily with your leaders: it's with your processes. When you're trying to keep track of action items, agendas, and decisions, it's helpful to keep everything in one place so you can reference the information you need.

You can use a dedicated tool for that, but what's even better: expanding on a tool you already love.

If you spend your workday in Microsoft Teams, Strety is for you.

It’s an all-in-one performance management and people management tool that lives inside of Teams to work where you're already working. Strety brings together all the features you need to become a better leader and run better team meetings 😊!

With Strety, you’ll be able to:

Automate scheduling and following up on meetings
Run more effective and engaging team meetings
Store info about what you need to cover in a leadership meeting agenda
Collaborate on team meeting agendas
Take meeting notes and add comments
Assign post-meeting action items
Track progress on action items and goals
And much more!

It’s time to say goodbye to unproductive leadership meetings and hello to Strety 👋! Ready to learn more? Contact us today 📞!

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Why Are Leadership Meetings Valuable?

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How to Prepare for and Run a Leadership Meeting

Now that you know the importance of effective leadership meetings, how can you utilize them in your own organization?

Tips for Preparing for a Leadership Team Meeting

They say you can never be too prepared. The same is true when it comes to meetings. Here are five top tips for prepping for an effective leadership meeting:

Create a context driven leadership meeting agenda 📝. A business meeting agenda is a great tool that ensures your leadership meetings stay on track, run on time, and cover all the necessary topics. However, meeting agendas shouldn’t just be a list of things to discuss—a thoughtful agenda will also give context on why each agenda item is being discussed. In your meeting agenda, be sure to add in as many notes or backup documents as possible so all meeting participants can prepare themselves.
Send the leadership meeting agenda in advance 📧. Once you’ve created your agenda, send it to the other meeting participants for input at least 24 hours in advance. There may be something important that someone else needs to talk about or something you’ve forgotten to add. Plus, by sending the business meeting agenda in advance, you give others a chance to prepare—meaning everyone can make the most of their time.
Prioritize the leadership meeting agenda ⌛. On your agenda, highlight the items that are the highest priority so you can be sure to address them first. This way, if something takes longer than expected, you can leave the less important items for next time instead of pushing back something that needs to be addressed urgently.
Determine the goal of each leadership meeting agenda item 🥅. Make it clear whether each agenda item requires a final decision or if it’s simply open for discussion.
Do your homework 📚. Be sure to block off an adequate amount of prep time for each leadership team meeting. Start thinking about ideas you may have and devote time to necessary research so you can add value and lend expertise to the meeting.

Tips for Running a Leadership Team Meeting

Once you’ve got a plan in place, it’s time to execute it. Here are five top tips for running an effective leadership meeting:

Be respectful of everyone’s time ⏰. If you don’t start your meetings on time they likely won’t end on time. This can create a snowball effect and before you know it, the entire day is off schedule. Leaders in any organization are incredibly busy, so it’s important to start and end your meetings on time and be respectful of everyone’s schedule.
Keep it positive 😃. In order for your team meeting to yield positive outcomes and results, you must approach it with a positive attitude. Even if there’s an issue you need to address, don’t be negative about it—have an open discussion and work together to reach a solution. Never bad mouth or make fun of another employee, client, project, or situation.
Eliminate distractions 📵. As a leader with a busy schedule, you certainly don't have time to waste on distractions—like a ringing cell phone or a fellow manager that’s spending the entire meeting scrolling through social media. In order to minimize distractions and keep everyone focused, it’s best to ditch electronic devices in team meetings (unless they’re actually necessary).
Summarize each agenda item after you’ve discussed it 📄. After you go through each agenda item, wrap up what you discussed before moving on to the next thing. Summarize any issues or areas of opportunity that were identified, and confirm the next steps the group has decided to take.
Capture decisions and assign action items ⏭️. You could have the most wildly productive meeting but if you don’t take note of your decisions and next steps, they are likely to get lost in the shuffle and never actually happen. So, be sure to wrap up every leadership team meeting by capturing any decisions and assigning action items to the appropriate people.

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5 Leadership Meeting Ideas to Discuss

Here are five management meeting topics and ideas that you may want to implement in your next leadership team meeting:

Get personal 🤝. As leaders, you’re all busy people, which means you may not get the opportunity to talk about something other than work very often. Try dedicating the first couple of minutes in your leadership team meeting to chat as peers, even if it’s something as simple as sharing what everyone did over the weekend. This allows your leadership team to build deeper relationships which can actually lead to higher quality work, plus sets a positive tone for the rest of the meeting.
Review key metrics and goals of the team 📏. The bulk of your time in leadership team meetings is typically dedicated to tracking progress, metrics, and results for various projects and initiatives. This makes it possible to identify whether each team, department, and the organization as a whole is on track to meet its goals so you can course-correct if necessary.
Use the red, yellow, and green method🚦for goal status updates. If you find reviewing key metrics and results to be overly time-consuming or overwhelming, try using the red, yellow, and green method for each agenda item. Are you feeling red (bad), yellow (so-so), or green (good) about hitting a particular goal or benchmark? If the team consensus is green, move onto the next item quickly. If it’s yellow, make a note to come back to that item at the end of the meeting if you have time (and if you don’t, put it at the top of the next meeting’s agenda). If it’s red, you know you need to focus the discussion on that item!
Identify issues and challenges and work to solve them 🙁. When all leaders from various teams and departments come together, it’s a great time to identify issues and roadblocks to success. Then, you can brainstorm and work together to come up with solutions.
Highlight good news and wins 🎉. Leadership team meetings shouldn't be all negative. Try to have each leader bring one “win” from their team or department to the meeting, then end by going around the room so each person can share their win. This makes it possible for leaders to know what exciting things are going on in other areas of the organization, plus wraps up the meeting on a positive note and boosts team morale.

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Leadership Meeting Agenda Examples

Here are a few leadership meeting agenda examples for various kinds of meetings. Keep in mind that these are simply outlines meant to be used as a starting point.

“The Quick Meeting”

Duration: 15 minutes or less.

Purpose: Often referred to as a “daily stand up,” the type of meeting is more administrative in nature and is designed to keep the leadership team in sync.

Sample business meeting agenda: Participants will assemble for an informal go around where each person shares:

What they worked on yesterday
What they plan to work on today
If any roadblocks are preventing them from completing those tasks effectively
If they’ve made any new learnings or have anything to share that may benefit the rest of the group

“The Weekly Leadership Team Meeting”

Duration: 60-90 minutes.

Sample business meeting agenda:

Intro to the meeting (5 min)
Review numbers and metrics
Review goals
Highlight company wins and accomplishments
Identify top issues
Brainstorm ways to tackle top issues
Agree on a solution and implementation plan
Assign action items
Review and confirm actions items
Rank meeting and conclude!

“The Quarterly Strategic Meeting”

Sample business meeting agenda:

Welcome and chat as a team to loosen up before the long meeting ahead
Go over a high-level review of the leadership meeting agenda and set key goals for the meeting
Look back on the last quarter

Discuss what went well and why
Discuss what didn’t go well and why, and where course corrections could be made going forward
Discuss highlights, key learnings, and wins
Measure success through metrics and KPIs
Identify if goals were met—if not, where can changes or adjustments be made in order to reach them?

Take a break
Start thinking about plans for the next quarter by asking and discussing questions like:

Have any of our organizational goals shifted? If so, what are our new goals going forward?
What do we need to adjust in our approach for next quarter based on what we identified that worked well and didn’t previously?

Put a strategy in place for the next quarter

Define key goals and initiatives
Define metrics for meeting them, such as new quarterly targets, KPIs, etc.
Define an action plan, which includes who will be carrying out each initiative, who is responsible for tracking progress towards each goals, and timelines

Confirm the plan

Review key decisions that were made to ensure everyone is on the same page
Identify what will be shared with the rest of the organization and how that messaging will be delivered
Confirm action items

Close the meeting by asking if anyone has any final thoughts, and thanking everyone for their time

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Run Leadership Meetings with the Tools You Already Use

You can use a dedicated tool for that, but what's even better: expanding on a tool you already love.

If you spend your workday in Microsoft Teams, Strety is for you.

With Strety, you’ll be able to:

Automate scheduling and following up on meetings
Run more effective and engaging team meetings
Store info about what you need to cover in a leadership meeting agenda
Collaborate on team meeting agendas
Take meeting notes and add comments
Assign post-meeting action items
Track progress on action items and goals
And much more!

It’s time to say goodbye to unproductive leadership meetings and hello to Strety 👋! Ready to learn more? Contact us today 📞!

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Meetings

How to Run a Leadership Meeting: Topics and Agendas

There are many types of business meetings: team meetings, 1:1 meetings between managers and their direct reports, distributed meetings, client ...

Written By: Strety

January 22, 2020

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Many managers and employees view team meetings as a waste of time ⏱️. We get it, we’ve been in these types of meetings—they’re not effective team meetings. So, what is a truly effective team meeting? Get ready to find out.

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What is the Purpose of Team Meetings?

Let’s take a step back. As much as meetings can be a waste of time, good ones are actually extremely critical to any team or company. Personally, I used to despise (and still do to an extent) having meetings but GREAT team meetings are an essential component of building a happy, highly functional team that is able to achieve its goals—and have fun while doing so.

If you run effective team meetings, you will provide an open opportunity for all team members to come together, reflect on their progress, identity and solve problems, and help each other reach individual solutions. This empowers each individual member of the team, as well as the team as a whole, to be more successful 🙌.

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How Do You Run an Effective Team Meeting?

The average worker spends 3.8 hours each week in unproductive meetings. Making your employees sit in team meetings that are irrelevant to them, unorganized, or too long can cause frustration—resulting in a room full of meeting participants that are bored, unengaged, and frankly, ticked off. No one is ever happy in a bad meeting. So, how can this be avoided ❌?

Here are some simple tips for running an effective team meeting:

ALWAYS prepare a team meeting agenda📝. Creating a staff meeting agenda helps to identify the priority topics for the meeting so you can keep the focus on what’s truly important. Plus, having a team meeting agenda that can be distributed to every participant doesn’t just keep you organized and on track as the manager, but makes it possible for everyone else in the meeting to prepare accordingly and stay on the same page as well.
Minimize distractions📵. A ringing cell phone or the constant ping of an email inbox is distracting during team meetings. Plus, if an employee is clearly scrolling through their social feed or checking other messages during a meeting, it can make their coworkers feel like they don’t care about what they have to say. For these reasons, it’s best to minimize the number of devices in a team meeting. Avoid bringing cell phones, computers, and tablets into a meeting unless they’re actually necessary.
Set the example 👀. If you expect your team members to have a positive attitude and stay off their personal devices during a team meeting, you need to follow the same rules as a leader. Your employees are looking to you to set the example, so be sure to always act in the same manner you’re expecting them to.
Leave room for collaboration 💭. While it’s certainly important to have an organized team meeting agenda, you don’t want to cram so many items on the agenda that there’s no time for collaboration and brainstorming. So, be sure to always leave some time at the end of a team meeting to revisit an unplanned topic that came up, get creative, brainstorm ideas for an upcoming project, or simply chat as a team to build rapport.
Take meeting notes 🗒️. Having a great discussion or coming up with the world’s best idea during a team meeting won’t mean anything if no one can remember it later. It’s essential that meeting notes are taken so that all participants can refer back to them later. Plus, if someone is out sick or unable to make the meeting, you can pass the meeting notes along to them so they can get themselves back up to speed.
Assign action items ✍️. Just chatting about improvements that need to be made isn’t enough—action must be taken if you really want to truly see change. So, before leaving a meeting, assign action items and make sure each team member knows what they are responsible for and when it’s due.
Actually follow up on those action items 🔼. Hold individuals accountable for their commitments and check in on their progress before the next meeting. This minimizes the risk of showing up at the next team meeting and finding out that nobody bothered doing what they committed to last time.
Ask for team feedback 🗣️. Keep striving to improve your team meetings by asking for team feedback. Ask your employees what they like about your team meetings, what they think isn’t working quite as well, and if they have any ideas for improvements.
Never Run Late 🏃. If you set the tone that the meeting will run on time and end on time, everyone will appreciate it. You may not get to everything on the agenda but everyone will realize you respect their time and your own time.
Limit Tangents 💬. There is always someone on your team who lives to bring up random topics during a meeting. This is typically due to a lack of preparedness on their part but could be a personality trait as well. The key is to refer back to the prepared agenda and stick to that. Leave tangents for the next meeting.

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How to Structure Your Team Meeting Agenda

When it comes to structuring your team meeting agendas, every manager does things a little differently. There are tons of free team meeting agenda templates out there that you can use as a starting point—we have our own at Strety, too—then customize to meet your team’s specific needs and goals.

The time spent on each topic will depend on the length of the meeting, how much you need to cover, and what the goals and focus of the specific meeting is.

Here is a simple team meeting agenda structure you can follow:

Team meeting check in ✔️. Get everyone loosened up for the meeting and catch-up for a few minutes as a team to build rapport. This could be about how they’re feeling at the moment, what they’ve been up to in their personal lives recently, etc. Keep this part really short—it’s only to segue into the rest of the meeting. At Strety, we like to start our team meetings with a ranking of how everyone is feeling coming into the meeting and a short description of why.
Recent wins 🎉. Start out the team meeting on a positive note by recognizing the progress the team has made so far and highlighting any team or individual wins.
Challenges and constraints 👎. Identify if any team members are facing any obstacles or roadblocks. For example: Is there a resource they need to complete a task they don’t have access to? Do they need to get with an employee from another department? Is a timeline unrealistic?
Upcoming priorities ⏭️. Dive into the biggest priorities and areas of focus moving forward.
Next steps 🚶‍♂️. Assign action items coming out of the meeting, and confirm that each team member knows what they’re responsible for, when it’s due, and has the necessary resources to actually complete them.
Rank & close out the meeting 🔟. Have everyone rank the meeting and give reasons why they ranked it. This shows your team members that they actually have a voice in these meetings.

\n\n

5 Team Meeting Agenda Ideas

Here are five team meeting agenda ideas to spice up your next team meeting 🌶️!

Ask for input on your team meeting agendas. As a manager, it’s your responsibility to develop the team meeting agenda, but that doesn’t mean others can’t be involved at all. Invite your team members to contribute agenda items—this makes them feel like you truly care about what they have to say, and may bring a problem to your attention you weren’t even aware of.
Stick to your team meeting agendas. Spending time creating a team meeting agenda is pointless if you don’t actually stick to it. With free time tracking apps like Toggl, you can set a time limit for each topic on the agenda. When the timer goes off, you know it’s time to move onto the next topic. This helps you stay on track so you can cover everything you need to and avoid spending 45 minutes going off on a tangent.
Utilize some team meeting ice breakers. Team meeting icebreakers can loosen everybody up and get them into “meeting mode.” You can use pretty much any short topic that will get people talking, smiling, and ready to collaborate!
Switch things up sometimes. Put a little variety in the format of your team meetings to keep your employees engaged. We like and recommend switching locations, and even doing a walking meeting when agendas are light. Anything to shake up the routine is good for everyone!
Carve out some time to celebrate team wins. Team meetings shouldn’t just be to discuss problems with a project or issues with performance. Take a few minutes during each team meeting to call out team wins and celebrate them together. This will show your employees you appreciate them and boost team morale!

\n\n

How Do You Improve Team Meetings?

Running a good team meeting can feel like an overwhelming task, especially if the organization is known for running bad and unproductive meetings.

Utilizing a team meeting software (sure, like ours!) can make running a team meeting easier on you as a manager, plus make your meetings more efficient and enjoyable for your employees 😍! By having all the information you need in one place, you can have peace of mind that you aren’t forgetting anything or overlooking an important detail.

\n\n

Elevate Your Team Meetings with Strety!

Strety is a performance management and people management product that brings together all the features you need to become a better manager and lead better team meetings 👏!

With Strety, you’ll be able to:

Automate the process of scheduling and following up on meetings
Run better 1:1 meetings
Run more effective team meetings
Store info about what you need to cover in a team meeting agenda
Collaborate on team meeting agendas so your employees can add what they'd like to discuss, too
Take meeting notes
Add comments during the meeting so you don’t forget what you’ve discussed
Assign post-meeting action items for team members
And more!

Are you ready to level 🆙 your team meetings with Strety? Contact us today to learn more!

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\n\n

What is the Purpose of Team Meetings?

\n\n

How Do You Run an Effective Team Meeting?

Here are some simple tips for running an effective team meeting:

ALWAYS prepare a team meeting agenda📝. Creating a staff meeting agenda helps to identify the priority topics for the meeting so you can keep the focus on what’s truly important. Plus, having a team meeting agenda that can be distributed to every participant doesn’t just keep you organized and on track as the manager, but makes it possible for everyone else in the meeting to prepare accordingly and stay on the same page as well.
Minimize distractions📵. A ringing cell phone or the constant ping of an email inbox is distracting during team meetings. Plus, if an employee is clearly scrolling through their social feed or checking other messages during a meeting, it can make their coworkers feel like they don’t care about what they have to say. For these reasons, it’s best to minimize the number of devices in a team meeting. Avoid bringing cell phones, computers, and tablets into a meeting unless they’re actually necessary.
Set the example 👀. If you expect your team members to have a positive attitude and stay off their personal devices during a team meeting, you need to follow the same rules as a leader. Your employees are looking to you to set the example, so be sure to always act in the same manner you’re expecting them to.
Leave room for collaboration 💭. While it’s certainly important to have an organized team meeting agenda, you don’t want to cram so many items on the agenda that there’s no time for collaboration and brainstorming. So, be sure to always leave some time at the end of a team meeting to revisit an unplanned topic that came up, get creative, brainstorm ideas for an upcoming project, or simply chat as a team to build rapport.
Take meeting notes 🗒️. Having a great discussion or coming up with the world’s best idea during a team meeting won’t mean anything if no one can remember it later. It’s essential that meeting notes are taken so that all participants can refer back to them later. Plus, if someone is out sick or unable to make the meeting, you can pass the meeting notes along to them so they can get themselves back up to speed.
Assign action items ✍️. Just chatting about improvements that need to be made isn’t enough—action must be taken if you really want to truly see change. So, before leaving a meeting, assign action items and make sure each team member knows what they are responsible for and when it’s due.
Actually follow up on those action items 🔼. Hold individuals accountable for their commitments and check in on their progress before the next meeting. This minimizes the risk of showing up at the next team meeting and finding out that nobody bothered doing what they committed to last time.
Ask for team feedback 🗣️. Keep striving to improve your team meetings by asking for team feedback. Ask your employees what they like about your team meetings, what they think isn’t working quite as well, and if they have any ideas for improvements.
Never Run Late 🏃. If you set the tone that the meeting will run on time and end on time, everyone will appreciate it. You may not get to everything on the agenda but everyone will realize you respect their time and your own time.
Limit Tangents 💬. There is always someone on your team who lives to bring up random topics during a meeting. This is typically due to a lack of preparedness on their part but could be a personality trait as well. The key is to refer back to the prepared agenda and stick to that. Leave tangents for the next meeting.

\n\n

How to Structure Your Team Meeting Agenda

The time spent on each topic will depend on the length of the meeting, how much you need to cover, and what the goals and focus of the specific meeting is.

Here is a simple team meeting agenda structure you can follow:

Team meeting check in ✔️. Get everyone loosened up for the meeting and catch-up for a few minutes as a team to build rapport. This could be about how they’re feeling at the moment, what they’ve been up to in their personal lives recently, etc. Keep this part really short—it’s only to segue into the rest of the meeting. At Strety, we like to start our team meetings with a ranking of how everyone is feeling coming into the meeting and a short description of why.
Recent wins 🎉. Start out the team meeting on a positive note by recognizing the progress the team has made so far and highlighting any team or individual wins.
Challenges and constraints 👎. Identify if any team members are facing any obstacles or roadblocks. For example: Is there a resource they need to complete a task they don’t have access to? Do they need to get with an employee from another department? Is a timeline unrealistic?
Upcoming priorities ⏭️. Dive into the biggest priorities and areas of focus moving forward.
Next steps 🚶‍♂️. Assign action items coming out of the meeting, and confirm that each team member knows what they’re responsible for, when it’s due, and has the necessary resources to actually complete them.
Rank & close out the meeting 🔟. Have everyone rank the meeting and give reasons why they ranked it. This shows your team members that they actually have a voice in these meetings.

\n\n

5 Team Meeting Agenda Ideas

Here are five team meeting agenda ideas to spice up your next team meeting 🌶️!

Ask for input on your team meeting agendas. As a manager, it’s your responsibility to develop the team meeting agenda, but that doesn’t mean others can’t be involved at all. Invite your team members to contribute agenda items—this makes them feel like you truly care about what they have to say, and may bring a problem to your attention you weren’t even aware of.
Stick to your team meeting agendas. Spending time creating a team meeting agenda is pointless if you don’t actually stick to it. With free time tracking apps like Toggl, you can set a time limit for each topic on the agenda. When the timer goes off, you know it’s time to move onto the next topic. This helps you stay on track so you can cover everything you need to and avoid spending 45 minutes going off on a tangent.
Utilize some team meeting ice breakers. Team meeting icebreakers can loosen everybody up and get them into “meeting mode.” You can use pretty much any short topic that will get people talking, smiling, and ready to collaborate!
Switch things up sometimes. Put a little variety in the format of your team meetings to keep your employees engaged. We like and recommend switching locations, and even doing a walking meeting when agendas are light. Anything to shake up the routine is good for everyone!
Carve out some time to celebrate team wins. Team meetings shouldn’t just be to discuss problems with a project or issues with performance. Take a few minutes during each team meeting to call out team wins and celebrate them together. This will show your employees you appreciate them and boost team morale!

\n\n

How Do You Improve Team Meetings?

Running a good team meeting can feel like an overwhelming task, especially if the organization is known for running bad and unproductive meetings.

\n\n

Elevate Your Team Meetings with Strety!

Strety is a performance management and people management product that brings together all the features you need to become a better manager and lead better team meetings 👏!

With Strety, you’ll be able to:

Automate the process of scheduling and following up on meetings
Run better 1:1 meetings
Run more effective team meetings
Store info about what you need to cover in a team meeting agenda
Collaborate on team meeting agendas so your employees can add what they'd like to discuss, too
Take meeting notes
Add comments during the meeting so you don’t forget what you’ve discussed
Assign post-meeting action items for team members
And more!

Are you ready to level 🆙 your team meetings with Strety? Contact us today to learn more!

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Meetings

How to Run an Effective Team Meeting

Many managers and employees view team meetings as a waste of time ⏱️. We get it, we’ve been in these types of meetings—they’re not effective team ...

Written By: Larry Garcia

January 17, 2020

{"post_summary":"

We get it—being a first time manager can feel like a daunting task 😳. Many of us are thrust into management positions without any formal training or leadership. And it’s crazy sometimes… you have so many new responsibilities, from decision making to employee motivation to monitoring performance goals, all while often times still holding on to your previous day to day responsibilities.

\n","post_body":"

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How can you do it all to the best of your ability while learning fast and minimizing mistakes? We’ve compiled these 15 tips for new managers to help you step into and carry out your new leadership role with confidence 🙌!

\n\n

Becoming a New Manager: What You Need to Do Beforehand

If you feel like you're on the cusp of being promoted to a management position or have a long-term goal to get there, there are things you could be doing to prepare for your future role.

Start by taking the time to observe current managers in your organization. You could even reach out to them and ask to shadow one of their meetings or see if they have time to grab a coffee and chat about what their role entails ☕. If they make it look easy, trust me, it isn’t—and you need to learn from them.

Good management can sometimes blend in the background and look effortless (but bad management always looks obvious). Learning from those around you is your best way to get started in your educational journey of being a manager. You could also take educational courses or seminars on business management (there are lots of free ones online 💻), attend local conferences, or join networking groups to learn from other professionals in your area.

Additionally, you could read up on management topics and techniques through books, blogs, and more 📖. We certainly have done this and still do to this day. Fortunately, countless successful leaders have taken the time to put their knowledge and experience out there to help others, so why not learn from the best! It’s crucial to your success in your future management role to begin preparing for it now—after all, if you're offered a promotion and you’re not prepared, you’ll feel like kicking yourself.

\n\n

Tips for New Managers

So let’s dive into our tips on how to be a good manager! Here we go:

Recognize you’re in a new role. As a first time manager, accept the fact that you’re in a new role and will often be doing things you’ve never done before. It’s totally okay to have questions, need extra guidance or support as you’re getting comfortable in your new role, and make some mistakes along the way—you’ll just keep learning and getting better! Be humble and know you’re new!
Learn about different leadership styles. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to being a good manager. There are lots of different leadership styles out there, so take the time to learn about them and try different things out. Individual team members may respond better to a certain style of leadership or coaching, so if you have a solid foundation of various leadership styles, you can then tailor your approach to best fit their needs.
Get to really know your team members. Spend time with each of your team members and get to know their daily job tasks, career goals, strengths, and weaknesses, likes, dislikes, and workplace preferences. But don't just stop there—get to know things like the names of their children, what pets they have, where they live, etc. Knowing some small details that are important to them and bringing them up in conversation can help you build a more personal relationship that leads to a solid foundation of trust.
Be the boss, not a friend. Although you should get to know your team on a personal level, it’s important to realize that you’re still their superior. If you act like a friend and not an unbiased boss, it can cause feelings of bias or favoritism amongst other team members. This can cause big problems for team morale. So, while it’s natural to develop friendships with people you’re working with and seeing every day, be sure to maintain professional interactions while in the workplace.
Focus on employee motivation. Each individual team member will be motivated by different things. For example, some appreciate recognition from their manager while others are incentivized by perks like monetary bonuses or an extra day off for high performance. One of the most important new manager skills is the ability to uncover those motivators for each employee so you can help everyone on your team reach their greatest potential!
Lead by example. A major tip for new managers is to always lead your team members by example. Avoid the “do as I say, not as I do” mindset—this will lead to distrust and resentment amongst your team. Ensure you are working just as hard, if not harder, than everyone else. This will generate a great deal of respect from your employees and inspire them to do their best. But remember, this doesn’t mean just do their jobs for them—it means being the type of person you want them to be!
Find a mentor. Find another successful manager in your organization to observe and learn from. Having a go-to person for questions, advice, and feedback can help ease the transition into your new role and make you feel more comfortable as a first time manager. Don’t be stubborn, being a manager is harder than it looks. Pick someone to learn from and ask them to be a mentor.
Always keep learning. Once you land a management position, you shouldn’t just stop developing new skills and learning new things. There are always ways to improve and grow, so you should always strive to become a better leader, improve your skill set, and take the time to grow both personally and professionally. As a first time manager, you’ll definitely have a lot to learn!
Be transparent. One of the most important management tips is to always be open and honest with your team members. This transparency will go a long way in building trust. If your employees feel like you aren’t trustworthy, they won’t feel comfortable coming to you with questions, comments, or concerns, which can negatively affect team performance and morale.
Hold yourself accountable. There’s no point in being open if you aren’t going to actually follow through on what you said. So, be sure to never make promises you can’t keep, and do what you say you’re going to do. This is another way to build trust with your direct reports, and sets an example that your team members should hold themselves accountable, too.
Be accessible and approachable. Effective managers need to be accessible to their team members. After all, if your direct reports can never get a hold of you, or they feel that coming to you with a problem is intimidating, you’ll never be able to identify problems and create solutions for them!
Become an active listener. One of the most vital tips for new managers on this list is to become an active listener, which means paying very close attention to your team members during a meeting or whenever they approach you for a conversation. Maintain eye contact, nod your head, and watch for non-verbal cues and body language. Never interrupt them and always repeat the key points they’ve made back to them to confirm you not only heard, but actually understand what they said.
Schedule and stick with regular 1:1 meetings. You need to connect with your team members privately through 1:1 meetings to give and get feedback and uncover problems. This is so important because often times, employees may not feel comfortable voicing concerns in a group setting. You also need all the members of your team to interact with each other regularly. This way, you can ensure everyone is on the same page and knows what their coworkers are working on. This can also help with team bonding, which leads to higher morale, engagement, and employee motivation.
Ask for feedback. As a first time manager, you’re not going to be perfect—even experienced managers are far from perfect. So, it’s important that you regularly ask your team members for feedback, whether in group or 1:1 meetings or through anonymous surveys. When you know what your team members like and what they don’t and where they think improvements can be made, you can proactively make the necessary changes.
Stay organized. Staying organized will make you feel all over the place as a first time manager, and keeping tasks on track will go a long way in boosting team productivity. There are lots of tools that managers can use to keep track of workload, timelines, projects, performance goals, and more. Streamlining these processes will help you keep all the many moving parts of being a manager on track!

\n\n

First Time Managers Can Succeed with Strety!

One of the tips for new managers we mentioned earlier was leveraging a digital tool to keep track of workload, timelines, projects, performance goals, and more.

One of these tools is Strety—a platform that brings together all the features you need to be a better manager so you can run high performing teams 😍! With Strety, you’ll be able to:

Conduct more effective team and 1:1 meetings
Set and track employee and company goals
Send and store team announcements for improved communication and bonding amongst team members
Ask recurring questions and set automated reminders for more streamlined project management
And much more!

If you’re a new team leader, you need access to the tools and data insights that will make it possible to improve your management skills and get the most out of your team members. Strety makes this possible! So, are you ready to get started? Contact us today 📞!

","rss_summary":"

\n","rss_body":"

\n\n

Becoming a New Manager: What You Need to Do Beforehand

If you feel like you're on the cusp of being promoted to a management position or have a long-term goal to get there, there are things you could be doing to prepare for your future role.

\n\n

Tips for New Managers

So let’s dive into our tips on how to be a good manager! Here we go:

Recognize you’re in a new role. As a first time manager, accept the fact that you’re in a new role and will often be doing things you’ve never done before. It’s totally okay to have questions, need extra guidance or support as you’re getting comfortable in your new role, and make some mistakes along the way—you’ll just keep learning and getting better! Be humble and know you’re new!
Learn about different leadership styles. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to being a good manager. There are lots of different leadership styles out there, so take the time to learn about them and try different things out. Individual team members may respond better to a certain style of leadership or coaching, so if you have a solid foundation of various leadership styles, you can then tailor your approach to best fit their needs.
Get to really know your team members. Spend time with each of your team members and get to know their daily job tasks, career goals, strengths, and weaknesses, likes, dislikes, and workplace preferences. But don't just stop there—get to know things like the names of their children, what pets they have, where they live, etc. Knowing some small details that are important to them and bringing them up in conversation can help you build a more personal relationship that leads to a solid foundation of trust.
Be the boss, not a friend. Although you should get to know your team on a personal level, it’s important to realize that you’re still their superior. If you act like a friend and not an unbiased boss, it can cause feelings of bias or favoritism amongst other team members. This can cause big problems for team morale. So, while it’s natural to develop friendships with people you’re working with and seeing every day, be sure to maintain professional interactions while in the workplace.
Focus on employee motivation. Each individual team member will be motivated by different things. For example, some appreciate recognition from their manager while others are incentivized by perks like monetary bonuses or an extra day off for high performance. One of the most important new manager skills is the ability to uncover those motivators for each employee so you can help everyone on your team reach their greatest potential!
Lead by example. A major tip for new managers is to always lead your team members by example. Avoid the “do as I say, not as I do” mindset—this will lead to distrust and resentment amongst your team. Ensure you are working just as hard, if not harder, than everyone else. This will generate a great deal of respect from your employees and inspire them to do their best. But remember, this doesn’t mean just do their jobs for them—it means being the type of person you want them to be!
Find a mentor. Find another successful manager in your organization to observe and learn from. Having a go-to person for questions, advice, and feedback can help ease the transition into your new role and make you feel more comfortable as a first time manager. Don’t be stubborn, being a manager is harder than it looks. Pick someone to learn from and ask them to be a mentor.
Always keep learning. Once you land a management position, you shouldn’t just stop developing new skills and learning new things. There are always ways to improve and grow, so you should always strive to become a better leader, improve your skill set, and take the time to grow both personally and professionally. As a first time manager, you’ll definitely have a lot to learn!
Be transparent. One of the most important management tips is to always be open and honest with your team members. This transparency will go a long way in building trust. If your employees feel like you aren’t trustworthy, they won’t feel comfortable coming to you with questions, comments, or concerns, which can negatively affect team performance and morale.
Hold yourself accountable. There’s no point in being open if you aren’t going to actually follow through on what you said. So, be sure to never make promises you can’t keep, and do what you say you’re going to do. This is another way to build trust with your direct reports, and sets an example that your team members should hold themselves accountable, too.
Be accessible and approachable. Effective managers need to be accessible to their team members. After all, if your direct reports can never get a hold of you, or they feel that coming to you with a problem is intimidating, you’ll never be able to identify problems and create solutions for them!
Become an active listener. One of the most vital tips for new managers on this list is to become an active listener, which means paying very close attention to your team members during a meeting or whenever they approach you for a conversation. Maintain eye contact, nod your head, and watch for non-verbal cues and body language. Never interrupt them and always repeat the key points they’ve made back to them to confirm you not only heard, but actually understand what they said.
Schedule and stick with regular 1:1 meetings. You need to connect with your team members privately through 1:1 meetings to give and get feedback and uncover problems. This is so important because often times, employees may not feel comfortable voicing concerns in a group setting. You also need all the members of your team to interact with each other regularly. This way, you can ensure everyone is on the same page and knows what their coworkers are working on. This can also help with team bonding, which leads to higher morale, engagement, and employee motivation.
Ask for feedback. As a first time manager, you’re not going to be perfect—even experienced managers are far from perfect. So, it’s important that you regularly ask your team members for feedback, whether in group or 1:1 meetings or through anonymous surveys. When you know what your team members like and what they don’t and where they think improvements can be made, you can proactively make the necessary changes.
Stay organized. Staying organized will make you feel all over the place as a first time manager, and keeping tasks on track will go a long way in boosting team productivity. There are lots of tools that managers can use to keep track of workload, timelines, projects, performance goals, and more. Streamlining these processes will help you keep all the many moving parts of being a manager on track!

\n\n

First Time Managers Can Succeed with Strety!

One of the tips for new managers we mentioned earlier was leveraging a digital tool to keep track of workload, timelines, projects, performance goals, and more.

One of these tools is Strety—a platform that brings together all the features you need to be a better manager so you can run high performing teams 😍! With Strety, you’ll be able to:

Conduct more effective team and 1:1 meetings
Set and track employee and company goals
Send and store team announcements for improved communication and bonding amongst team members
Ask recurring questions and set automated reminders for more streamlined project management
And much more!

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Management Tips

How to Succeed as a New Manager: 15 Tips

We get it—being a first time manager can feel like a daunting task 😳. Many of us are thrust into management positions without any formal training or ...

Written By: Strety

January 9, 2020

{"post_summary":"

When done correctly, goal setting can put your employees on track to achieve their greatest potential as individuals and align themselves better with company goals 😌. But, if you set unrealistic, vague, or irrelevant performance goals for your employees, it can actually end up doing way more harm than good 😔.

\n","post_body":"

\n\n

So, how can you set better performance goals in order to keep your teams highly motivated, engaged, and productive?

\n\n

What are Performance Goals?

Employee performance goals are, well, pretty much exactly what they sound like! They address specific aspects of an employee's job performance, enabling them to plan and organize their work so they can achieve the desired goals or outcomes.

\n\n

The Importance of Goal Setting for Your Employees

It can be difficult for your employees to know if their job performance is measuring up to your expectations as their manager. At the same time, it can be difficult for you to know how to best motivate your employees so they can continue working towards the goals of the entire organization, as well as grow personally and professionally.

Setting job performance goals for your employees is one way to take the mystery out of how they can improve their performance in the workplace 👏. By setting effective performance goals, your employees will be better equipped to:

Develop new job skills that help them level up in their career
Take on additional responsibilities
Think longer-term and more strategically
Pursue their career aspirations
Support the organization's vision, mission, and values
Collaborate with their coworkers
Communicate with leadership
Plan and implement successful projects and initiatives
Remain resilient and optimistic when roadblocks arise, learn from setbacks, and make changes or improvements to get back on track and meet their goals

\n\n

The Importance of Goal Setting for Managers

Goal setting can also make things much easier on you as a manager. When you set clear employee goals and track their progress, it means you can conduct more effective and accurate employee performance reviews 🙌.

It also makes day-to-day employee management a much less stressful process. When you know exactly what your employees are working towards and where they currently stand, you can then step in to help them along their path towards achieving them. How? By giving regular feedback, being a support system, and helping them find ways to improve and develop new skills!

\n\n

How to Create Performance Goals

There are many different approaches you can take when it comes to writing performance goals for your employees ✍️. Three of the most common goal frameworks are:

Outcome and process goals
SMART goals
Objective Key Results (OKRs)

\n\n

What are Outcome & Process Goals?

This goal framework originated from the world of athletics 🏃‍♂️ but is just as applicable when setting organizational goals or performance goals for employees! Let’s explore each type further:

Outcome Goals

An outcome goal is the main singular goal that you are working towards. While outcome goals can be very motivating, oftentimes, they are not under your control because they are affected by how others perform, too.

Process Goals

Process goals support performance goals by giving you something to focus on as you work towards your performance goals. They are the small things that are totally under your control that you should focus on or do to eventually achieve your performance goals.

\n\n

What are SMART Goals?

SMART goals are another goal framework that can be used to set employee performance goals. SMART goals are goals that are:

Specific 🙋‍♂️

A performance goal should be explained with enough detail that it can be clearly understood, and includes the who, what, when, where, and how. This is essential because it will be incredibly difficult for your employees to achieve a goal that is incredibly generic or too vague.

Measurable 📏

A performance goal also needs to be measurable in some numeric or descriptive way. After all, how will your employee know when they’ve completed the goal, or how much more progress needs to be made before they do, if there is no way to measure success?

Achievable 💪

It’s important that your employee goals are realistic. Each employee needs to have the resources and control necessary to actually complete the goals you’ve set for them. If they don’t, you’re just setting your team up for failure.

Relevant 📈

Any good performance goal should be aligned with the mission of the team, department, or overall organization. Otherwise, there is no point in pursuing it!

Timely 📅

It’s important that the performance goals you’re setting for your employees have a target completion date that is actually realistic. For example, setting a 10 year goal is not very motivating and expecting an employee to reach a huge goal overnight will only make them feel enormous amounts of pressure that can actually have a negative affect their performance.

\n\n

What are Objective Key Results?

Objective Key Results, or OKRs, are yet another popular goal framework. OKRs are designed to connect company, team, and personal employee performance goals to measurable results.

A large component of this goal framework is making sure everyone is clear about what is expected of them. For this reason, OKRs are supposed to be public. This way, all team members and leaders are aware of what others are working on, and can work together in one unified direction 👉 towards the same high-level organizational goals.

Structure of OKRs

The structure of OKRs are broken into two main components:

Objectives 📋 OKRs consist of a list of 3-5 high level objectives on company, team, or personal levels.
Results 📈 Under each objective, you should define 3-5 measurable results. Each Key Result can be measured on a score of 0-100% or 0 to 1.

Implementing OKRs

OKRs are typically part of the quarterly planning process, but some companies will also set annual or monthly OKRs. A major advantage of OKRs is that they are simple to use and do not take much time to implement. Oftentimes, it takes just a few hours each quarter to review OKRs for each employee in their performance review—although it’s a good idea to check in on them a little more regularly so you can keep up with each employee’s progress.

Once defined, it’s important to communicate the OKRs you’ve set for each employee to the rest of the team, as well as leadership within the organization. Then, as your employees start working towards their objectives, they will update their result indicators regularly, preferably weekly. Remember to be flexible! 🧘 If the goals of your company, team, or employees change, then OKRs can be changed as well!

\n\n

Examples of Performance Goals

Here are some examples of performance goals that may get your creative juices flowing as you’re working on goal setting for your own team.

3 Examples of Performance Goals for Employees

Deliver five completed project designs to each client in March.
Get together for a coffee date with a coworker from a different department each month to better understand how they contribute to the overall goals of the organization and brainstorm ideas to improve cross-departmental efficiency.
Reduce negative customer satisfaction rate by 50%.

3 Examples of Performance Goals for Managers

Dedicate time to once a month to recognize the work of a top performer on your team by taking them to get a coffee or sending them an encouraging email.
Create a document that outlines all the communication tools used across your team and distribute it to each member by the end of the month to ensure a strong understanding of them before the next quarter rolls around.
Keep attrition on your team under 10% year-over-year.

\n\n

Set—and Track—Better Performance Goals with Strety! 😍

Setting better goals is just the first step. To hit your goals, you need the right systems in place to keep track of progress, celebrate high performers, and give helpful feedback.

It's tough to see real progress if you're tracking goals in a spreadsheet. That's not designed for meaningful collaboration, which you need to keep people motivated.

Strety's designed to help you ditch the chaos and uncertainty of managing people and setting employee goals. Strety has all the features you need to become a better manager together in one convenient place: Microsoft Teams.

If you're already spending your workday inside Teams, shouldn't your goals live there, too?

With Strety, you can set and track individual employee performance goals as well as overall business goals: right within Teams. You'll always know where each employee and your business as a whole stands. Whether you use Traction/EOS, OKRs, or just simple SMART goals, we can help you monitor them with ease, all on a system built to be intuitive and easy to use.

Ready to gain access to the tools you need to set and track employee performance goals in a faster, simpler way? Contact us today! 📞

","rss_summary":"

\n","rss_body":"

\n\n

So, how can you set better performance goals in order to keep your teams highly motivated, engaged, and productive?

\n\n

What are Performance Goals?

\n\n

The Importance of Goal Setting for Your Employees

Develop new job skills that help them level up in their career
Take on additional responsibilities
Think longer-term and more strategically
Pursue their career aspirations
Support the organization's vision, mission, and values
Collaborate with their coworkers
Communicate with leadership
Plan and implement successful projects and initiatives
Remain resilient and optimistic when roadblocks arise, learn from setbacks, and make changes or improvements to get back on track and meet their goals

\n\n

The Importance of Goal Setting for Managers

\n\n

How to Create Performance Goals

There are many different approaches you can take when it comes to writing performance goals for your employees ✍️. Three of the most common goal frameworks are:

Outcome and process goals
SMART goals
Objective Key Results (OKRs)

\n\n

What are Outcome & Process Goals?

Outcome Goals

Process Goals

\n\n

What are SMART Goals?

SMART goals are another goal framework that can be used to set employee performance goals. SMART goals are goals that are:

Specific 🙋‍♂️

Measurable 📏

Achievable 💪

Relevant 📈

Any good performance goal should be aligned with the mission of the team, department, or overall organization. Otherwise, there is no point in pursuing it!

Timely 📅

\n\n

What are Objective Key Results?

Objective Key Results, or OKRs, are yet another popular goal framework. OKRs are designed to connect company, team, and personal employee performance goals to measurable results.

Structure of OKRs

The structure of OKRs are broken into two main components:

Objectives 📋 OKRs consist of a list of 3-5 high level objectives on company, team, or personal levels.
Results 📈 Under each objective, you should define 3-5 measurable results. Each Key Result can be measured on a score of 0-100% or 0 to 1.

Implementing OKRs

\n\n

Examples of Performance Goals

Here are some examples of performance goals that may get your creative juices flowing as you’re working on goal setting for your own team.

3 Examples of Performance Goals for Employees

Deliver five completed project designs to each client in March.
Get together for a coffee date with a coworker from a different department each month to better understand how they contribute to the overall goals of the organization and brainstorm ideas to improve cross-departmental efficiency.
Reduce negative customer satisfaction rate by 50%.

3 Examples of Performance Goals for Managers

Dedicate time to once a month to recognize the work of a top performer on your team by taking them to get a coffee or sending them an encouraging email.
Create a document that outlines all the communication tools used across your team and distribute it to each member by the end of the month to ensure a strong understanding of them before the next quarter rolls around.
Keep attrition on your team under 10% year-over-year.

\n\n

Set—and Track—Better Performance Goals with Strety! 😍

Setting better goals is just the first step. To hit your goals, you need the right systems in place to keep track of progress, celebrate high performers, and give helpful feedback.

It's tough to see real progress if you're tracking goals in a spreadsheet. That's not designed for meaningful collaboration, which you need to keep people motivated.

If you're already spending your workday inside Teams, shouldn't your goals live there, too?

Ready to gain access to the tools you need to set and track employee performance goals in a faster, simpler way? Contact us today! 📞

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Employee Goals

How to Set Better Goals to Motivate Your Team

When done correctly, goal setting can put your employees on track to achieve their greatest potential as individuals and align themselves better with ...

Written By: Strety

January 2, 2020

{"post_summary":"

How would you define the term \"manager?\" According to Google’s manager definition, it’s \"a person responsible for controlling or administering all or part of a company or similar organization.\" That sounds easy enough, right? 🤔

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In practice, it’s not always so simple and straightforward. Being a manager can be an incredibly demanding job that requires a lot of time, effort, and responsibility—but it’s an important one. So, the more important question here isn’t “what does a manager do?” but “what makes a good manager?”

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What Makes a Good Manager?

Effective management is an essential component of any thriving business. A good manager can make all the difference in how happy and productive their team is, which contributes to the overall success of the business! 👏 So, it’s important that you have the management skills and traits necessary to help each member of your team achieve their greatest potential. Here are some characteristics of a successful manager.

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8 Traits of a Good Manager

There are some characteristics of a good manager that you can add to your repertoire if you want to become a better leader!

So, if you're wondering how to be a good manager, here are just a few key manager qualities and traits that are essential for success:

1. Patience ⏱️

Learning how to control your emotions and being able to take a step back before deciding how to react to a situation are key traits of a good manager. Instead of pointing fingers or getting worked up when a mistake occurs, a good manager will take the time to determine what went wrong, why it happened, what to do about it, and how to prevent the same issue from occurring again. This approach will make it easier to solve problems and fix errors quickly and efficiently—without flustering the rest of the team.

2. Strong decision-making skills 📈

One of the most important qualities of a good manager is the ability to pull information from multiple sources, make a strategic decision, and put a plan in place to actually carry it out. Any manager will have to make multiple decisions on a daily basis, and also have to make quick choices (often while under pressure) when unique circumstances or a problem arises.

3. Approachability 👋

Being welcoming, accessible, and easy to talk to is what makes a good manager. If your team members don’t feel comfortable going to you with questions, comments, or concerns (or can never actually get a hold of them to do so), it will negatively affect both the success and morale of the team. Every good manager should have an open door policy and actually take a genuine interest in what their team has to say.

4. Emotional intelligence ❤️

Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify and manage one’s own emotions, as well as the emotions of others. Why is this important for managers? How a manager behaves and interacts with their team in challenging circumstances, both throughout the day and in high pressure situations, can have a significant impact on their team members. A good manager should be emotionally resilient and cognizant of how their mood and attitude affects others, be able to cope well with change, and remain calm under pressure.

5. Trustworthiness 🤝

Every team member needs to be able to trust their manager’s words and actions. So, it’s vital that you openly and honestly communicate with your team with a high level of transparency. However, this is a two-way street—effective managers also need to be able to trust their team and not micromanage everything.

6. Accountability 🔐

It’s important that you don’t just talk the talk as a manager, but actually walk the walk, too. Avoid making promises you can’t keep. You should actually follow through on what you say you’re going to do. If you don’t, your team members will become skeptical of everything you tell them—and this fear of being manipulated or misinformed will negatively affect both their job performance and engagement.

7. Positivity 😄

Your employees will look to you as a manager to set the tone and attitude for the entire team. Positivity can be contagious, and it’s up to leaders to set the example and maintain a positive atmosphere in the office to keep team morale high. This will help keep people happy, engaged, and highly productive.

8. Motivational skills 🏃‍♂️

Success will mean something different to different employees, but a good manager should know exactly what this means for each of their team members. For example, some employees find recognition motivating, while others don’t need praise but are instead fueled by incentives or perks (such as a bonus or extra time off). So, a major key to being a good manager is knowing what it takes to get each team member to succeed as an individual—while also supporting the success of the team and the business as a whole.

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Effective Development for Managers

Where can you find the best new managers to lead your business to future success? Instead of hiring someone externally, promoting a current employee to a management position can be a great idea and is often done in small to medium sized businesses. But they (you) may not have all the expertise to be an effective manager right away. That’s why managers should be continuous learners, always striving to become better leaders, improve their skills, and take the time to grow both personally and professionally!

If you want to improve as a manager, it’s important to understand where you currently stand and where you feel you need more support or training. How can you find this information out? Feedback from your team members is a good start. You could consider sending out a manager effectiveness survey where your team members can provide anonymous feedback to help you understand what you’re doing right now and where improvements can be made.

You could also consider attending local management seminars, taking an online training course, talking to other managers you know in different companies and industries to get ideas or insight you may not have thought about, or leveraging resources such as podcasts, blogs, and books!

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Our Recent Book Favorites to Get You Going as a Manager…

At Strety, we’ve learned what makes a great manager based on 15+ years of experience managing teams and people. But, we also learned from others who have shared their knowledge in blogs and books—so we wanted to pass along some recent book gems that really gave us great perspective on how to be a great manager. We think you’ll enjoy them as much as we did...

The Making of a Manager

Written by Julie Zhuo, The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You is a Wall Street Journal bestseller is designed to help leaders understand that great managers are made, not born—then give them the tools and insights to grow into a truly successful manager. Whether you're new to the job, have been a team leader for years, or looking to be promoted to a management role in the future, this is the handbook you need to be the kind of manager that makes a true impact!

Nine Lies About Work

Written by bestselling author Marcus Buckingham, Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World challenges the status quo about “work” that we encounter every day when we show up to our jobs. It teaches how freethinking leaders recognize the power and beauty of the individual uniqueness of each member of their team, and how this contributes to the overall success of the team as a whole.

Measure What Matters

Written by legendary venture capitalist John Doerr, Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs, uncovers how the goal-setting system of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) has helped tech giants from Intel to Google achieve exponential growth—and how you can apply this system in your own organization to reach new levels of success!

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Become a Better Manager with Strety

Even with all these tips, tools, and resources, it isn’t always clear what you need to do to become a better manager for your teams, but don't worry—you don’t have to figure it all out on your own anymore. 😍

Strety offers practical features that team leaders can actually use throughout the week to get their jobs done and become a better manager by making it possible to:

Conduct more effective team and 1:1 meetings
Set and track employee goals
Send and store team announcements for improved communication and team building
Ask recurring questions and set automated reminders for more streamlined project management
And much more!

Ready to gain access to the tools and data insights you need to improve your management skills and be a better leader to your team members? Contact us today! 📞

","rss_summary":"

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\n\n

What Makes a Good Manager?

\n\n

8 Traits of a Good Manager

There are some characteristics of a good manager that you can add to your repertoire if you want to become a better leader!

So, if you're wondering how to be a good manager, here are just a few key manager qualities and traits that are essential for success:

1. Patience ⏱️

2. Strong decision-making skills 📈

3. Approachability 👋

4. Emotional intelligence ❤️

5. Trustworthiness 🤝

6. Accountability 🔐

7. Positivity 😄

8. Motivational skills 🏃‍♂️

\n\n

Effective Development for Managers

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Our Recent Book Favorites to Get You Going as a Manager…

The Making of a Manager

Nine Lies About Work

Measure What Matters

\n\n

Become a Better Manager with Strety

Strety offers practical features that team leaders can actually use throughout the week to get their jobs done and become a better manager by making it possible to:

Conduct more effective team and 1:1 meetings
Set and track employee goals
Send and store team announcements for improved communication and team building
Ask recurring questions and set automated reminders for more streamlined project management
And much more!

Ready to gain access to the tools and data insights you need to improve your management skills and be a better leader to your team members? Contact us today! 📞

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Management Tips

What Makes a Good Manager?

How would you define the term "manager?" According to Google’s manager definition, it’s "a person responsible for controlling or administering all or ...

Written By: Strety

December 19, 2019

{"post_body":"

One on one meetings are a powerful tool for monitoring performance, building strong relationships, and boosting motivation—however, managers often dread conducting these 1:1 meetings or avoid doing them all together. So, how can you take the stress out of 1:1 meetings? Get ready to find out!

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What Are One on One Meetings?

One on one meetings are dedicated, recurring time on the calendar for an open-ended conversation between a manager and a direct report. Unlike status reports or tactical meetings about a particular project, one on one meetings are designed to be a place for coaching and mentorship.

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Why Are One-on-One Meetings Valuable?

The manager and direct report relationship is fundamental to the success of your entire organization! Why? Each team and department within your organization is built on interpersonal and professional relationships—and any good relationship is built on trust. Without this trust, both employee performance and employee engagement will suffer.

Nearly all professionals surveyed in a recent study said that having trust in their bosses was essential to workplace satisfaction. However, while 80% of managers said they think they’re transparent with their teams, only 55% of employees agreed. Even worse, only 53% of employees felt like their managers genuinely cared about their well-being 😲. What could be to blame for this gap?

A lack of open, authentic communication—communication that could easily be gained through effective one on one meetings. One on one meetings are meant to be a safe, open forum for communication from manager to employee, as well as from employee to manager. When employees are informed, engaged, and feel like their voice 🗣️ is truly being heard, workplace involvement and morale will increase, along with a sense of ownership and accountability that results in higher job satisfaction and boosted productivity!

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What Do You Talk About in a One on One Meeting?

As a manager, you may be wondering: “What should I actually be talking about in my 1:1 meetings?” The purpose of these meetings is to:

Uncover current levels of employee engagement, morale, stress, job satisfaction, etc.
Set both short and long-term employee performance and career development goals
Track ongoing progress towards these employee performance and career development goals
Uncover if there are any personal or professional obstacles the employee is facing that are getting in the way of achieving these goals, and determine how they could be removed
Discuss any specific issues with employee performance or attitude
Provide constructive criticism, feedback, and coaching
Build a rapport that enhances the manager and employee relationship

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One on One Meeting Questions You Should Ask

You should always try to ask open-ended questions during your 1:1 meetings. This gets the conversation flowing and turns the meeting into a two-way discussion rather than a series of “yes” and “no” responses that don’t give you any actual insight.

You’ll want to ask a good mix of questions so you can get to know your employees on a more personal level to build rapport and trust, talk about job performance and career development, give and receive feedback, find areas for improvements, and check in on their overall happiness 😃 and job satisfaction. Just some ideas for one on one meeting questions you could try include:

How do you view yourself in your role?
What are you most excited about when it comes to your job? What are you most worried or stressed about when it comes to your job?
How do you feel your work/life balance is right now? How could it be improved?
What are your long-term career development goals? What skills do you need to achieve them, and how can you actually acquire those skills?
What obstacles do you foresee having to overcome to achieve these goals? How do you think you can do so?
Do you feel challenged at work? Are you learning new things?
What do you think are the key skills for your role? How would you rate yourself for each of them?
Are there any events or training you’d like to attend to help you grow your skills?
Do you feel you’re getting enough feedback? Why or why not?
What’s a recent situation at work you wish you had handled differently? What would you have changed?
How can I better support you as your manager?
What have your past managers done that you’ve liked or disliked?

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How Do You Run a Great One on One Meeting?

One on one meetings are a powerful and valuable tool for monitoring performance that can improve your overall business performance management strategy. But, it can be overwhelming for any single manager to schedule, run, and follow up on meetings with all the members of their team.

But don’t worry—while it isn’t always easy, it certainly isn’t impossible. Below are some of our top tips for conducting better one on one meetings!

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10 Tips for Better One on One Meetings

1. Have a Clear One on One Meeting Agenda

If you just show up and wing your one on one meetings week after week, what kind of message does that send to your employees? They may think it says that you don’t think putting time or effort into these meetings is important. So, you should always come prepared with clear, organized one on one meeting agendas.

2. Leverage Data

When discussing employee performance during one on one meetings, simply saying an employee is doing well or poorly isn’t helpful. It’s important to use data insights 📊 from direct reports to benchmark each employee’s progress when it comes to meeting their job role expectations and goals. This way, if they aren’t on target, you can give specific, constructive feedback and create a performance improvement plan that will help move the needle. We know a thing or two about KPIs, having founded BrightGauge Software in 2010 ( a SaaS Business Intelligence product) 👊.

3. Keep it Consistent

When it comes to conducting effective one on one meetings, consistency is key. So, it’s important to keep your one on one meetings on a recurring, regular schedule 📅. This enhances accountability because if your employees know when you’ll be checking in on their progress, they can plan their schedules appropriately. Plus, a consistent meeting structure lets both you and your employees to know exactly what to expect each time, meaning you can both prep and prepare accordingly.

4. Be Present

Constantly glancing at your phone while your employee is talking or having a ding from your email inbox go off every five minutes is distracting, and makes your employee feel like you're not really listening to what they have to say. So, ditch the distractions 🔕 and stay focused during one to one meetings by keeping unnecessary electronics and notifications turned off.

5. Have an Open Conversation About Career Development

Did you know that a lack of future opportunities for career development is a key driver of employee attrition and cited as a dissatisfying factor in their job by 40% of departing employees? Employees look to their manager to help them build a future career path, identify areas for improvement, and acquire new skills. So, it’s important that you’re asking the right questions about career development and working with each employee to ensure not only that you’re laying out a future career path, but that you’re equipping them with the tools necessary to get there.

6. Listen, Then Speak

Use active listening techniques to repeat what your employee is saying back to them. For example, “So, what I’m hearing is that you feel you can’t complete the next step of this project without support from Jane in marketing. Did I get that right? How can we get you that support you need?” This nips any chances of miscommunication in the bud, plus shows your employees you’re listening to what they’re saying and are actually understanding it.

7. Take Thorough Notes

Throughout your one on one meetings, you want to make sure you’re taking notes 📝 so you don’t forget anything that was said. This can also help keep both you and your employees accountable because it gives a verifiable, written record of what was discussed that can then be referred back to later. Getting audio recordings (with employee knowledge and permission) can also help with your notes.

8. Get Personal

One on one meetings aren’t just to discuss employee performance. They should also help to build strong 💪 manager and employee relationships! Be sure to check in on a personal level as well as a professional one so that your employees feel cared for and seen as actual human beings—rather than just “employee #4” on your list of one on one meetings you have to get through that week.

9. Give Positive Feedback

While one on one meetings are a great time to discuss issues and give performance reviews, it shouldn’t all be about negative feedback and constructive criticism. It’s also an ideal forum to recognize wins and make your employees feel valued and appreciated for their contributions. This can also be beneficial for your business—companies that provide ample employee recognition have 31% lower voluntary turnover rates than companies who do not.

10. Leave with Action Items

Just discussing what is going well and what isn’t won’t be enough—if you want your employees to actually grow, develop, and improve, you need to actually take action. Coming out of your one on one meetings, it’s important to set clear expectations and timelines for next steps, then be sure to actually follow up on them.

Conduct One on One Meetings with the Tool You're Already Using

If you spend your workday in Microsoft Teams, shouldn't your meeting agendas, action items, and decisions live there, too?

Strety is purpose-built for Microsoft Teams to take the stress out of arranging and following up on 1:1 meetings by automating the process. On our all-in-one employee management platform, you'll be able to:

Schedule one on one meetings with ease
Collaborate on one on one meeting agenda items so your employees can add what they'd like to discuss, too
Add comments and take notes within the product before or during the meeting
Assign action items for the employee to follow up on after

By transforming the way you conduct your one on one meetings with Strety, you can lead a high performing team with confidence! Ready to take the stress out of 1:1 meetings? Contact us today!

","post_summary":"

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\n\n

What Are One on One Meetings?

\n\n

Why Are One-on-One Meetings Valuable?

\n\n

What Do You Talk About in a One on One Meeting?

As a manager, you may be wondering: “What should I actually be talking about in my 1:1 meetings?” The purpose of these meetings is to:

Uncover current levels of employee engagement, morale, stress, job satisfaction, etc.
Set both short and long-term employee performance and career development goals
Track ongoing progress towards these employee performance and career development goals
Uncover if there are any personal or professional obstacles the employee is facing that are getting in the way of achieving these goals, and determine how they could be removed
Discuss any specific issues with employee performance or attitude
Provide constructive criticism, feedback, and coaching
Build a rapport that enhances the manager and employee relationship

\n\n

One on One Meeting Questions You Should Ask

How do you view yourself in your role?
What are you most excited about when it comes to your job? What are you most worried or stressed about when it comes to your job?
How do you feel your work/life balance is right now? How could it be improved?
What are your long-term career development goals? What skills do you need to achieve them, and how can you actually acquire those skills?
What obstacles do you foresee having to overcome to achieve these goals? How do you think you can do so?
Do you feel challenged at work? Are you learning new things?
What do you think are the key skills for your role? How would you rate yourself for each of them?
Are there any events or training you’d like to attend to help you grow your skills?
Do you feel you’re getting enough feedback? Why or why not?
What’s a recent situation at work you wish you had handled differently? What would you have changed?
How can I better support you as your manager?
What have your past managers done that you’ve liked or disliked?

\n\n

How Do You Run a Great One on One Meeting?

But don’t worry—while it isn’t always easy, it certainly isn’t impossible. Below are some of our top tips for conducting better one on one meetings!

\n\n

10 Tips for Better One on One Meetings

1. Have a Clear One on One Meeting Agenda

2. Leverage Data

3. Keep it Consistent

4. Be Present

5. Have an Open Conversation About Career Development

6. Listen, Then Speak

7. Take Thorough Notes

8. Get Personal

9. Give Positive Feedback

10. Leave with Action Items

Conduct One on One Meetings with the Tool You're Already Using

If you spend your workday in Microsoft Teams, shouldn't your meeting agendas, action items, and decisions live there, too?

Schedule one on one meetings with ease
Collaborate on one on one meeting agenda items so your employees can add what they'd like to discuss, too
Add comments and take notes within the product before or during the meeting
Assign action items for the employee to follow up on after

By transforming the way you conduct your one on one meetings with Strety, you can lead a high performing team with confidence! Ready to take the stress out of 1:1 meetings? Contact us today!

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Meetings

10 Tips for Better One-on-One Meetings

One on one meetings are a powerful tool for monitoring performance, building strong relationships, and boosting motivation—however, managers often ...

Written By: Strety

December 12, 2019