In most companies attending meetings is a mandatory part of being involved in a management role. Whether you’re the CEO or just starting your career in the business world, it’s important to make the most of these meetings. When conferences and managers’ meetings are held on a regular basis, it’s easy for participants to lose their excitement and just get through the meetings instead of actively participating.
However, you don’t want to miss out on important opportunities to interact with your fellow managers. One of the best ways to stay plugged in during monotonous meetings is to ask relevant questions. The exact questions will depend on the content of the meeting, your company’s goals and other factors, but the following questions can be modified for use in many situations.
What are we doing well currently?
Asking this question is a great way to start a meeting. Often, employees and managers will come to a meeting with a list of things that are going wrong or problems that need to be fixed. Addressing these things is certainly important, but it’s helpful for everyone to start the meeting on a positive note. When you ask everyone to name a few things you are doing well, you can be ready to tackle the harder issues with upbeat, positive attitudes.
What areas need improvement?
After you’ve mentioned some positive things, it’s time to start problem-solving and tackling areas that need improvement. Once again, it’s helpful to encourage candid feedback from employees and other managers. You won’t be able to solve every problem in one short meeting, but be sure to make a list of all of the concerns so they can be addressed at a later date.
Are there additional tools available that will make our employees more successful?
As a manager, you always want to find ways to make your employees and company more productive and successful. At times, this will mean changing some of your current policies and procedures. However, remember that you might be able to greatly increase productivity by using new software, different materials or other new technology. If your current software is slowing you down, assign someone to research distribution software from TGI to see if there are options available that will meet your needs more effectively than the products you are currently using.
