Team meetings can help you create a great company culture, or they can be an event the whole company dreads. This post teaches you how to take your team meetings to the next level.

If you’ve spent any time working in a corporate setting, this sentiment is probably all too familiar:

As a business owner, this is the last thing you want for your team. Of course, you don’t want your team members to feel like your meetings are a waste of time. But even more importantly, you don’t want to actually waste anyone’s time! 

If your team meetings aren’t a good use of your employees’ time, something has gone off the rails.

While this is a common problem that business owners and team leaders face, not many have found a solution that really changes the dynamic around team meetings for their business. 

What most team meetings are missing

Is the solution to “this-could’ve-been-an-email” meetings as simple as bringing donuts to share? Or is there something deeper that many team meetings miss?

We think the key element many team meetings are missing is personal connection. 

Team meetings are just as much about connecting as they are about sharing company information with the team.

Because let’s face it, if team meetings were only about giving your team information, they really could just be emails. 

So, how do you foster personal connection at team meetings? 

You want team meetings to be a vaulable use of everyone’s time, not a slog that everyone dreads. But how do you transform your team meetings into a time of genuine connection?

We’re not talking about awkward ice-breaker games here. Unless you know for a fact that your team loves that sort of thing, it’s best to stay away from activities that put people on the spot in an uncomfortable way. For many, this kind of thing will actually make meetings more of a dreaded event. 

Instead, focus on genuinely checking in on and encouraging each other. 

Not sure where to start? We’ll use Lifedge’s team meetings as a case study, so you can see an example of what we’re talking about. 

An inside look at Lifedge team meetings

Every two weeks, the Lifedge team meets together on a video call. Rather than being a waste of time or an information dump, Lifedege team meetings are an important outlet for us to cultivate a great company culture. Here’s how we do it:

3 game-changing things we do at our team meetings

1. Check in with each other

At the start of every meeting, we check in with each other in a real way. This goes beyond asking about work-related subjects – we share about our families, churches, hobbies, pets… you name it. 

Then, Lifedge CEO Oscar leads us in prayer for our team and for our clients. Praying together for Lifedge’s clients keeps us focused on our mission as a company – to help our clients achieve success online. 

2. Ask team members to share their wins

Next, we share our wins of the last week or two. Essentially, we’re asking people to share something they’re proud of lately! 

If you’ve had an average week, this can be as simple as, “I finally figured out how to fix that bug on my computer.” Or, it could be something a little bigger like, “This client’s new website just went live!”

This gives us an opportunity to celebrate each other’s accomplishments and to stay in the loop of what everyone has been doing for our clients lately. 

3. Shout out other team members for great work

There are also opportunities to shout out other team members for doing something awesome.

This is my favorite thing we do in our meetings, because it’s not only super encouraging, but it also lets you hear things about each other that you wouldn’t have known otherwise. 

What feels better than hearing a coworker say, “Hey, I saw that project you finished up last week – it looked amazing!”? Or even something like, “I noticed [team member] refilling the coffee pods in the break room yesterday. Thanks for keeping us running!”

I love to hear the little ways team members have helped each other throughout the week that made a big impact. 

What do these 3 things have in common?

Ultimately what these all come down to is showing your team how much you care about them and appreciate their work. And, encouraging them to care about each other and appreciate each other’s work, too. 

Wouldn’t you be more eager to attend a meeting if you knew the people there wanted to hear about your week? About the work you’ve been doing that you’re proud of? I know I would. 

The Lifedge team can help you

We can’t run your team meetings for you, but we can take marketing off your plate so you have more energy for your business. 

At Lifedge, we know how discouraging it is when your marketing efforts aren’t giving you the results you hoped for. That’s why we offer a full range of digital marketing services tailored to your unique goals. 

Book a meeting with us today and let’s make a plan to help you succeed online.