Accelerate Business Growth by sharing the Microphone

Intentionally sharing speaking responsibilities in meetings accelerates and encourages stronger leadership at every level of your business.

Leaders speak in meetings; they always have and always will. When you decide as a leader to adjust the agenda and intentionally draw out those voices who would not normally speak up, and not naturally choose to lead, you help them become stronger leaders.

They almost couldn’t stop it if they tried.

It is these future leaders that will change the course of not only your company but also your success throughout your life professionally and personally.

I remember when we shifted the agenda over a decade ago at Cambridge Air Solutions to include personal/professional check-ins from every member of the team at the weekly leadership meeting.

A few details of this small change:

• Everyone at our weekly leadership team meeting was asked to share a personal/professional check-in as the first segment of the meeting
• Each share was 1-3 minutes depending on the time available.
• No questions were asked, only active listening while others shared
• There were no restrictions on content therefore team members could share anything happening in their life (good, bad, wins or losses)

Initially, I went first so people knew what to expect and so I could set the tone for sharing the real authentic me with them. Then we just went around the room. It was uncomfortable at first, but eventually, everyone began to feel they were in a safe space. Their shares became more authentic, more impactful, and more leader-like.

They grew as humans.

They grew as leaders.

We grew as a team.

Over the next decade, we extended this type of participation and invitation for multiple voices in every meeting and every situation including all company morning meetings (like the one pictured above), site tours, sales calls, daily huddles, etc.

We backed it up with public speaking courses from Dale Carnegie and 1:1 coaching and support for those with interest. People who visited raved about how well-spoken the team members were at every level. That's because they practiced all the time.

I love this article by The Association of Manufacturing Excellence stating that Cambridge employees were growing even faster than the business. Behind much of that growth was the simple idea of encouraging everyone to speak up.

Want your business to grow faster? If so, I encourage you to adjust the agenda of every meeting until you have every participant speaking and every voice heard.