How to Start a Team Meeting So It Ends Well

Leadership team meetings are highly underleveraged. You bring all your well-paid people together, but instead of them leaving motivated, they leave feeling like their time could have been better used elsewhere.

Here’s a simple and powerful solution: Start on a Positive Note.

How? Instead of jumping into problems, start each meeting reviewing what is going well, what has been achieved. The simplest and most powerful way to do this is with your ongoing action item list.

As you get things done week to week/month to month, don’t simply check them off. Take time to celebrate the successes. Do this as you start a team meeting. You don’t need a party for each. Short moments of congratulation and positive reflection feel good, are fun, and make the hard work feel worthwhile. Plus, celebration boosts team spirit.

Why? Happiness research shows this to be a fact. Teams with higher profits have a positivity ratio of 3:1. (HBR, Zenger Folkman 2013) This means that those teams have 3 times more positive interactions than negative. In fact, the most productive teams have a 6:1 ratio. Taking time to acknowledge success significantly adds to your positivity ratio.

Also, remember that successful people like to keep score. They like to experience progress and know what’s left to do to succeed. You can leverage this during meetings to bring out the best of your team and make meetings a positive, fun time that people look forward to rather than dread.

The bottom line is that starting on a positive note will boost positive feelings and get people in the right frame of mind to create a productive meeting.

Watch our 60-second video to SPARK Celebration on Your Team.