It’s one thing to identify what actions need to be taken to improve business results; it’s quite another to hold each other accountable for realizing the agreed-upon actions that move the company forward.

An identified action is of zero value until the person accountable for completing the action completes it.  The best way to ensure identified actions get completed on time is weekly return-and-report accountability meetings.

The failure to meet weekly as a management team always results in planned actions slipping or not getting done because the accountable person isn’t being held accountable for not delivering.

Overview

The purpose of any management team meeting is to use the meeting as a vehicle for identifying what actions need to take place to improve business results then hold each other accountable for realizing the agreed-upon actions that move the company forward.

One of the primary reasons to hold a weekly management team meeting is to eliminate a common complaint among employees involving poor communication within the company.  Too often, those working for you feel “out-of-the-loop.”  They often don’t get information or the tools they need to do their jobs properly or have a forum to express their ideas for doing their jobs more effectively.

Communication by interruption wastes valuable time and energy.  At the same time, it increases frustration levels for all parties, leading to lost productivity for both the employee and the owner, resulting in an owner making less money because they don’t see the value in holding a weekly management team meeting.  A significant contributor to this happening in business is from not having management meetings, choosing not to meet because your too busy creates the time distracting habit of “catching” the boss.  This leads to the boss being continually interrupted by employees throughout the day due to a lack of planned communication channels or set times to meet.

An agenda-driven management meeting will ultimately reduce the amount of downtime or unproductive time by removing the lack of communication.  When confusion or misunderstanding exists, there is always frustration, decreased productivity, and inefficiency, leading to profit losses.  In contrast, increased communication through planned management actions will lead to less wasted cash and higher profits.