When it comes to management meetings during a pandemic, the best way to succeed is to use online technology. Online video conference meetings are a vital component of how businesses run during quarantine and social isolation.
Group meetings in an online platform are often incredibly beneficial to a company, especially at the management level. A management meeting can resolve conflicts, solve budgeting problems, create new strategies, and keep everyone on the same page during remote work.
However, the success of any meeting relies on whoever’s running it. If you’re looking to improve your business’s remote work experience, productivity, and efficiency, keep reading for an in-depth guide on how to run a management meeting online.
Determining the Purpose of the Meeting
First and foremost, as the foreman of a management meeting, you need to establish the main objective or purpose of the meeting. Why are you pulling all the members of management away from their daily tasks? Are you sure the objective, purpose, or information you have warrants a meeting?
A successful company runs on efficiency. If you’re going to stop the flow of work, the end result needs to be worth the investment.
Informative
An informative management meeting, in particular, needs to be closely evaluated to determine its validity. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Is this information too complex to be sent through a memo, email, or text?
- Will there be a lot of questions?
- Who needs this information?
- How important is the information?
- How will this information affect the company?
If you have valuable information that may require further clarification, hosting a management meeting online is probably a good idea. Sending complicated ideas and information via email will only result in your fielding questions from the recipients all day.
Generating Ideas
Online Management meetings also provide an ideal environment for generating ideas for the company. While you can ask managers and supervisors for ideas individually, a meeting provides a setting that promotes critical thinking. It will allow personnel to bounce ideas off one another, spark inspiration, and create the proverbial “think tank.”
Getting these ideas can easily be done by using online tools to help with brainstorming, like polls, surveys, and feedback.
Related: How to Have Better Team Brainstorming Sessions
Making Decisions
As a business owner, it’s generally on you to make the final decisions. However, just because you’re the head of the company doesn’t mean you know all the answers. Sometimes, difficult decisions are better left to a group of people. This concept is why many businesses have a board of advisors.
In the case of a management meeting online, you have a host of dedicated, involved individuals working toward the same goal. Use the collective wisdom of your high-level staff to make the best decisions for your company.
Discussing Details
Finally, a management meeting through a video conference or online platforms may be just what the doctor ordered if you need to discuss important details, clarify recent memos, or answer questions about any big issues facing the company.
Sometimes it’s easier to set aside time for an hour-long meeting instead of trying to answer each person’s question individually. This tends to be the case when a business is starting new projects, undergoing major changes, etc.
Who to Invite
One of the most important questions you need to answer when calling a management meeting online is who to invite. Inviting people who aren’t really needed is just a waste of your time and theirs. Remember also that the more people that are in the online meeting, the more complex it can get. Only invite those people who are necessary to the meeting being successful and leave everyone else to get on with their work.
Related: How Much Time is Your Company Wasting in Meetings?
Collaborating to Reach Collective Goals
The purpose of a management meeting online is to bring high-level personnel together to reach a collective goal. That way, they can work more creatively and productively in a remote setting. As mentioned above, this could be solving problems, discussing future endeavors, figuring out a marketing strategy, or planning a company picnic.
Regardless, you need to make sure your managers stay focused during the meeting. It’s easy to get off topic when everyone comes together in a virtual conference. After all, everybody is doing work at the comfort of their home. Having clearly outlined minutes can help. You must remember that you’re running a business, and time is precious, so don’t get too comfortable.
Increase Interaction
Undoubtedly, the difference between a productive management meeting and one that falls flat on its face is the level of engagement. This refers to both how you engage with your audience and whether they engage in the meeting.
Add Surveys/Polls
A great way to increase engagement (and quickly gather necessary insight) is by Incorporating surveys or polls. Anonymity is the best way to ensure you get truthful feedback. It also makes every member of the meeting feel like they are making a valuable contribution.
Want to gather anonymous surveys with password protection and other security features? Find out why MeetingPulse is trusted by Fortune 100 companies.
Keep Track of Audience Sentiment
When hosting your management meeting, it’s not enough for you to deliver the information, and get feedback. You must also pay attention to the overall feel of your audience through the video. What is their sentiment? Are they engaged and listening? Are they contributing? Do you sense any hostility toward yourself, others, or the ideas presented?
Being conscious of how your managers and supervisors are reacting is vital in understanding your own company’s strengths and weaknesses and how it functions. Use the MeetingPulse pulse feature (it’s like Facebook live on steroids) to make sure everyone is still with you, every step of the way.
Making Everyone Feel Included
Keeping your audience alert and in positive spirits comes down to one thing — inclusion. You’ve selected the individuals for a reason. They’re important to your company. They need to know the information you’re presenting and you respect their opinions. Make sure they know that. Start the meeting by reemphasizing the objective and why they have been specifically chosen to join the meeting.
Related: Presentation Icebreakers that Really Work
Motivating Verbal Participation
In a management meeting, don’t be surprised if you’re met with silence. Whether people are processing information, uncomfortable about sharing opinions, or are simply indifferent, it can put your meeting dead in the water.
Call on your managers individually and ask their opinion about certain aspects of the topic at hand. If possible, ask the opinions of junior personnel first, so it doesn’t appear you’re playing favorites or siding blindly with the more experienced members.
Streamlining the Decision Process
As we discussed earlier, a management meeting is a great tool to help make important decisions for your business. While a meeting can lead to long discussions or disagreements, it can also provide a way to streamline the decision-making process. For example, you may decide to let the outcome rest on the vote of everyone attending.
Dealing with Conflict
No manager or business owner likes dealing with conflict. That’s why there are so many resources out there for conflict resolution. However, your best conflict resolution tool may be a management meeting online, depending on what the issue is.
In the case of employee conflicts, your managers should be able to handle it through video conference or online platform. However, if there’s a common conflict affecting multiple departments, a management meeting is the best way to figure out a solution.
Ending On a Good Note
Regardless of the purpose behind a management meeting, it’s important for morale that it ends on a positive note.
For example, even if your managers are there because they need to step it up, there’s no reason you can’t end the meeting by complimenting them on the areas where they’re doing well. This also helps prevent negative feelings toward you or the company.
In the case of critical thinking or planning meetings, ending on a good note keeps everyone inspired to continue driving hard toward the company’s goals.
Sending a Follow-Up / Wrap-up Email
Finally, after a management meeting, it’s always a good idea to follow up with the people who attended the meeting. First, send an email to each individual the day after the meeting asking if they have any questions or anything else to add.
Sometimes, people need time to process everything. Then, a week or two later, check in with each department head through email, video, or any messaging modalities to see how they’ve implemented the information presented at the meeting and how it has affected their department.
Are You Looking for a Platform for a Management Meeting?
If you’re looking to improve your company by getting everyone on the same page, a management meeting might be exactly what your business needs. However, when your business partners, managers, and other important personnel are working at home during the pandemic, getting everyone together for a meeting can be complicated.
We can help you there. At MeetingPulse, we make management meetings both fun and effective. Our polling and survey features help keep everyone engaged.
We also have a video platform to make the meeting more effective. You can gather insight to brainstorm, make decisions, and find out more what your employees think. Learn more about MeetingPulse here.
Related: Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos’ Tips for Running a Great Meeting
