Tools For Success-Weekly Meetings Are Key
The first article in this series listed more than 25 tactics to increase your business success, all of them based on my experience. I started with nothing and didn’t get to college, so I know you can achieve maximum success, regardless of your education. E-mail me to get the first article or any of the other articles in the series. Each of the articles after the first takes a closer look at one of the tactics.
Have an agenda. Review it; require reports from each one on what they got done since last week’s meeting and what they will get done next week. I keep my agenda in my iPhone and add to it each week as I walk around and or think of things. The morning of the meeting, I sync the phone and print it out; it takes less than 5 minutes weekly to do the agenda. You will be amazed how busy everyone gets the day before the meeting to make sure they can report out DONE the next day. Employees love structure, don’t let them B.S. you otherwise.
My good friend and business partner Clint Georg taught me this in the late 80s. The same day every week, we convened a meeting with all the stakeholders/managers. Sometimes we invited other department heads or key players. This leverages off of your sense of urgency, which was last month’s article.
I had a MBWA. That’s a degree in Management By Walking Around. In the beginning I had a small pocket notebook, later and electronic rolodex, then a Treo, then an IPhone. When I saw something that needed attention or that needed to be explored, I put it down, adding it to the “standard” agenda of things like sales, etc. When it came time for the meeting I could just print that out and immediately had a current list of things to discuss. BUT WAIT, we always started the meeting by discussing what was discussed the prior week with updates. Our meetings were on Wednesday, and you can’t imagine how busy folks were on Tue and even staying late Tue night. They knew they needed to report out on their initiative. It’s a wonderful way to get everyone else engaged in solutions with a sense of urgency. You know the drill, right? You ask Johnny last month to clean up the area around the waste oil drum, and figure out a way to minimize that mess in the future. That was 2 months ago, and has it been done? Imagine if you gave him that assignment last week, and he knows that he must report his progress in7 days, and it won’t be overlooked? WOW, the power of weekly meetings. What a great way to get and stay ahead of your competition!
Always have an agenda to minimize length of meetings and keep everyone focused. We still have weekly meetings today, and my staff always laughs when we get a new staff member. At the meeting, when I give a new initiative to a new staff member, they always smile, and nod. We all just stop and watch for a second. Them I say “I don’t see a pencil moving, could you write that down?” Everyone laughs. The new staff member gets it. They are heading to being a productive member of my team. Every new member gets a journal, a high quality notebook with a nice cover. Their second lesson? Coming to a meeting without it. They only make that mistake one. Doing some training? All the notebooks are open and pencils are moving. I LOVE THE EXCITEMENT OF GROWING BUSINESS AND SUCCESS.
Remember only you can make business great!
Ron Sturgeon, Mr. Mission Possible, has been a successful business owner for more than 35 years. As a small business consultant, he can deliver wisdom and advice gleaned from an enviable business career that started when he opened a VW repair business as a homeless 17-year-old and culminated in the sale of several businesses he built to Fortune 500 companies.
Ron has helped bankers, lawyers, insurance agents, restaurant owners, and body shop owners, as well as countless salvage yard owners to become more successful business people. He is an expert in helping small business owners set the right business strategies, implement pay-for- performance, and find new customers on the web.
As a consultant, Ron shares his expertise in strategic planning, capitalization, compensation, growing market share, and more in his signature plainspoken style, providing field-proven, and high-profit best practices well ahead of the business news curve. Ron is the author of nine books, including How to Salvage More Millions from Your Small Business.
To inquire about consulting or keynote speaking, contact Ron at 817-834-3625, ext. 232, rons@MrMissionPossible.com, 5940 Eden, Haltom City, TX 76117.
