The time demands on an executive are significant, so when you come upon a high-leverage activity, one that pays large dividends on a small investment, you stick with it. This one is so simple that it seems too easy to be true, but I promise that this works and works well.
It’s simply a “Weekly Manager Call”.
Every executive should have this! If you lead a multi-layer organization, this will pay off quickly.
Here is the recipe:
A Scheduled Meeting: Weekly – (mine was usually early in the week).
Duration: 30 minutes
Conference call: Title: “Weekly Managers’ Call” (…or the like).
Preparation Required: About 15 minutes
Invited: Invite anyone in your organization who manages people. (Though I never discourage people from forwarding the invitation to others – this is good). Result: people just show up – managers and individual contributors, from your organization and some from other departments. This increases your reach!
Attendance: optional. (I never do a formal headcount, even so, it is very well attended.)
Format:
- No set agenda / informal
- I speak for ~10 minutes on various topics.
- I solicit and answer questions. (If there is trust, you will get some hard questions)
- No minutes, though I will occasionally send out a brief follow-up or summary.
Some sample Agenda Items from my meetings (I usually only had 2-4 items/week):
- News (WSJ, etc.) that may impact our business.
- Upcoming events: review cycles, departmental moves, holidays requiring coverage, Town Hall meetings, senior management visits, recruiting events, etc.Rumors you hear! (Discuss them here with the managers – get ahead of it.)Recognition.
- Thank teams that go above and beyond…and sometimes individuals too.Ask people on the call to recognize anyone I may have missed.
- Upcoming events: review cycles, departmental moves, holidays requiring coverage, Town Hall meetings, senior management visits, recruiting events, etc.Rumors you hear! (Discuss them here with the managers – get ahead of it.)Recognition.
- Reminders (reminding leaders how they’re expected to behave), e.g.,
- When we are consolidating sites – I remind managers about their roles in keeping the team calm.
- When promotions are about to be announced – I ask managers to remember not only the people who are to be promoted on that day but to be respectful of people who will be passed over this time.
- When I know performance reviews are coming in a few months, I mention that I trust they are all doing one-on-one meetings and talking about performance regularly. There may be disagreement, but none of their people should be surprised by feedback in a review.
- When there is a big implementation coming up on a weekend and the XYZ team will be working all weekend. I ask managers to please reach out to someone they know on XYZ team to wish them luck and remember to provide whatever support they can to their colleagues.
- Views into executive life – from my perspective. Some examples:
- “The budget cycle begins next week. I have been working hard with the CFO on creating our budget. Here is how we’ve prepared…”
- “I am heading to the Far East to visit our sites and with our partners. Here is how I have prepared for this trip and what I hope to accomplish…”
- “Here are ways I am collaborating with my colleagues on projects…”
- “Here is a book I am reading now / course I am taking, to stay current.”
What people have told me about this meeting:
- I always felt in touch with senior management.
- It was good to be reminded each week that I represented the company.
- It felt good knowing how much you thought about us.
- It made me want to do more.
- I knew I always had an open line to ask questions that were on my mind.
- You didn’t duck the hard questions and that helped. We did not always like the answers, but at least you leveled with us.
- It reminded us of where the bar was.
- It was good to have an inside scoop.
Background:
I love running into people that I have worked with over the years. Through my current business, social events, or serendipity, I have the pleasure of doing this often. Some people I meet have worked in organizations that I led at one time or another and it makes me feel good when they say something nice about the way I did things. They sometimes comment on my work ethic, fairness, accessibility, or my willingness to spend times on the front lines of the business. But it often surprises me when I hear the most popular thing I did (and the thing they remember best) was this easy, simple weekly meeting that takes 15 minutes to prepare for.
The tiny time commitment you make doing this will not stress your calendar and (if you do this regularly) the performance boost it yields will really pay off.