5 Essential Tips for Running Leadership Meetings (or any group that isn't a full time team)...

There is plenty of literature and advice on how to run great team meetings and ceremonies, but there is far less on how to improve regular conversations for groups of people who aren’t in a team together day-to-day. This might be a programme leadership "team", a cross-departmental working groups or a scrum of scrums. 

People in these meetings often represent their team, department or an ambiguous group not present at the meeting. The focus is typically on alignment, decision-making, and removing blockers - so discussions often revolve around risks, people issues, or how to handle unexpected challenges.

Over the years, I’ve found these meetings harder to get right. Unlike teams with retrospectives and dedicated time for improving processes, these meetings are often short and task-focused, prioritising getting things done.

So here are five tips that might help:

1. Ensure the Right People Are in the Meeting This sounds obvious, but it's often overlooked. If you frequently refer to someone who isn't present, invite them next time. Focus less on seniority and titles, and more on leaving the room with things in a better place than when you started.
2. Maximise Time with Clear Engagement Rules Set clear rules for engagement, such as having cameras on and ensuring no-one is attempting to multitask. Since you likely don’t spend much time together as a group, there isn’t time for anyone to sit back and let others problem solve – this can’t be that kind of meeting. So ensure everyone signs up explicitly for active participation, so you don’t lose alignment and let decisions back up!. Also this might be the only time each week you “see” each other, so make sure you can actually see each other! 
3. Establish a Channel/Space for Group Discussions While decisions are made in the meeting for efficiency, ensure there’s a space to share thoughts and relevant documents beforehand. Avoid catching up during the meeting itself on what’s happened since last week.
4. Utilise a (Kanban) Board for Alignment Again, I know this is not rocket science and if you work in a product or platform team you'll laugh – but you have no idea how many meetings full of leaders I’ve attended where there isn't a board and the conversation drifts ambiguously from one person to another.  If in doubt, use Trello.
5. Take Notes and Assign Clear Actions Whether it’s by rota or role, ensure someone is adding short/quick comments to the cards being discussed - ideally have a different person doing the notes to facilitate the meeting. If there is action make that extra clear who is the owner. You may think you will remember what was said and agreed, but remember this is not your main job, so you won’t! 

Admittedly none of these tips are rocket science or likely unfamiliar to you - but having been in so many rooms (virtual or otherwise) over the years where they haven’t happened, I thought it would be worth a reminder. As a rule of thumb, if you treat most meetings like a great team standup, you won’t go too far wrong in life.

Let me know what else you find works for you!