How To Have Team Meetings

Effective team meetings are one of the best tools you have for growing a successful aesthetic business. They build cohesion and loyalty, creating transparency and accountability for everyone. Team meetings also keep your business running smoothly, supporting a culture that makes you and your team want to work within your business.

Do you groan at the thought of team meetings? I understand. Team meetings, when mismanaged, waste time and don’t help you reach your business goals. However, as an experienced aesthetic business consultant, I know that resilient businesses have consistent, short, effective meetings that focus on resolving issues, recognizing teammates, and reporting results.

Combining best practices, agendas, meeting templates, and years of in-the-field professional experience, this team meeting guide I have created for aesthetic leaders will produce game-changing results for your business.

We’ll deep dive into the five meetings you should be planning for your business, creating a meeting schedule that works for your business. Before we begin, let’s cover a few important notes for any meeting type:

• Meetings need to be time-bound, clear in purpose, and have guidelines to keep everyone on track.
• Each meeting needs to be scheduled consistently in advance, with a customized agenda.
• Someone should be taking notes of items discussed and projects assigned with associated responsible parties and deadlines.

Make your meetings work for YOU. I’ve included example agendas, but each practice is unique. As you work to consistently hold effective meetings, keep in mind what is and isn’t working well for your team and adjust accordingly

 

The Daily Huddle

Length: 10-15 Minutes

Frequency: Daily

Attendees: Entire Team

Purpose: Inspire & Communicate

Notes: At this time, you should also be conducting a visual inspection of your team ensuring compliance with dress code and grooming standards.

 

Agenda: 

1. Share Information

Give your team inspiration for the day. Inspiration could come in the form of a quote, a great client review, or team member recognition.

2. Review The Schedule

Take a moment to review the day’s appointments and discuss particular clients or potential issues as needed.

3. Individual Focus

A quick 30-second moment where each team member audibly shares their focus for the day. I often find these focuses are personal goals or one-word mantras for team members.

 

Weekly Leadership Meeting

Length: 75 Minutes

Frequency: Weekly

Attendees: Small Group, True Leaders

Purpose: Create accountability, Review Issues & Initiatives List, and Plan for reaching goals.

Notes: Building a resilient foundation for your business won’t appear after one meeting. It will take patience and consistency. Don’t be intimidated by this weekly 75-minute meeting because it is one of the most critical tools for your business. If you aren’t currently utilizing consistent team meetings, I recommend starting with this one.

 

Agenda:

1. Begin With Positivity (5 min)

Ask everyone to share a short positive thing from the previous week. This could be a big accomplishment, recognizing someone on your team, or highlighting a positive client review/ experience.

2. Area Highlights (15 Min)

Review updates, news, and highlights regarding your team, client experience, marketing, performance metrics, and operations. This is not a brainstorming session but rather an opportunity to align your entire leadership team and get on the same page. During this time, you will be able to spot-light issues quickly, discuss topics that need consideration & planning, and assign tasks to specific team members.

3. Accountability Updates (10 Min)

This is the time to review assignments, to-dos, and initiatives from the previous meeting. Determine whether team tasks were completed on-time and as desired.

4. Issues & Initiatives List (40 Min)

The I&I portion of your meeting will be the longest. It is the time to discuss items on your Issues and Initiatives list and reprioritize. Discuss in detail your top 3 priorities, assigning them to specific leaders. Ask each team member to come prepared with one thing they feel is working well in your business and one thing that they don’t think is working well. As you discuss this information, be sure to record it in a central location where every member can access it.

5. Re-cap (5 min)

Review assignments, updates, and recount communications/ assignments that need sharing with your broader team.

 

Monthly Team Meeting

Length: 60 Minutes

Frequency: Monthly

Attendees: Entire Team

Purpose: Inform & Connect

Notes: This meeting should focus on communication from leaders to the entire team. As team members share Issues or Initiatives with you during this meeting, thank them for bringing them to your attention. Add it to your I&I list to discuss in your next leadership meeting.

 

Agenda:

1. Ice Breaker (15 min)

Research has proven that team members pay more attention during a meeting when started with an ice breaker, don’t skip this part.

2. Goals Announcement (5 min)

Announce any new team goals.

3. Scorecard Discussion (15 min)

Review your team’s performance, KPIs, progress, and goals.

4. Area Highlights (10 min)

This should be a quick review of each of the top 4-5 areas of your business (such as marketing, operations, staffing, etc.). Each area should only take about a minute to highlight and review.

5. Housekeeping Items (15 min)

This is the time to review any information regarding benefits, upcoming team training or events, catered lunches, or any other general business information.

6. End With Positivity (5 min)

As you close this meeting be sure to end with your favorite style of team recognition. Team members should leave this meeting well-informed and smiling. You don’t want this meeting to leave team members feeling stressed out and overwhelmed.

 

Team Building & Celebrations

Frequency: 

Team Celebrations: Winter and Summer

Team Building Outings: Spring and Fall

Attendees: Entire Team

Purpose: Connect with your team.

Notes: You will be asking much of your team in the coming weeks, so plan ahead and let them know you appreciate them. Once a quarter, I recommend planning either a team-building event or celebration.

 

Agenda:

Celebrations

Celebrations recognize outstanding progress on team goals and KPIs. It’s a time to reflect together on the accomplishments of the past quarter. Celebrations are a great way to unite your team around common goals that build up team spirit and your bottom line.

Team Building events

Team Building Events are activity-focused for your entire team. I like to plan these events opposite celebrations. They promote team connection and let your team get to know one another better. Going big for these events can be fun but is not always necessary. Planning activities in-office can be a great way to connect your team. I’ve found that team members enjoy taking turns planning these events.

 

A Closing Thought

Restructuring your time and operations to include so many new meetings probably sounds like a lot, I understand.

However, I promise that implementing these meeting strategies into your business will produce game-changing results. By consistently pre-planning, resolving issues, and team building, everyone on your team can grow & row in the same direction.

Take it one step at a time, implementing one new meeting at a time. I can’t wait to hear about how effective these meetings are at helping you reach your goals. Hello, focused team and maximized profits!

 

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