By Mandy Green
3 minute read
A few weeks ago I led a yield workshop with an admissions team, and as we got started, I asked the group what was working well and what wasn’t since I had been there in the fall.
One of the leaders in the room said “Mandy, I don’t feel like I’m a very good leader… how can I lead my staff more effectively and ensure we’re able to hit our goals?”
What a great question!
As Jim Collins backed up with the thousands of hours of research in his book ‘Good to Great’…
“Leadership is always the problem, and leadership is always the solution.”
Luckily you can take your leadership from mediocre to great just by getting your staff aligned through an effective cadence of communication. Specifically, by using meeting rhythms.
Over the next few weeks, I am going to share 3 different articles which focus on meeting rhythms that you could use.
Today we will focus on meeting rhythm #1 which is the daily huddle, and it works as follows.
You’ll need to pick a “weird time” (e.g. 8:52am or 9:03am) to meet every day, Monday to Friday. The more obscure the meeting time, the more likely everyone is to show up on time.
Next, it’s important to keep these meetings short and to the point. The goal here isn’t to brainstorm or chit chat… it’s to make sure that every staff member is aligned and focused on what really matters to reaching the goal and able to remove obstacles and resolve problems as quickly as possible.
That means that your meetings need to start at the agreed upon time — whether everyone is present or not — and should run for no more than 15 minutes.
During these daily huddles, each team member will only discuss the following three things:
- What are the priorities for the day: This will let you see what your staff is focused on and allow you to course correct if they’re getting distracted or struggling to prioritize.
- What are the KPIs for each team member: Each team member should bring a KPI related to the admissions goal and be held accountable for improving that number each week (it’s okay if the KPI for some members is a process rather than an outcome).
- What obstacles are preventing the team from making progress: This is the most important part of these meetings.
By proactively discussing and addressing obstacles as they arise, your staff are less likely to get stuck in the mud and spend days or weeks waiting for something to be resolved that could be handled in an afternoon.
Go around the horn and give each team member 10-30 seconds to answer each question. It’s best if you go through each question one at a time — e.g. everyone shares their priorities, then KPIs, then obstacles.
And most importantly… remember that this meeting is not the place to resolve issues or have long winded discussions. It’s a rapid-fire check-in that should take about 1 minute per person.
If a team member needs support from someone else or has a question, have them take the issue offline and keep the meeting moving.
I’m confident that if you implement this meeting rhythm for at least 30 days, you and your admissions team will move faster and more precise than ever before.
If you would like to talk more about setting up these types of meetings, email me at mandy@dantudor.com.