Every manager chairs and facilitates meetings all the time.

Do you merely make announcements or do you use these meetings as opportunities to build your team or to make them feel valued?

Consider these questions and statements you can use in your next meeting :

• Questions can be use useful as answers and so equally welcomed.
• What are your thoughts?
• This decision will affect the future of our team and so I’ll like to hear your input.
• Let’s go around the room so that everyone has a chance to be heard.
• I am holding off my decision till I have heard your views.
• How can these changes, despite their difficulties, be useful to us?
• You have made an excellent point about the event theme.  As the theme this year has been decided, we now at least have one useful theme for consideration next year.
• What changes you would make to the plan?
• I have confidence in the team’s abilities and I would like to hear your views on how we can overcome this challenge together.

Remember in soliciting feedback to :

• listen with an open mind
• avoid pre-judging based on the person’s past performance
• always thank the contributor for the idea, even if you cannot use it.
• ask for opinion on a difficult opinion made by your team member

Contact Tan Teck Kim for more ideas on how to Build Your Team through other means.  We also provide training in Singapore, Malaysia, China and Asia.