Introduction
Is your entire Team aligned around your three biggest priorities? Could they even state the three biggest priorities of the business? If the answer is no, you’re not alone, and it’s definitely detracting from the potential of your Team. Establishing an effective All-Staff Meeting on a regular basis will consistently orient everyone towards the accomplishment of those three biggest priorities.
In this Series, we’re reviewing the 6-Step Plan to run your business from Donald Miller’s latest book, How to Grow Your Small Business, and the online platform at businessmadesimple.com.
The analogy of an airplane helps describe the 6 Steps and this week, we’re continuing with our second installment in Step 5, the Body, Your Overhead & Operations. In this part of Step 5, Don introduces the first meeting in the Management & Productivity Made Simple Playbook, the All-Staff Meeting. The primary purpose of the All-Staff Meeting is to unite your entire Team around the three biggest priorities of your business.
Establishing the All-Staff Meeting of the Management & Productivity Made Simple Playbook will regularly remind everyone of the three biggest priorities of the business, allowing your Department Leaders to reinforce those priorities by identifying the ways their department’s actions are helping move the company forward toward those priorities. The All-Staff Meeting Template will ensure the meeting is well-structured and an effective use of your Team’s precious time.
Step 5 – The Body (Your Overhead & Operations) – Aligning Your Team for Success – The All-Staff Meeting
Your Three Biggest Priorities
Earlier in the How to Grow Your Small Business book, Don shared the process of creating a Mission Statement and Guiding Principles that centered on establishing three big priorities for the business. The primary purpose of the All-Staff Meeting is to unite your entire Team around those three big priorities.
As a Leader, it’s easy to assume that everyone in the business knows what you know. They don’t. They need to have things explained and they need the information to be clear and consistent. They need to be reminded of the three biggest priorities on a consistent basis to make sure that they don’t get off track.
Ironically, YOU also need to be reminded of the three biggest priorities, so YOU don’t get off track, either! It’s easy for you to get caught up in a new idea, start talking about it, and the next thing you know you’ve pulled a bunch of your staff off on a tangent. Reiterating the three biggest priorities during the All-Staff Meeting will make sure everyone – including you! – stays aligned and on track.
Department Updates – Supporting the Three Biggest Priorities and Your Customers
After the Team has been reminded of the three biggest priorities, there is a spot in the All-Staff Meeting for two or three Departments to provide a brief report. The Department Updates are focused around three questions:
- What has our department done, or what are we going to do, to move us forward on one or more of our company’s three biggest priorities?
- How did we add value to our Customers last week?
- How are we adding value for our Customers this week?
These Department Updates reinforce the big three priorities by sharing the department’s contribution to advancing those goals. Additionally, the Department Updates reinforce the importance of the Customers and the intent to add value to them each week. Celebrating the different ways that departments add value to Customers is an important morale booster for the Team.
Rotating the responsibility among the different departments each time the All-Staff Meeting is held will give each of your Department Leaders the opportunity to step into the spotlight and share with the Team. It will also help provide comradery and support across departments that might not otherwise work together.
Team Shout–Outs – Everyone Can Catch Teammates Doing Something Right
The final part of the All-Staff Meeting is the chance for Teammates to acknowledge each other for going above and beyond in some way. There are several ways to encourage your Team and this is one where everyone has a chance to reinforce positive actions and to thank each other for help and support. It also serves as an uplifting way to wrap up the meeting before the Team returns to regular operations.
You’ll be amazed to discover how using the All-Staff Meeting from the Management & Productivity Made Simple Playbook will align your Team and enhance its effectiveness through consistent focus on the company’s three biggest priorities.
Every member of your Team will understand what the company is trying to accomplish and they’ll be able to stay focused on those priorities. They will be energized, as will you, by the feeling of knowing they’re on the right path towards success.
Final Thoughts
Step 5 from Donald Miller’s book, How to Grow Your Small Business, is the Body – Your Overhead & Operations. The All-Staff Meeting is the first of the five meetings that make up the Management & Productivity Made Simple Playbook. Installing the All-Staff Meeting will keep your Team aligned around your three biggest priorities and it will become one of the foundational rhythms of your company. The template for the All-Staff Meeting is available below to download so that you can implement it in your company. After you fill out your information, you will receive the downloadable PDF in your inbox.
Step 5 from Donald Miller’s book, How to Grow Your Small Business, is the Body – Your Overhead & Operations. The All-Staff Meeting is the first of the five meetings that make up the Management & Productivity Made Simple Playbook. Installing the All-Staff Meeting will keep your Team aligned around your three biggest priorities and it will become one of the foundational rhythms of your company. The template for the All-Staff Meeting is available to download so that you can implement it in your company. After you fill out your information, you will receive the downloadable PDF in your inbox. Step 5 will ensure the Body of your small business airplane, your Overhead & Operations, doesn’t get so big that it limits your altitude.
The biggest part of your Overhead is the people on your airplane, and those people are one of the biggest reasons you have a plane in the first place. You want your business to be able to fly them far and high, soaring to new heights of success.
Next week, we’ll introduce the second meeting in the Management & Productivity Made Simple Playbook, the Leadership Meeting, and how it can get each of your departments working together to accomplish the three big priorities each week.
