You manage a diverse team of professionals and you’ve been at it for a few months. You feel confident because your boss has made it clear what she expects of you, and, according to the bios of everyone on the team, they have the needed skills. You have a staff meeting every week, but you’re not sure how things are going. Every Monday, you kick off the meeting with a standard greeting and a little humor, and get down to the topics of the day. The team looks at you. They nod their heads and smile. You ask if everyone understands, and they all say “yes.” You ask if there are any questions and there are none. Wow! What a great meeting! Or is it? How can you know?

Let’s look at this again in terms of the culture you are working in and the individuals on the team.

1. Humor – the good news is, using humor is probably ok if it’s a big part of how you interact with the world. There are some caveats – self-deprecating humor may be endearing in some cultures, but make you look like an imbecile in others. Sarcasm and irony don’t translate well if everybody isn’t a native speaker of your language. At least until you get to know people, any jokes should be simple and straightforward.

2. Greetings and topics of the day – It’s important to give people a chance to greet each other and catch up for a few minutes before getting started. Depending on where you are in the world, it may be considered very rude to plunge in before a bit of small talk. Casual conversation also gives you a chance to see what people are bringing with them to the meeting – terrible traffic, sunny weather, hectic morning, great news, good book/movie – it all impacts how the meeting will go. Assuming you sent the agenda in advance and asked people to add to it, you can begin with the first topic as soon as everyone has had a chance to shift gears and get their head in the meeting.

3. You’re talking, they’re nodding. Hmm. Asking if people understand something may be the single least effective way to find out if they understand something. There are way too many reasons to say they do when they don’t: they don’t want to feel inadequate in front of the new boss; they don’t want to look stupid in front of their peers; it’s inappropriate in the local culture to question their boss in front of people; to name a few. A better way to find out if your team understands is to ask what they think about what you said. Ask how they will proceed now. Ask if they see a better way of doing things. You are new, after all. It’s ok to not know everything. In fact, showing a bit of vulnerability will help build trust with your team.

4. No questions. Really? It’s possible the team really doesn’t have questions, but if you want to make sure, ask them some. How do you plan to get started? What are some possible obstacles? Or, since you are new, ask what is the most important thing you need to know. Try to make sure that everybody has contributed something. If not, direct one of your questions to the quiet team member(s). Make it an easy question so they don’t feel like you are publicly testing them, but make sure they are comfortable talking and have a chance to say what they need to say. It may be that not everybody has something to contribute on every topic, but early on in your position, you won’t know. If they don’t have something to add, they can say so and indicate why they agree with what has been said so far.

5. Great meeting? If you make sure people feel safe to speak up, to interact with you and even to disagree, you have gotten off to a great start. Allowing yourself to be vulnerable as a leader by admitting what you don’t know and where you will need help is a great foundation for building trust so that others will be open as well. If you also got a sense of the group dynamics, bonus points for you. Paying attention to who speaks first and who speaks most, and who speaks only when invited will let you know who needs to be drawn out if you want their insights and opinions and who may need to be encouraged to let others lead.

Letting people settle in, asking questions to make sure everyone is on the same page, and allowing yourself to be vulnerable will do a long way toward more effective meetings and building a more cohesive team. Have a great meeting!

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The Meeting...