Leadership Thought: The One Word That Can Help Ensure the Success of Your Meeting.

Dear Friends, 

Have you ever been a part of a meeting where the  leader asks, “How are you all doing?” and then everyone gives the traditional response, “I am fine."  But if you really want to know how everyone is feeling the leader will ask the same question, but this time adding just one word. How are you all doing, 'really'? Often, it takes that one additional word to uncover how your people are feeling.

Before unpacking the items on your agenda, it is important for the one leading to know how his or her team is “really” doing.  And to accomplish this, it necessary for those on the team to feel comfortable enough to honestly answer that question. People may be wearing a smile on the outside but that doesn’t necessarily mean that everything is right on the inside.

How team members are feeling on the inside will greatly affect the success of your meeting. If someone on the team is wearing a smile, but underneath that smile he or she is harboring a major health concern, or has been struggling at home with one of their children, or is worried about how the bills are going to be paid, the leader needs to know.  Addressing the needs of your people should be as important, if not more important, than the items on your agenda, and ignoring those needs can significantly undermine the success of the meeting.

The apostle Paul tells us that we are “to bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). What is that law of Christ? It is to love God with all your heart, and to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:36-40). We are to be burden bearers, looking for opportunities to help carry the heavy loads of one another. But unless we know what those loads are, we will never be unable to help carry them.    

People on your team need to know they are a part of a burden bearing team, and if one is suffering, then all are suffering. It is more comfortable and less costly “to rejoice with those who rejoice”, but we must not ignore the second part of that verse that reminds us we are also called  “to weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15).

People on your team need to know it is OK to admit they are struggling, even while they sit across from one another wearing a smile. They may look fine on the outside, but a good leader needs to know what’s going on in the inside, for it is the inside stuff that can sabotage the success of the meeting.

Beginning every meeting with a sharing question is a good way to uncover honest feelings, and I have found this to be an effective way to start out a meeting. But then again, there is nothing like starting a meeting by asking that question, “How are you feeling?” and then pausing to ask it a second time, but this time adding that magical word “really?” to the end of your question? Try it. I think it will make a difference in your meetings.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom

The above thoughts were generated by a message from Bill Hybels, former pastor of Willow Creek Community Church as expressed in his book Axiom, p 88-89