Using a coaching approach in meetings

We have all been in those meetings.  The meeting where one person drowns everyone else out, the meeting that doesn’t seem to have a purpose, let alone an agenda, the meeting that does have an agenda but doesn’t stick to it, or time.  I could keep going, and going.  Many of us spend a significant proportion of our working hours in meetings, that in reality don’t achieve an awful lot.

But meetings can be different.  A good chair, who has spent time preparing in advance, and who can manage the dynamics of a group can make a huge difference.  In this blog I am going to talk about using coaching to make a difference in meetings.

Do some self-coaching to prepare for the meeting

Spend time in advance of the meeting to ask yourself some key questions.  A little bit of time spent before the meeting will pay off hugely.  Ask yourself:

• What is the purpose of this meeting – what do I/we hope to achieve? How will I know that the meeting was worthwhile?

• Who needs to be there?  And who doesn’t?

• What do we need to discuss – break it down into steps that will form your agenda.

• Now think - how much time is needed for each agenda item?

• Can it be done in the time we have?

Help others prepare for the meeting

Share your agenda with team members well in advance, so that they have time to prepare.  You might even want to help guide them in their preparation, by saying something like ‘In advance of the meeting can you familiarise yourself with …?’, or ‘We need to make a decision about …, can you please consider what you see as the options and what your preferred solution would be?’ etc, depending on the purpose of the meeting and the agenda items covered.

Facilitating a meeting using a coaching approach

Create a welcoming space

Establish a culture of trust and openness by creating a space for the meeting members to share their thoughts and ideas without fear of judgment or criticism.  You can do this in different ways, depending on the meeting, what you are comfortable with, and who you are working with.  You might want to talk people through the agenda, how long you have, what you would like to achieve, and encourage listening, openness to new ideas etc.  Or you might want to be more facilitative and ask the group what would help them to have a productive meeting.

Celebrate successes

Acknowledge and celebrate any actions and achievements since the last meeting.  This is something that many of us aren’t very good at, or comfortable with.  But it is a great way to reinforce positive actions and behaviours, build engagement and foster a culture of appreciation.

Listen actively

As people share their experience, ideas and opinions, use active listening techniques to demonstrate that you are fully present and engaged in the conversation. Paraphrase what you hear to show that you understand their perspective.  If you don’t agree with their opinion, be curious and non-judgemental, and ask follow-up questions to clarify their points and gain more information.

Ask open questions

During the meeting, encourage people to participate and share their ideas and opinions. Ask open-ended questions that allow for a variety of responses and encourage everyone to contribute.  If people aren’t contributing, ask them by name, perhaps saying something like, ‘What about you Marie, I’d be interested to hear you opinion about what we should do here?’.  It is a fine balance between being inclusive and putting people on the spot, so don’t do this too often, and only ask people when you know they have something to contribute.

Facilitate problem-solving

When the team is discussing a problem or issue, use coaching questions to guide them through the problem-solving process. Encourage them to brainstorm ideas, come up with options and consider multiple perspectives before coming to a decision.  Make sure that they are getting stuck in the detail of the problem, or getting bogged down in the history of what hasn’t worked.  Instead ask questions like ‘What would a good outcome here look like?’, ‘What haven’t we tried?’, ‘What’s worked in the past?’, ‘What could we try that’s different?’, What ideas do you have?’

Agree action steps

Coaching is action focused.  Agree and record the decisions and actions from the meeting.  Also think about how you will review them.  Try to make sure that you have got agreement for all of this before the end of the meeting.  Try asking ‘So what are we committed to doing?’, ‘Who will do what by when?’

Review 

Build in time at the end of the meeting for a quick review.  Ask people ‘What worked well in this meeting?’, ‘What could we do differently next time to make the meeting even more useful?’  The first time you do this, you mightn’t get much of a response, but the more you do it, and the more you listen and act on people’s suggestions, the more ideas you will get.

Coaching skills and techniques make your life easier as a manager! And lead to a more engaged team, with better relationships, less conflict, more ideas, more intrinsic motivation and better performance.

If you are interested in learning more, get in touch to see how we can help you