5 Tips to Boost Employee Engagement During Meetings

To enhance and encourage a culture of engagement, shift from a leader-driven meeting to a team-driven meeting by implementing the following tips:

• If you are the team’s formal leader and facilitating the meeting, stop! Changing the facilitator role from the team leader to another team member can create a different dynamic for team effectiveness and participation without limiting the role and authority a leader has to drive business results and engagement. 

• Rotate and distribute other meeting roles to encourage more participation and engagement in the meeting process by all meeting participants.

• Require preparation for the meeting to include pre-written or typed speaking points and adherence to utilizing pre-read material when necessary for timely discussion.

• Establish the expectation that meeting participants will speak for themselves to include status of actions, performance against metrics, etc.

• Be mindful of and work to overcome tacit group dynamics imbedded in the work climate, such as employee longevity, titles, physical choice of meeting seats, etc. which may impact participation/engagement in a meeting setting.