Executive Weekly Team Meeting Template

Related Templates

• Board Meeting Agenda
• Executive Strategy Session
• Management Team Meeting

Senior management in most organizations has days that start early and end late as they try to pack as much into a workday as possible. Since most executives are short on time, why hold executive weekly team meetings? Without scheduled check-in dates, managers may have difficulty staying up on what’s happening throughout the organization. They can struggle to keep their departments aligned with corporate strategies without weekly leadership team meetings.

Executive Team Meeting Purpose

Weekly meetings of a company’s leadership are designed as a platform for raising concerns, solving problems, and providing insights into cross-functional operations. As organizations grow, the scope of responsibilities increases, making it more difficult for senior management to coordinate their actions. When management cannot synchronize their operations, organizations struggle to make decisions or establish new initiatives.

One way to ensure alignment is through weekly team meetings where executives can discuss business strategies and establish goals. They can use the time to discuss innovative ideas and find creative ways to address new challenges. Using an executive weekly meeting agenda template makes it possible for leadership teams to stay aligned. It also allows team members to share successes and develop better working relationships among executive staff.

Leadership Meeting Focus

Executive team meetings often turn into status updates and operational discussions instead of problem-solving issues such as low sales, technology deficits, or expansion possibilities. Leadership meetings should focus on strategies, future plans, and corporate direction; however, sound decision-making requires data that comes from operational updates. How can organizers design meetings that include the necessary data without extending the length of the meeting beyond the limits of productivity?

Most businesses rely on pre-read materials to cover the operation and status updates. The expectation is that all participants will review the material before arriving at the meeting. Unfortunately, few attendees have looked at the material, and even fewer have considered possible solutions or points to discuss. As a result, decisions are delayed or are made without a comprehensive understanding of the issues.

Pre-Read Materials

Two leadership meeting topics that involve pre-read materials are new initiatives and status updates. There is usually background information, early analysis, and a feasibility study to be reviewed with new initiatives. Status reports from each department are often attached to the weekly management meeting agenda to be reviewed before the meeting. How can participants make their pre-read materials more compelling so that they will be read ahead of time?

• Status Updates. Team members should design a status report template for everyone to use. These reports should be linked to the agenda so they are readily available to all attendees. If team members have to hunt for an email with status updates attached, they may never look at the report until they’re in the meeting.
• New Initiatives. When bringing a new idea to the meeting, the presenter should have background and context materials for review. Again, these items should be accessible from the weekly meeting agenda.

Reviewing status updates ahead of time creates an enterprise view of operations. The comprehensive view can help identify additional topics for discussion such as:

• Company Performance
• Resource Allocation
• Labor Shortages
• Technology Deficits
• Supply Chain Delays

Pre-reads can be a valuable component to senior management as they provide crucial information that they need to make well-informed decisions.

Weekly Management Meeting Agenda Templates

Putting together a weekly meeting agenda takes time. Using an executive weekly team meeting agenda template is one way to reduce the amount of time needed to prepare and collaborate on an agenda. A typical agenda template should include the following:

Purpose

The stated purpose should be two or three sentences that outline what priority items will be addressed.

Welcome

Weekly meetings are also a time to build relationships. Take a moment at the start of each meeting to connect as people. Ask questions such as:

• How was your weekend?
• What’s on your personal agenda for this week?
• Where are you traveling to next?

Be sure that everyone, including the individual running the meeting, answers the question. As the team becomes more comfortable, consider starting the meeting with a personal anecdote and then ask others to share.

Updates

Don’t use this time to review the information that should have been part of the pre-read materials. Instead, use the time to identify any trends or similarities across departmental lines. For example, everyone’s numbers are down from last week. Why? Consider adding any insights to the Initiatives segment of the agenda for further discussion and problem-solving.

Wins

When positive events occur, include them in the weekly executive meeting. Don’t wait until a company-wide quarterly meeting or an annual report. Learn to celebrate the wins when they happen and be sure to recognize everyone for their efforts.

Issues

Although the issues to be discussed are on the agenda, leave room for observations from the update segment. This is where team members can discuss improvement strategies or conflict resolution.

With Docket’s executive weekly meeting agenda template, it’s easy to draft an agenda for review and incorporate suggestions from team members. As pre-read materials become available, simply link them to the agenda, so everything is in one place.