the discipline of leadership
BY ron sMith
HVACR BuSinESS Edi ToRiAl AdViSoRY BoARd MEMBER
Communicate effectively with
3 Types of Regular Meetings
Having a disciplined process ensures transfer of vital information and reserves
time to celebrate, coach, and encourage.
effective company leaders practice good communications and celebrate successes. When I visit companies on a consulting
mission, often I’m told by the coworkers,
“We just don’t communicate in our
company.” I understand their point
and probably have identified the lack of
communications as a company challenge
already. However, they are incorrect
about what the problem is. They are
communicating, but the information
is inaccurate. It’s often rumors, and it’s
usually negative in nature.
Coworkers expect and deserve to know
what is happening in the company. How
can coworkers properly represent their
company without being informed?
attendee bring a short list of what they
wish to present or discuss.
• A once-monthly general meeting of
all coworkers. In large diversified
companies, it may be a general
meeting by division.
Nothing is more important than proper
communications, but many company
owners, general managers, and leaders
don’t understand this. Coworkers expect
and deserve to know what is happening
in the company. How can coworkers
properly represent their company without
being informed?
• A bi-weekly (every other week)
meeting of company leaders.
changing, the present and near-future
workload, significant new jobs sold, new
processes, new coworkers, birthdays and
employment anniversaries that month,
etc. (Including these takes advantage of
an opportunity to recognize coworkers, a
form of appreciation.)
• A bi-weekly meeting with individual
company leaders.
Good communication requires a
process and discipline on the part of the
owner or general manager. The process I
often recommend is:
The owner or general manager
facilitates the once-monthly meeting
of all coworkers. They should be on the
same day of the month; for example,
for one hour on the second Tuesday at
8 a.m. Make the meetings informative
and fun. Tell everyone what’s happening
in the company — what’s new, what
they can look forward to, what’s
With these lists, the facilitator
quickly prepares the agenda and does
not permit any other subjects to be
discussed. At the conclusion of the
meeting, the facilitator can summarize
and make any assignments. Debate is
allowed and can be healthy if handled
correctly. Remember, you don’t all have
to be in agreement, but you need to be in
alignment.
Bleed: 12.25"
Trim: 12"
Type: 11.75"
The owner or general manager
meets with the leaders individually bi-weekly, normally the week between the
bi-weekly company leaders meeting.
These separate meetings should also be
scheduled on the same day and same
time. Forty-five minutes to one hour for
each meeting should be adequate. This is
when the owner or general manager can
be coaching and encouraging.
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Also important is sharing success
stories. I always handed out the spiff
checks for previous-month’s earnings
and allowed the coworkers to nominate
and then select a coworker to receive
“the extra mile award” for something
done in the previous month. As the
meeting facilitator, you can be genuine
and a cheerleader at the same time.
These meetings, properly planned and
conducted, are an event and celebration
that coworkers look forward to. Most
companies spend little time celebrating
and lots of time discussing things that
are going wrong. This is ineffective and
wastes time.
If any of these meetings for some
reason — and it needs to be a good reason
— must be rescheduled, it should be done
as quickly as possible. As mentioned
earlier, the discipline of having the
prescheduled meetings as planned is very
important. Continually rescheduling or
not even having these meetings sends the
signal that they are not important. n
The bi-weekly meeting of company
leaders is facilitated by the owner or
general manager. These also should be
on the same day and the same time, but
can run longer, about one-and-a-half
hours. Have each leader report on their
area of responsibility to the other leaders.
The transfer of information among
departments and divisions is critical.
Allow no interruptions, and have each
Ron Smith is a well known leading
authority in the HVACR industry. He has
over 45 years of experience as a contractor,
franchisor, consolidator and consultant. Ron
is also the author of HVACR Spells Wealth
and HVAC Light Commercial Service
Agreements. Both can be ordered at
www.ronsmithhvac.com or by calling
615-791-8474.
