Ah, the performance review. A classic Human Resources pillar that has some of us roll our eyes and others filled with excitement. Possibly the most confronting part of the performance review is the self-evaluation. It’s a task where an employee answers a series of reflection-provoking questions about their strengths, weaknesses, accomplishments, goals, and inspirations at work. It is a balance of showcasing our achievements and owning our blunders.

While employees and managers alike dread this, often awkward, practice, self-evaluations can significantly contribute to both individual and organization success – if done right.

So, how do we get employee self-evaluations right?

We’ve put together the ultimate guide to employee self-evaluations. We will help you understand the benefits and drawbacks of employee self-evaluations, how to get the most out of them, what to do and what to avoid.

Five benefits of self-evaluations

Self-evaluations can have some fantastic benefits to both an employee and their organization. Allowing employees to get involved in the performance review process supports self-awareness, accountability, and goal setting. Here are five exciting benefits of self-evaluations to help you see the event differently:

1. Develop Self-Awareness

Self-evaluations are an exercise in self-awareness, depicting your ability to recognize your strengths and weaknesses. Self-aware employees positively affect an organization’s bottom line, so it’s pretty essential to possess and develop this skill.

2. Promote honesty and improvement

Self-evaluations empower employees to evaluate their performance and fix problems in a non-judgemental way, giving a sense of control. The New York Times points out that self-evaluations provide an outlet for employees to identify areas of weakness, allowing a manager to give employees the support they need to improve and, ultimately, further the company’s strategic mission.

3. Encourage goal-setting and long-term achievement.

By understanding an employee’s goals and ambitions, the organization can better help put them on the right track to achieve them. It also records an employee’s accomplishments and efforts over a given period, creating a valuable benchmark for setting goals and implementing improvements.

4. Develops two-way communication that encourages accountability.

Self-evaluations give employees a voice during performance reviews and help them stay accountable for their achievements and missteps. It also allows managers to understand how their employees perceive ‘good performance,’ helping to align their definitions better if there are discrepancies. `

5. Self-evaluations can help employees show their managers they care.

Employees can show their organizations that they take their careers seriously by putting effort and thought into self-evaluations. Proudly showing off their successes and milestones, acknowledging and owning where their performances may have fallen short, and creating a realistic plan for overcoming challenges, shows that you are not thoughtless at work and care about who you are in your organization.

The drawbacks of self-evaluations

Self-evaluations have some prevalent shortcomings. It’s important to be aware of these drawbacks to help overcome them and make self-evaluations work for you. Here are the three most prominent disadvantages and what you can do to mitigate their negative effect:

1. Objectivity is difficult for employees.

According to the Harvard Business Review, individuals can be pretty terrible at assessing their performance, with poor performers more likely to give themselves even more inaccurate appraisals. To overcome this, keep a record of your accomplishments over the period, be honest and utilize proof when writing your self-evaluation. Evidence can include metrics, communication, and appraisal.

2. Conflict can arise from varying perceptions.

It can get a bit awkward when there are discrepancies between the ratings you’ve given yourself and what your manager has given you. Keeping track of your accomplishments will save you here again. As long as you are truthful and speak to your proven actions, this situation can be avoided or disproven.

3. It can be a scapegoat for managers to place the performance review onus on employees.

Managers are responsible for monitoring and recording employee performance. Unfortunately, managers can sometimes neglect their employee evaluation and performance monitoring role with self-evaluations, relying on the employee’s self-perception. To overcome this, regularly ask for feedback on your performance and initiate discussions on your successes when they happen.

Ultimately, the benefits of self-evaluations outweigh the disadvantages. Successful employee self-evaluations can help align you with management and your organization, improving your long-term career success.

Let’s get into how to make your self-evaluation reflect your impressive contributions while realistically speaking to your performance.

Here’s how to make your self-evaluation great:

1. Prepare

To prepare for your self-evaluation, here are some helpful steps you can take:

• Look back at your job description and any goals that you set out for yourself. Evaluate how your daily tasks and overall performance align with your job description and the goals that you set.
• If you haven’t yet, begin tracking your accomplishments at work in detail. Gather any proof or records you have that can back up your victories. These can include emails, messages, documents, and insight reports. Consider how your achievements have directly contributed to the organization’s success.
• Reflect on the feedback you’ve received from people at work, including peers, managers, and direct reports. If you aren’t getting much feedback, try and initiate a feedback loop with your peers.

2. Be proud, honest, and critical.

While filling out a self-evaluation feels foreign to most of us, here are some tips to remember to help your evaluation truly reflect your performance:

• It can feel a bit weird to sing our praises. But this is the perfect time to boast about what you have accomplished at work. Highlight your accomplishments and milestones, try to make them specific, contextual into the broader organization, and honest.
• Ask yourself some hard questions that assess your skill-set. Be honest about where you may have come up short this year and how you can be better in the future.
• Culture Amp outlines some models that help describe your performance in a self-evaluation. It states you should structure your feedback around these elements:
  • Situation: Describe the circumstance and be specific.
  • Behavior: Describe the observable behavior.
  • Impact: Explain how the action has affected the team or organization.

3. Ask questions

Be prepared to ask your manager questions about your performance. You can ask which areas in your performance need improvement, their perception of your success and accomplishments, and how you can better contribute to your team. This is also a great time to discuss your career map, where your manager sees you going, and how they help you get there.

4. Consider your goals

While you are reflecting on the time that has passed since your last performance review, it is essential that you also consider the goals that you would like to achieve going forward during the following performance evaluation period.

Research indicates that employees are highly motivated when there is a 50% chance of achieving a goal. Setting goals can help you work towards something, improving your performance at work.

The SMART goals method is a step-by-step process that ensures you set obtainable goals that will motivate you. They can be performance-oriented or in regards to your professional development. Here is how to ensure your goal is SMART:

1. Specific
Your goal should be specific so that they don’t overwhelm you and aren’t too difficult to accomplish.

2. Measurable
Having a measurable goal is evident when you have reached it or are close to achieving it.

3. Attainable
Your goal should have the right level of stretch. It should be realistic and attainable while challenging enough to give you a sense of achievement when you accomplish it.

4. Relevant
The goal should always be relevant to your company’s strategic mission and broader goals. Appropriate goals ensure that the goals are productive and contribute to success. It should also be something that you have complete control over.

5. Time-bound
The goal should have a deadline that is realistic and achievable. In addition to a target date to complete your goal, it’s great to have milestones as well so you can track your progress.

Once you’ve set your SMART goal, it’s a good idea to get feedback on your goals from your manager. Feedback can help ensure that your goals align with theirs and the broader organization’s and give you a different perspective on your ambitions.

5. Give honest feedback

While it can seem quite intimidating to return the feedback to your superiors or your organization, you are qualified to share your thoughts and observations as an employee. And you should! You’re helping to better the organization so go for it. You do want to ensure that any feedback you give is constructive, professional, and realistic.

Here are some things to avoid in your self-evaluation:

Don’t assume

You might assume that your manager is fully aware of all your extraordinary successes – don’t! Be explicit but honest when describing your accomplishments and their significance.

Don’t exaggerate

While this isn’t the time to be modest, you also don’t want to exaggerate your efforts and achievements. Doing so could discredit you, so be realistic and authentic. Use metrics to give proven and trackable measurements of your accomplishments and success where possible.

Don’t leave it until the last minute.

You might think that your self-evaluation is something you can write at the last minute, drawing on whatever comes to mind first. That wouldn’t be wise. Your self-evaluation can help your career development and personal growth, so give it your all.

Don’t blame and shame.

Self-evaluations aren’t the time to bring up concerns or annoyances that you have had with your coworkers. It is about your performance. If something comes up that you feel defensive about, truthfully speak to your experience without throwing others under the bus.

Don’t be afraid to own your shortcomings.

None of us are perfect all the time. It’s okay and beneficial to know and own your weaknesses. Take it a step further and identify how you are going to turn them into strengths. When you get critical feedback, make sure that you acknowledge and embrace it.

Self-evaluations present the opportunity to show our employers that we value our jobs and take our careers seriously. While they can be a bit of a drainer in our already busy schedules, they don’t have to be. They can minimize the stress that accompanies the performance review process by making it a two-way conversation. Ultimately, self-evaluations allow you to take time to appreciate all that you have achieved, how far you have come, and what waits ahead.

How effective is your company’s current system of processes?

How a company creates their business strategy, and how well that strategy performs, can have a range of benefits for the company and its employees. In a survey completed by Deloitte, they found that 57% of employees felt that a workplace with a “clearly defined business strategy” helped to create a positive workplace culture. This can be achieved by successfully implementing and measuring the company’s organizational effectiveness.

What Is Organizational Effectiveness?

Organizational Effectiveness is more than simply being organized at work. Organizational effectiveness is a concept that measures “the efficiency of an organization in meeting its objectives with the help of given resources without putting undue strain on its employees.” It relies heavily on pairing the objectives a company sets to accomplish with the right resources in a way that allows the goal to be met in the most efficient way.

Organizational effectiveness is a system that many companies have begun implementing to build more success for their companies. In the process, they have discovered it’s an essential aspect in specific stages of project development. The team at Salesforce implemented organizational effectiveness and stated “execution, particularly at scale, requires organizational effectiveness” and explained that their structured processes promote it as well.

4 Main Approaches For Organizational Effectiveness

There are a number of approaches and models of organizational effectiveness, allowing for individual companies to implement it in a way that corresponds with their unique structure. The four most common include:

1. The Goal Approach

This approach is one of the most utilized options. It places the main focus of the process on the end result and works by breaking down the essential objectives such as profit, product quality, innovation and societal impact, but can vary depending on the company’s individual goals. Though it’s widely used, it does present a barrier to the company as it only measures the output but fails to include information on the process or inputs.

2. The Resource Approach

This approach focuses on the input more than the output. It considers the effectiveness based on the access to resources the company has in alignment with the needs of the project. It also takes into consideration the amount each resource was used. Larger companies that require an advantage over their competitors often align themselves with this approach, as exploiting rare or hard-to-imitate resources provides them with a strategic advantage to elevate their company above the others.

3. The Internal Functioning Approach

This function measures effectiveness based on the internal workings of the organization. It considers the stress or strain employees are under, the strength of leadership, team dynamics and employee morale. This is an approach often used by companies that are highly focused on creating a healthy work environment, providing efficient systems and minimizing conflict within the workplace, allowing for high rates of employee satisfaction.

4. The Strategic Constituencies Approach

This approach bases measurement on the satisfaction of those interested parties that have control over the survival of the company. This can include workers, stakeholders, consumers, and communities. Companies with a high reliance on demands will often utilize this approach, however, it does take a higher level of attention as the determining aspects can change quickly and can become widely diverse, posing additional barriers for the company to monitor and overcome.

Factors That Influence Organizational Effectiveness

There are a variety of factors that have a direct effect on a company’s success and measuring organizational effectiveness offers insights into areas that require additional attention and prompt potential future training to employees.

1. Leadership

Leadership is the largest influencing factor in any workplace. Leaders have the opportunity to create a culture that thrives, setting employees up to find success within the assigned projects, and the company as a whole. Leaders that create a work environment that allows employees to find balance, continue learning, collaborate with colleagues, and provide a clear sense of direction will find higher rates of success within any project.

Leaders must also bear enough knowledge on any given project as well as the consumer audience to lead the team with confidence, setting expectations and providing a clear outline of the project strategy and goals, while also assigning each individual to work in their strengths.

2. Workplace Culture

By maintaining a healthy workplace culture that aligns with the values of the employees, companies will find the productivity of their employees will increase, and interest in their company will also rise. In a study done by Jobvite, they found 46% of people actively looking for jobs claimed work culture was very important to them.

Workplace organizational culture also has a large effect on employee engagement, with studies showing that companies with a high value on organizational cultures report having 72% higher employee engagement ratings.

3. Talent

Forbes lists talent as an organizational design element that should be included in any system. When creating a team, it is essential that members are assigned to work within their strongest field. When a team takes individual talents into account, it allows for a balanced team that can excel at every aspect of the project.

4. Communication

Communication is essential in any workplace because it allows for employees to have a clear direction for their role, while also creating an environment that values understanding and accountability. In a workplace where communication is utilized in an open and respectful manner, employees are much more likely to learn from experiences, leverage the power of their leadership, and prevent excuses—allowing for issues to be resolved quickly and focus to be returned to the assigned task.

A report by The Wall Street Journal revealed that the average executive in the United States wastes approximately 6 weeks per year searching messy desks to find misplaced information and files! That adds up to a total of $9221 each year for an executive with a salary of $75,000!

Organization is essential to employees and employers alike. It can have wide effects on the company as a whole, especially when it’s implemented unsuccessfully. It can be the difference between weekends spent catching up on work or financial gains in your next quarter!

Why Is Organization At Work Important?

1. Productivity

In an interview with Forbes, productivity consultant Julie Morgenstern said “I always compare organizing time to organizing a closet…a limited amount of space is crammed [with] more things than you can possibly fit in, and you’re shoving items into any available proper space in no particular order.”

Schedules often follow the same pattern, seeming to never be fully completed by the day’s end. When a calendar is properly organized, each minute is accounted for and scheduled, with no wasted space and with ample time to complete everything on the day’s to-do list.

2. Efficiency

In a 400 person survey done by NAPO, 27% felt they were disorganized at work, and 91% of those agreed if their workspace was more organized, they would be more efficient and effective during their workday.

Workspaces often become over-encumbered, lacking any system to manage their contents, creating time-wasting habits and ultimately costing the company money every minute spent searching for misplaced items.

When systems are in place and the environment is formed around them, efficiency becomes effortless. Intentional planning along with a predictable workspace allows for seamless progression through projects. When it’s easy to find the file or item needed, efficiency will naturally increase. No more wasted time trying to find that report sent over last week!

3. Increase In Focus

When a workspace is organized, it removes distractions, allowing for intense focus on the project at hand. Research conducted by Princeton University revealed that individuals were less able to focus when their brains were overwhelmed by competing stimuli found on a cluttered desk. An organized desk removes those distracting factors, allowing space only for those items that are serving the current project.

4. Stress Less

When working in an organized environment, it becomes much easier to find enjoyment in the workplace and confidence in the projects being completed. When there’s no need to work around piles of papers, search emails for that one attachment, or spend countless hours searching folders and drawers for a misplaced file…stress plummets and the workplace becomes much more predictable, creating higher employee morale!

Clean Space vs Organized Space

Organization is often associated with cleanliness, which to some extent is true, however, they aren’t quite the same thing.

Clean refers to something being without dirt or grime. ‘Clean’ focuses on things being neat and tidy, not being visibly dirty or having anything messy in sight. It does not focus on forming an intentional space.

Organization is a systematic approach to a space. It focuses on creating efficiency through a structured environment designed in a way that is specific and personal to the individual putting it in place. It is planned and implemented in an intentional way based on the project needs and the individual’s working style.

Something may look clean, but if there is no system to help someone navigate the space, then it’s not organized.

5 Unbeatable Ways To Stay Organized At Work

1. Create both weekly and daily plans

Before the beginning of a new week, create a plan that breaks down the projects that need to be completed, meetings that are scheduled, appointments, lunch hours, and any other necessary aspects of the week. Then spend a short time each morning planning your day, hour by hour based on that day’s scheduled items.

By creating a schedule for both the day and the week, each hour becomes predictable and allows for more focused work hours, inevitably building efficiency and success.

This will also create a healthier work/life balance. More work will be getting done during office hours due to the pre-planning, leaving weekends and evenings open for family and friends.

2. Go paperless

In our blog “The Ultimate Guide To Creating Meeting Notes That Build Leadership” we discussed how important it is to avoid storing meeting notes in folders, and instead recommended that meeting notes be attached to the event in the online calendar, allowing for easier locating in the future for everyone. This is a perfect example of the benefits of going paperless.

It’s easy to lose a paper somewhere in the office, near impossible (and wasteful) to share a physical copy with everyone necessary, and difficult to find specific details when scanning through them. By going paperless, everything becomes tied to the internet, making it easier to fetch and share documents, and much easier to scan through them by using keywords to locate the exact portion of a document required.

Going paperless is both efficient AND eco-friendly!

3. Have a system

Creating a system for a space is inherently unique to the person designing it, however, there are some important methods that benefit nearly everyone.

Have a space specifically assigned to the most utilized items, whether it be sticky notes, pens, paperclips, or a stapler, and choose a spot easily accessible for them on the desktop. Take inventory of this space regularly and modify it as things become less necessary, or as new projects begin changing the required flow of the workspace.

Keep no more than 3 personal items on your desk. These serve as both motivation and increase happiness during work hours, and by only having a small amount, they won’t become distracting or take up unnecessary space.

Set aside a small amount of time each morning to create a to-do list with the highest priority items at the top. Work your way down, and build in breaks so you can’t forget to take them. Taking time to recharge throughout the day is essential to creating productivity while having a strategic list allows for ease of progression through the day.

4. Setup a work only browser

Having a browser specifically for work, allows your brain to easily transition into work mode. Not only does it prompt your mind that it’s time to work, but it also provides you with a space to easily store and recall information needed throughout your workday.

Distractions are limited, information is easily stored and accessed, and your most-used pages can be pinned to your browser bar for easy access at the beginning of your day. This will decrease your setup time at the beginning of the day, setting you up to maximize your working hours.

5. Use an app to help

In a world of technology, the market is flooded with apps to help with productivity, scheduling, group sharing and note-taking. Find an app that will help you plan your day, provide alarms and reminders when a schedule change is coming up, and offer flexibility with how and where your workday takes you!

6. Take breaks

Staying organized requires energy, so schedule short breaks throughout the day to keep your energy level high. Staying fueled and hydrated enhances your focus and helps you recharge your batteries to tackle difficult tasks.

7. Master your inbox

Your email inbox can quickly become an overwhelming place. Stay organized digitally by creating folders for the different types of messages you receive. Maintain inbox zero by making decisions to either respond, delete, or file the email. Unsubscribe to all the emails that are no longer relevant, then delete those messages.

These 3 Tools Help You Stay Organized At Work

Google

Google is a great option for an all-in-one approach to working through a project. Syncing calendars with teammates, attaching notes to events, sharing documents and leaving collaborative comments on them creates an ease of access for everyone on the team, making efficiency and strategic planning simple.

Onenote

Onenote offers ease of collaboration within the team environment by providing ways to easily store, categorize, file and colour code information while including the option of adding voice memos to projects as well. It also incorporates a creativity aspect many others don’t, allowing diagrams to be created when needed for team organization.

Todoist

Todoist creates a space where adding tasks to the list is effortless, allowing for recurring due dates and subsections to be built in. It also provides the option to highlight the priority tasks of the day and enhances team organization by providing the ability to delegate and assign tasks to certain members. It seamlessly integrates with your email and current calendar, while providing reminders for scheduled tasks when required.

In a study Microsoft did on their own team, they found that longer meetings were beginning to be replaced, with a firm increase of shorter meetings by 22%!

That’s a big change that brings its own set of challenges, particularly when it comes to effectively taking meeting notes and not missing essential pieces of information in the process!

Meeting notes are the backbone of any meeting, and are the one big thing that holds it all together after it’s been completed.

Benefits of Taking Meeting Notes

Strong meetings notes can have a big impact on the workplace as a whole, as it affects everyone from the chain of command downward. It not only provides the team with the opportunity to remember what happens in the meeting, but it also allows for the organization of information and action by members on the decisions made.

Taking strong notes that are well written is also a great way to gain a higher level of confidence from the rest of the team members and establish excellent leadership skills.

Meeting notes also serve as a clear list of actions the team must take, and allows each member to maintain an understanding of which aspects require their attention and immediate action. This creates a cohesive team guided by the same expectations and supported by the same foundation, ensuring the completed project will meet (and possibly exceed) expectations.

Meeting Notes vs Meeting Minutes

Meeting notes are often confused for meeting minutes, however even though they have some of the same information included in them, they are their own stand-alone document.

The biggest difference between meeting notes and meeting minutes is essentially how they are being used after the meeting is over.

Meeting minutes make up a formal document of the meeting. They are often used to present the previous meetings information at the beginning of the next one and are approved by the chair of the meeting before being presented to those attending.

Meeting notes, however, are informal notes created during the meeting, often including shorthand aspects to allow the taker to get as much information down as possible, and are not subject to an approval process like meeting minutes are.

Overall, the intent of meeting notes and meeting minutes is the same: to document what was discussed during the meeting. It’s their usage that differs.

What Should Meeting Notes Include?

Meeting notes are often shared with the entirety of the team, so there is some essential information that must be included with them.

1. The date of the meeting and a list of all those in attendance.

This will allow everyone to be aware of who was involved in the meeting and clearly recall which meeting these notes are for.

2. The meeting agenda

Anyone who accesses that document at a later date should be able to skim through the agenda listed and deduce if the information they require is in that specific set of meeting notes.

3. The important discussions, questions and final decisions

This will provide clarity and accountability to those affected by those decisions being made, along with some background on why those decisions were made.

4. A shortlist of talking points for the next meeting

This will provide a reference point for the next meeting if there is any crossover between the topics discussed in either of them.

5. Next Steps

A clear way for each member to know exactly what their next steps are in regards to the meeting decisions, and how their assigned role fits into the larger picture.

6. Meeting Summary

A quick portion that shares the main points, big conclusions and essential information for anyone who needs a fast rundown of the meeting.

How Do You Organize Meeting Notes Electronically?

Technology has allowed for a multitude of ways to store and share information between the members of a team. There are many programs to aid in team-sharing for meeting notes that each come with a range of benefits. Four of the most common include:

1. OneNote

A Microsoft program that allows for ease of access for sharing notes and allows for customization. It also provides the ability to include voice memos, making it a great choice for meetings on the go.

2. Google Docs

A great “all-in-one” tool, as you can easily link your notes to calendars and share them within your organization. The functionality allows for ease of use for all members and allows easy collaboration by including a comment option.

3. Evernote

A great program for note-taking and sharing within an organization, but with fewer options for customization than others.

4. Lucid Meetings

A program that allows for the syncing of multiple aspects of team products, including notes, scheduling and attendance.

Something to consider when using any online organizational system is to avoid using folders to organize your documents! When working in a team environment, each member needs to have access to the shared documents and find them with ease. When documents are hidden in folders, it takes more time to find them, essentially creating downtime that could easily be mitigated by attaching the documents to a shared calendar, the notes being directly attached to the meeting event for ease of locating in the future.

As a final takeaway for organization, allow access to those documents for everyone in the workplace. The team at Hugo highlighted the importance of meeting transparency stating “people feel more in-the-know and are comfortable skipping some meetings because the notes provide enough information [and] teams become more aligned and more capable because you have defaulted to proactively sharing information rather than hiding it away in folders.”

Best Tips for Meeting Productivity

Meeting productivity is a topic of great discussion, as it directly impacts the meeting duration, cost, and effectiveness!

In a study by Verizon Business, they broke down how the average person in a meeting spends that time…and it’s not great! They found that “91% daydreamed, 39% slept, 45% felt overwhelmed, 73% did other work, and 47% complained.” Additionally, a survey of 1300 people completed by Beenote discovered that 80% stated they had problems with one or more stages of the meeting process.

What’s more shocking is the costs associated with unproductive meetings. Atlassian.com calculated the salary cost of unnecessary meetings and found it to be $37 Billion in the US alone!

Here are 5 ways meetings can be more productive, according to Forbes:

1. State the objective

This will keep your meeting on track, and allow people to know the exact trajectory!

2. Exclusivity

By only inviting the necessary people and providing the notes to the remainder of the team afterward, it allows those involved to thrive in the meeting, while the rest of the team continues to work on their projects and minimize their time spent in meetings that aren’t directly affecting their current work.

In a study done by Workfront, they found “62% of workers said wasteful meetings got in the way of work [and] said 8% of their week was taken up by unproductive meetings.”

Furthermore, Jeff Bezos of Amazon embraced this strategy and has created a meeting culture that follows what he calls “the two pizza rule” meaning “never have a meeting where two pizzas couldn’t feed the entire group” (Source: Business Insider).

3. Change of scenery

Sitting in the same old office for yet another meeting gets boring quickly. By offering a change of pace, engagement will increase and the meeting will become much more productive. A great way to do this is to implement “walking meetings” where you simply walk together and discuss the points of the meeting. Not only does it offer a welcome change in pace, but exercise is a great way to stimulate the flow of conversation and great ideas. Walking meetings are highly utilized, with even Steve Jobs having been a fan of them during initial meetings with people.

*For note-taking, try a recording app or dictation app that you can access later to create the meeting notes.

4. Meet face to face

In a Microsoft study of 14000 people from 7 different countries, they found that the communication mode that made most people happy was in-person meetings.

Meeting in person allows for interpersonal connections to be made, and also ensures that meetings are only happening during the scheduled workday, uninterrupted and more productive than meetings done via alternative forms.

5. Lead with Purpose

In a study of 757 US workers, Clockwise and SurveyMonkey found that “a well-planned meeting is the number one way to get people excited about going to a meeting [with] 64% of people saying it gets them excited about joining.”

People love clear-cut timelines, and there’s no better way to get that than to plan and lead a meeting with purpose in mind. Knowing exactly what the meeting is for and the end goal will get people on board to attend, both physically and mentally!

We live in an age where the market is flooded with new and budding businesses working to make it big in the corporate world. With so much competition, companies need to step up their workplace morale, and one effective way to do that is to incorporate collaboration wherever possible.

It’s more than just teamwork…

It’s your ticket to long-term success!

What Is Collaboration?

Collaboration in the workplace can easily be described as “when two or more people work together through idea sharing and thinking to accomplish a task” and has been a long-standing foundation of corporate success.

The benefits of collaboration are staggering, however, it seems to be an area many corporations struggle to implement successfully. In fact, research has shown that nearly 75% of employers view collaboration in the workplace as an important aspect of success, but often fail to implement it effectively and review its effectiveness within their organization.

With so few companies following through with collaborative environments, the ones that do truly stand apart and will retain their employees much longer than those that don’t offer collaborative opportunities.

Why Is Collaborating In The Workplace Important?

As an employee health benefit and human resource provider, Gusto discovered that 52% of individuals who took their Employee Happiness Survey would consider quitting their job if collaboration – and the sense of community that comes along with it – was missing from their work environment. Additionally, a survey done by Queens University in Charlotte, found that 39% of the employees felt their workplace didn’t offer enough collaboration.

By not evolving your company to include collaboration in a way that works, you’ll be looking at an alarmingly high turnover rate, and spending an unnecessary amount on retraining new employees to fill those spots on a regular basis.

A study that was completed by Salesforce involved a total of 1400 executives and found that 86% felt there was a direct correlation between project failure and a lack of collaboration.

The missing component of collaboration causes both higher turnover rates AND creates lower rates of project quality (or even project completion) altogether!

Collaborating In The Workplace Benefits Both The Business And The Employees

There have been many studies that have looked at the outcomes of collaboration in the workplace, and it’s been proven time and time again that successful implementation has staggering benefits not only to your business but for your employees as well.

In a study done by Saïd Business School of Oxford University, it was determined that when employees are happy, they become 13% more productive, while a survey by WeWork and Ipsos found that individuals who had collaborative team opportunities were of the most satisfied group of employees and felt it was the best way to boost their careers. By creating a work environment where your employees are provided with a collaborative team to help pull the weight of projects, you allow them to apply their efforts to their areas of strength without the concern of falling short in the rest of the project.

When employees begin working as a team, they’ll build essential skills (such as problem-solving and creativity) that can be created more powerfully through collaboration with others. These skills continue to be developed via the environment the employee is in and more often, the people they are working with, as they will be exposed to a variety of skill sets and experiences.

What Does Collaboration Look Like In The Workplace?

There are 4 main ways you can tell if collaboration is present within a workplace, and they’re a great way to determine if your workplace is implementing collaboration effectively.

1. Communication

Communication is key in any work environment, but when it comes to collaboration, communication becomes non-negotiable. It’s paramount when working in a team.

Communication has a variety of aspects that need to work in harmony if a team is going to find success. These include active listening, written and verbal communication, and non-verbal communication. These all play a vital role in how a member’s message is heard when sharing with the group, and it influences how the team will respond in kind.

When working as a team, it’s imperative that each member is able to communicate effectively in a way that will not only make them feel heard and understood but also allow them to feel confident in sharing their ideas for team consideration.

If communication is lacking, it can have a ripple effect on the entire morale of the team. In a survey completed by Accountemps, they found that 33% of HR managers felt most morale problems were directly related to a breakdown of communication among employees, clearly depicting the importance of communications skills within a team environment.

Any strong team will possess communications skills that are unparalleled, and use them to work cohesively and respectfully with one another.

2. Accountability

When working as a team, accountability can create incredible results…or be devastating for the team’s outcome. The role it will play is inherently up to those members in the team, the standards of the leaders, and the trust they have in one another.

If members struggle to take responsibility for their assigned portion or fail to communicate effectively during essential meetings, it can create an environment where the project will suffer and each team member will begin only taking themselves into consideration. It becomes less of a team atmosphere and more competition amongst each other…which doesn’t bode well for the project they’re sharing.

However, more often than not, teams will develop a deep-rooted trust for one another and become even more engaged with their portion of the project. By working in a collaborative environment, team members have a higher level of engagement in large part due to their respect for their team and knowing their contributions will be a reflection on the team as a whole, and will directly affect the other members. Many people will work harder to produce a high standard of work when it directly relates to others as well.

How accountability influences your company’s collaborative teams rests in how it is introduced and guided from within.

3. Diversity

Diversity is one of the most important factors when considering the members of the collaborative team. It fosters a healthy, well-rounded knowledge base and allows for a variety of skill sets for the team.

In a recent post by Forbes, they shared their companies outlook in regards to collaboration, stating “we employ a cross-section of people of different generations and experience levels, we encourage multiple points of view to be expressed without judgement and stress the importance of teamwork.”

Only certain people can bring certain aspects to a team, making diversity the only way to ensure you have a team that can bring high calibre projects home that honor the differences individuals experience. In an interview with Salesforce, Elaine Welteroth, the first Black beauty and health director at Teen Vogue said of leaders that “while you, as an individual, do not need to reflect the diversity of the world and you won’t deeply understand the complex issues facing every kind of community – it is your responsibility to hire for your blind spots by making sure your team is reflective of the world.”

Creating your team with intention, and allowing space for a diverse set of outlooks and experiences will help shape the final product of any project.

4. Appreciation

Employee appreciation is becoming more and more important in the workforce. People want to know their work is being noticed, and they want reassurance that what they’re doing is great. Without that, companies risk an increased turnover rate in employees or a decrease in productivity and quality of work.

Based on a 10 year study, the O.C. Tanner Learning Group found that of all employees who quit their jobs, 79% listed the key reason for their departure as a lack of appreciation, and 65% reported that over the last year, they weren’t recognized by their company once.

These stats give us a very clear insight into the importance appreciation plays in the workplace. When employees feel their efforts won’t be noticed, they feel as if their work (and inherently themselves) aren’t valuable members. Simple acts of appreciation can create a healthier, happier work environment for all.

The 5 Pillars to Creating Successful Collaboration

1. Team Building

In our recent blog 7 Super-Effective Ways to Boost Employee Morale, we discussed the importance of team building and the positive effects it can have on your company. By creating an environment where your employees are working together towards a common goal, you are effectively removing the pressure from your employees to create something amazing on their own. When you allow them the opportunity to work to their strengths, while other members of the team complete the other aspects that are more well suited to their abilities, each member of the team will enjoy their jobs more and provide them with the opportunity to produce a higher caliber of work.

According to British Council’s Business Magazine, “working together as a team allows people to achieve things that could never be done by just one person…people who are collaborating on tasks stay interested for longer, feel less tired and get better results than people working alone.”

2. Communication Development

In a survey done by Queens University of Charlotte, they found that communication training was provided to 27% of participants, and it was nearly only those individuals who felt confident in their communication abilities at work.

The development of communication skills is essential for all teams, as it will set the foundation for how they navigate their professional relationship and their ability to collaborate together successfully. Communication is at the base of every team, and developing their ability to do so effectively will set them up for success, and also create a work environment that is comfortable and respectful for each member.

3. Small Project Groups

Research has shown that when a team grows beyond 20 members, there is a clear regression in collaboration. This naturally occurs when so many lines of communication are open at once for a single project. With too many various ideas and opinions, it’s hard to settle on a common direction for the project.

Smaller teams can get more in-depth and create a clear line of communication, allowing every member’s ideas to be heard and considered. This fosters a more intimate work environment, allowing the team to dive deeper into the project and provides an atmosphere where members can work to their own personal strengths and come together to review and revise to create a cohesive outcome that is hard to beat.

4. Clear Communication of Expectations

No team can thrive without a clear list of expectations. By knowing the exact outcome a team is looking for, they can work backwards from it and create a roadmap for the members to navigate in respect to their position in the project.

A clear list of expectations minimizes confusion throughout the timeline of the project, and can mitigate any disagreements between team members as they arise by referencing the expectations document that was agreed upon at the start of the project.

Having clear communication is essential in helping each member understand their role and the common outcome, so they can create a final product that flows seamlessly together.

5. Judgement-Free Idea Sharing

In a workplace equality and values report by Salesforce, they discovered that “employees are more productive when they feel they belong, are heard, and are able to be their authentic self at work” stating that from their survey they found 75% of employees who felt a sense of belonging at their company were empowered to perform their best work.

Being able to speak freely and respectfully, while knowing your team will listen and respond in kind, greatly increases the number of ideas provided and is directly related to the quality of work that can be created by each team member, while fostering a healthy and enjoyable work atmosphere for the team.

Creating an environment where employees have the freedom to share ideas without concern for judgement, provides a workplace culture where idea sharing begins to thrive and produce higher quality work.

An added benefit is that brainstorming with others opens the mind to perspectives that may not have been considered before and could not have been without first being exposed to it via another member of the team. It teaches each member of the team new ways to think when presented with future problems, making it easy to surpass previous project goals and aim higher.

Regular meetings play a large part in how a team comes together to problem-solve, appreciate one another’s contributions, and make aligned decisions.

However, if a meeting is not run well, it can have lasting effects on employee motivation and productivity.

As leaders of these meetings, it’s important to understand what causes bad meetings, the long-term effects it can have on everyone involved, and how to expertly conduct the discussion in a way that saves time and boosts morale.

What Are The Causes of a Bad Meeting?

When a team has an unproductive meeting, everyone in the room can feel it. The energy is low. Not everyone is engaged or interested in contributing meaningfully to the discussion. And as a result, it’s unclear whether the group came to a resolution. There are a number of reasons why meetings can become ineffective and a drain on valuable time and energy. According to SHRM.org, here are the most common meeting problems for employees.

• Starting or ending late – Starting a meeting late, or ending well after the allotted time, can set the tone for the rest of the meeting. Most people leave the conversation feeling like their time wasn’t respected.
• Unnecessary meetings – These are the meetings that could have been handled in an email or in separate conversations with the right people instead of unnecessarily pulling together the entire team.
• Too much time, not enough time – Understanding the purpose of the meeting is important in deciding how much time is needed to get efficient results.
• Employees appear distracted – This is a sign that some members of the team are not being engaged enough by the conductor of the meeting and are openly distracted by whatever else is around them.
• Employees interrupt each other – These are behaviors as a result of a poorly run meeting that eventually leads to tense arguments and awkward silences.
• Not sticking to an agenda or no agenda – A disorganized meeting makes everyone question the very purpose behind the conversation and why they’re even included in the first place.
• Employee/Facilitator not prepared – This makes a meeting appear sloppy, hastily put together, and unimportant.

What Are The Consequences of a Poorly Run Meeting?

Running an effective meeting means more than just keeping people focused on the topic. It’s about fostering the growth of an employee so they can fully step into their role and feel like a valued member of the team. Ultimately, it’s a key piece of the company’s culture.

But if the group is not set up for success, having consistently bad meetings can produce consequences that affect the individual, team, and even leadership.

Let’s take a look at the consequences of badly run meetings:

• Less time devoted to important tasks – More time is spent being in meetings rather than on actual work tasks, which can create a backlog on critical assignments.
• Disrupts workflow and concentration – Unnecessary meetings can break concentration and reduce productivity as a result of constant task switching. In fact, Meeting Recovery Syndrome refers to the period that employees need to mentally recover from a bad meeting.
• Increases burnout and frustration– Back-to-back meetings — especially with most of the world transitioning to a largely remote capacity — can lead to increased stress and exhaustion amongst participants, especially if the goals of the meetings are unclear and remain unresolved (Source: CNBC.com).
• Reveals dysfunction – Bad meetings can be a symptom of deeper issues within the company and its culture as it can be made abundantly clear who is doing more, who is doing less, etc. which creates feelings of resentment amongst the staff (Source: Forbes).
• Wastes money – On average, the U.S. spends about $37 billion on salary costs for unnecessary meetings (Source: Atlassian.com). This affects a company’s bottom line and its ability to have continued success.

7 Ways To Improve the Way We Run Our Meetings

Now that we understand how poorly run meetings can have a major impact on a company’s culture, work output, and employee morale, let’s dive into some of the most compelling methods that can help turn a bad meeting into one that engages and motivates.

Tip #1 To Run a Meeting Effectively: Know The Purpose of Your Meeting

A meeting has to have a single objective in mind, and the way towards this destination must be clear for everyone who is expected to contribute to the discussion. One of the best ways to plan a meeting is to first understand the difference between a meeting’s topic vs. its purpose.

According to Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, a topic is defined as “the subject of a discourse.” Whereas the definition of a purpose is “something set up as an object or end to be attained.”

So, when we apply this to our internal meetings, we need to identify:

• What is the topic of discussion? For example, “Weekly check-in meeting” or “Discuss new workflow process.” As topics, these titles work just fine, but for the purpose of the meeting, they’re considerably vague. Your team is going to want more detail than just the name of the topic in order to be better prepared.
• What is the purpose of the meeting? The more specific we are with the end goal, the easier it will be to form an effective agenda. Using our prior example with “weekly check-in meetings”, the purpose of these particular meetings would be to come up with resolutions for each identified problem that employees find during the workweek.

Tip #2 To Run a Meeting Effectively: Remove Ambiguity

63% of meetings are still conducted without an agenda (Source: ReadyTalk.com). This means that most people come unprepared to their meetings and are unable to participate effectively. In order to run an efficient meeting, create a plan that paves the path towards the end goal. Putting together an agenda is a great way to set expectations and provides an opportunity to get ready for the discussion in advance.

According to the HR Daily Advisor, an agenda is critical for meetings as it avoids being an extra cost to a company’s resources when participants show up unprepared.

Agendas are beneficial for a few other key reasons:

• Saves valuable time
• Keeps everyone focused
• Gets the right people in the room
• Increases productivity
• Reminds the conductor of what else needs to be covered with the team

If the agenda is framed in questions, this could help zero in on who really needs to be there and what answers are needed.

After an agenda is created, circulate the materials a few days before the meeting to all the relevant individuals who are considered mandatory participants. Give them ample time to review the contents and ask any clarifying questions. This will also give the key players time to contribute to the agenda, leading to well-rounded and thoughtful talking points.

Tip #3 To Run a Meeting Effectively: Assign roles

Everyone should have a role. Not only does this ensure that everyone is actively engaged, but it also improves the dynamic of the meeting so that the entire team can get through the agenda in a timely manner.

There are four critical roles that should be present in every meeting:

• The Timekeeper – In this role, the Timekeeper will make sure that each action item is discussed within an allotted amount of time to keep the meeting going at a good pace. The leader of the meeting may be too busy facilitating to keep track of time.
• The Notetaker – Someone on the team should be dedicated to taking notes so that everyone can contribute without having to worry about missing any crucial details. Any conclusions or next steps as a result of the discussion will be routed to everyone at the end.
• The Participant(s) – These are the individuals presenting their expertise on the subject and any important insights that help the team arrive at a decision.
• The Leader – The leader is the facilitator and ensures that everyone is heard and has had a chance to speak and voice their thoughts. This role will also reiterate key points and conclude the meeting with clear next steps.

In order to get a better picture of how to run the meeting and get the best outcome, it’s important to know your team and their individual strengths.

Tip #4 To Run a meeting Effectively: Be a Good Host and Lead With Purpose

Because meetings are such an integral part of the workplace — on average 62 meetings are attended per month by most employees — it’s no wonder that bad meetings can have a significant impact on employee morale! (Source: Atlassian.com)

We strive to nurture an employee culture of compassion, respect, and honesty, yet we also want to cultivate a high-performing team that is solution-focused. This means that the way we run meetings must also reflect these values.

As the facilitator of the meeting, it’s your job to help everyone feel welcomed and appreciated from the beginning.

Once you have created an encouraging atmosphere, you can then establish clear rules and expectations for the rest of the meeting:

• State the purpose
• Do a quick, high-level overview of the agenda
• Be clear with the outcome that needs to be achieved
• Address how questions will be answered (whether that’d be at the end or throughout the meeting)

It’s also important to keep in mind that “COVID fatigue” has affected a large amount of the workforce. Virtual meetings have increased dramatically since the start of the pandemic. And as many companies consider a full transition into a fully virtual or hybrid workforce, “Zoom fatigue” can be a real issue as more people are left feeling even more exhausted and irritated than ever before.

Running a meeting during a pandemic means understanding that the participants will be experiencing a heavier cognitive load, according to Stanford News. They’ll be occupied with things that are normally absent during in-person meetings:

• Focusing on what they look like while they video conference
• Making more effort with nonverbal cues to communicate that you agree/disagree with something
• Misinterpreting nonverbal cues
• Staying in the same spot so that they’re centered in the video frame
• Trouble identifying where to look on the screen

While we still have many challenges to tackle when it comes to our virtual meetings, we can use this as an opportunity to practice leading with compassion and keeping the meetings concise.

Tip #5 To Run a Meeting Effectively: Make Timekeeping a Priority.

Start and end a meeting on time. Every meeting may have a few stragglers, but that doesn’t mean the meeting should be held until they arrive or waste precious time trying to catch everyone up on what they’ve missed.

This can be detrimental to the productivity of the group as it’s already off to a bad start or needs to be constantly interrupted.

Instead, plan to dedicate the first few minutes to an activity such as an ice-breaker or informal check-in so that everyone has a chance to speak and loosen up before they dive into the essence of the agenda. This will also provide a window for late-comers to settle in without missing vital information.

To save time as the meeting progresses, any off-topic items or questions that come up can be sidelined. Acknowledge that it’s an essential point to go over and will be evaluated for discussion at the next meeting.

End the meeting at its scheduled time by letting everyone know that you want to respect the time they reserved for this discussion and recap any conclusions. If you can even end the meeting early, the better!

Tip #6 To Run a Meeting Effectively: Conclude With Next Steps or a Clear Decision

As the meeting draws to a close, it’s important to open up the floor to the team:

• How is everyone feeling about the resolution or proposed next steps?
• Do they have any final questions or comments?

More than 35% of employees feel like they have nothing to show after wasting at least 2 to 5 hours in meetings per day, according to Otter.ai.

Use the last few minutes of the meeting as a way to optimize the entire time by clarifying key takeaways, responsibilities, action items, and what will follow afterward.

The goal is to have the team leave the meeting feeling accomplished and clear on the next steps.

Tip #7 To Run a Meeting Effectively: Evaluate Meetings

Gathering feedback on meetings is another way to intentionally include your team and gain valuable insight into how they’re going.

This is an opportunity to get a temperature check on what’s going well, what isn’t working, and what could be improved to fix any gaps in communication. The key here is to not take any criticism personally. It’s not a reflection of your abilities as a host or as a leader.

Based on their thoughts, you can then try new and creative ways of engaging the team, being clearer with your expectations, and refining your methods to run efficient meetings.