No Issues Is An Issue

Ever walk into your Level 10 Meetings™ or quarterly planning meetings and hear someone say, “I don’t think we have any issues”? If so, you’ve found yourself on a slippery slope to mediocrity. No issues is an issue where you’ll need to improve meeting engagement.

Have your meetings become routine? Does your team look to you as the source of substance for the agenda? If so, consider some questions to better serve yourself and your company.

Encourage Healthy Conflict Within Your Team

The best teams and the best companies in the world thrive because of healthy conflict. This type of conflict isn’t mean-spirited and doesn’t involve personal attacks.

This type of conflict results from passionate debates about finding the “right” answer. It fosters strong conversations in search of the truth. Healthy conflict focuses on ideas, opportunities, points of friction, and making team processes or the business better.

Healthy conflict inherently means you have more engagement in your meetings.

Creating More Engagement in Your Level 10 Meetings

If you have few or no issues, consider the list of questions below in preparation for your meetings. Prepare for more engagement:

1. What causes friction? (pain/problems/getting in the way)
2. What or who ticks you off?
3. What could we do more effectively?
4. What are we avoiding?
5. What would act as a game-changer for our team/business?
6. How could we improve our processes?
7. What could we do if we had unlimited resources (time, energy, people, money)?
8. Where could I (our team/department/company) improve most?
9. What skills/competencies do we lack?
10. Who should we work with that we don’t currently work with?
11. What needs are underserved in our market?
12. Where are we underutilized?
13. Where are we at capacity?
14. What needs to change to exceed our goals?
15. What professional development do I/we need to grow into our future?

You Don’t Need to Have Boring Meetings

Don’t suffer through a boring meeting. Push your team to have open and honest conversations with the greater good of the organization in mind.

It’s an honor to be on a team. Every person needs to come prepared to add value, or eventually, you may no longer need them at the table.

As an old proverb says: “If you can’t change the people around you, change the people around you.” For more great tips on leading strong teams, download a free chapter of How to Be a Great Boss.

This post originally appeared on the Yess! blog.