Does your team come into the office on a Sunday evening whining and dreading about the Monday morning routine? Starting a new week can be tiring and stressful. The first day at work seems to be full of troubles. Monday morning meetings add to the stress and frustration for many staff members.
Source: Unsplash Why Are Monday Morning Meetings So Difficult?
Monday syndrome is a term used to describe the negative effects of the start of the work week. Some people feel depressed at the thought of returning to regular work or school. Experts suggest that the Monday blues doesn’t cause stress or depression, but it can affect how a person reacts to outside forces.
Do you get little participation and have people watch the clock to see when the meeting might end? If you feel like you’re not finding love for your Monday morning meetings, there are a few things you can do to make sure people don’t hate at least the idea of them.
1. have a point
Have you ever attended a work meeting and walked away thinking that the topic could have been handled via email? If you don’t have a reason to gather everyone together, don’t. People dread meetings because they are boring and pointless. When you stick to a topic that is helpful or interesting, you grab their attention.
Ask yourself if the message can be inserted into an email. If so, cancel the meeting. Decide whether the topic is urgent or important. If it isn’t, change your focus or don’t meet.
2. Streamline communication in Monday morning meetings
Encourage active listening for employees to understand important elements of the conversation. It’s easy to get carried away in daydreaming, especially when it comes to particularly dry topics like facts and figures.
Teach your employees how to pay attention to important details. Give them paper and pens to take notes, have them lean forward, or have a standing meeting so people aren’t leaving because they’re getting too comfortable.
Make sure your communication style is captivating. Add presentation content, videos, whiteboard content, and brainstorming sessions. An engaged employee gets a lot more out of meeting than she gets.
3. Invite only the major players
Invite only those employees who need to attend the Monday morning meetings. If you’re talking about the latest marketing campaign and how to tweak it, you don’t need Joe from the cleaning department in that particular session. Unless the person has a task to accomplish or a specific set of skills that apply, don’t force them to attend the meeting.
Limit the number of meetings you hold. If you host them too often, they will lose their effectiveness and attractiveness.
4. Reward workers on Monday
Employees love being praised for the hard work they put in. Typically, employers will host a session on Friday where they pass out awards and shout outs. What if you turned things upside down and started offering employee recognition on Mondays?
Monday morning meetings are an excellent time to thank people for their contributions. Encourage a positive company culture by starting the week on a grateful note.
5. Keep It Short
If your meeting lasts longer than ten minutes, you’re probably doing it wrong. You’ve heard of scrum meetings, which get everyone on the same page. The reason employees prefer a shorter meeting is because they don’t feel like they are being taken away from important tasks.
It can be extremely stressful for employees to attend an hour-long meeting when they have work waiting to happen. Keep meetings brief, to the point, and allow people to join them in person or via remote video.
Learn To Love Mondays!
If you come into the office excited about the fresh start of a new week, your employees may pick up on your attitude. Think about what employees enjoy and try to provide a work/life balance that keeps them from dreading Monday mornings. Hold only the meetings you must and make sure they engage participants and keep them interested during small group chats.
Ideally, your employees will wake up on Monday morning refreshed after a weekend of fun. They’ll jump in their transportation and head to the office for a meeting they really enjoy attending. With the right attitude, you can encourage anyone you love with short yet highly effective meetings held each week.
Eleanor is the editor of Designer Magazine. Before becoming her own boss in 2018, Eleanor was the Creative Director and occasional blog writer at a leading digital marketing agency. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dog, Bear.