How to Host Productive Team Meetings in Your Bookkeeping or Accounting Firm
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If you’ve ever run a team meeting and ended the Zoom call thinking, “What did we even talk about for an hour?”, this blog is for you.
Running team meetings in your firm isn’t a new idea. But we know from experience that there’s absolutely a way to run your team meetings and get stuff DONE instead of wondering what you’ve actually accomplished by the end.
Your team meetings CAN be productive if you use the right approach and keep efficiency in mind.
In this blog, we’re chatting about the best way to establish a process for running team meetings by:
Having a plan before the meeting starts (instead of winging it)
Getting everyone at the meeting involved in the conversation
Turning the meeting into a resource
Creating action steps and following up on them
I LOVE showing behind the scenes footage of our team meetings on Instagram, go see for yourself!
Ready to run productive team meetings that you and your team actually WANT to attend? Let’s dive in!
Start With an Agenda
Before each meeting, create an agenda to outline exactly what you plan to cover. This gives the meeting a structure so that, even if it gets derailed, you can refer to it and get everyone back on track.
Keep in mind: You don’t necessarily have to be the one to create the agenda and run the meeting! If you have an Operations Manager or Account Manager, this person would likely be able to run your team meetings.
We find it best to schedule team meetings at the same time every week so the team knows what to expect and can establish a routine. Your meetings don’t have to be this frequent, just keep it consistent! Choose a day and time that’s convenient and typically not too busy.
Obviously, life happens and you’ll need to shift it once in a while! You can even schedule them on your calendar for the whole year ahead so you don’t have to worry about it again until next year. Convenient!
Determine Who Will Attend
You might want to establish some roles for the attendees of your team meeting to create an even smoother process. If you’re team’s smaller, someone may need to assume more than one role!
Examples of Meeting Roles:
Lead Unicorn 🦄 - this person’s in charge of running the team meeting and making sure it stays on track with the agenda
Timekeeper ⏱️ - this person keeps track of how long the meeting should last, and periodically keeps everyone aware of the time
Note Wizard 🧙♂️ - takes minutes or notes (whatever you like to call them) of what goes on during the meeting, and make them accessible to everyone in a shared document
Task Queen 👑 - anytime an action step comes out of the meeting discussion, this person will create a new task to be assigned after the meeting’s over
Lean into your team members’ strengths when you’re handing out meeting roles for the best results!
Now it’s time to invite people to your team meeting! We recommend making these meetings mandatory for all employees to attend.
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Inviting Contractors to Meetings
Something we hear often is that firm owners worry about asking their contractors to attend their team meetings. Of course, you can’t make team meetings mandatory for a team member unless they are an employee.
But something to consider is this: If a contractor doesn’t want to come to your team meeting, is that someone that you want to work with?
It really depends on what you expect in your firm, so there is no right or wrong answer here! It can’t hurt to ask your contractor to attend the meeting, especially if they handle certain clients that you’ll need to discuss.
Encourage Team Collaboration
Consider passing the baton to someone on your team that you see as a potential leader to give them a chance to build that skill.
In your agenda, include a space for everyone to give an update based on their role in the company. A great example of this would be to give everyone three minutes to update the status of the clients they are currently working with.
By encouraging all meeting attendees to have their moment in the spotlight, you’ll improve company culture and their individual confidence.
Your team meetings should be a space where everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts!
Be open to hearing feedback and ideas from everyone at the meeting. Imagine what great ideas someone could be hiding! This is the best way to bring them out into the open and collaborate.
Document the Meeting
All team meetings are an incredible resource and wealth of information. But they’re useless if you don’t record them to reference again in the future!
Our team re-watches Zoom recordings of our meetings ALL THE TIME to refresh on some details or take action on something we may have discussed.
You and your team can get so much value from recording and taking thorough notes for each meeting. Plus, it helps anyone who wasn’t able to make a meeting so they can go back and get caught up.
Create Action Steps
If you can believe it , we actually have an Asana project that houses any tasks that we create during team meetings. This project is super simple! We just use it in the list view, and create a new task as needed during the meeting.
When the meeting is over, a team member will go in and assign each task a due date so we can keep track of them.
Follow Up
At your next meeting, it’s a great idea to follow up with any tasks that aren’t complete or address any issues that came up. Yes, the tasks have due dates, but sometimes the due date is more of a guideline (depending on the task) so you may need to discuss it further.
Prepare to Adjust
Once you’ve ran a few team meetings like this, evaluate if they are actually productive or if you need to make adjustments.
Do you need to increase or decrease the meeting length?
Are the meeting notes detailed enough to reference later?
Does your team respond well to their role in the meeting or do you need to shift them?
As your team grows and changes, expect your meeting agenda and structure to change with it! It’s totally normal to adjust your processes as your firm grows (in fact, it’s encouraged!).
If you really want to run team meetings like a boss (or have someone on your team do it), we’ve got INCREDIBLE resources for doing just that.
In our group coaching program, Breakthrough for Bookkeepers & Accountants, we’ll spill all of our secrets on how to run the most efficient and productive team meetings for your firm.
You’ll learn how to use team meetings to set the tone for the week and make your team EXCITED to come to work, all while getting work done and building a crucial bond.
This is alllll just a small part of our Empowered Company Culture module of the program.
Level up your firm with this high-touch program designed specifically for bookkeepers and accountants who want to build deep internal systems and create the streamlined firm of their dreams.
