¶ … staff meeting problems that one manager, Stan Williams, is experiencing. Each month Stan puts together a staff meeting for this company, a company which provides technical services to clients; the meeting is attended by eight professionals. Four of the professionals work in the technical department, three work in sale and marketing and the final professional works in finance. However, these competent individuals generally are not communicating together as adequately as they can in order to create the most harmonious or productive meeting team. For a team with individuals as experienced as they are, one would naturally expect the results and the process of each meeting to be more comprehensive and more cohesive. The problem that this particular meeting group is experiencing is that Stan has thus far been unable to guide the meetings in a harmonious and balanced fashion. This presentation will demonstrate how Stan needs to better conduct the meetings and how he needs to allow more of the professionals to share their opinions, not just the sales and marketing staff. The client has a clear and obvious interest in following the arguments and recommendations made in this presentation because it will offer a concerted analysis about the given situation along with a clear breakdown of what needs to be done in order to rectify it, so that the professionals on this team can work to their full potential and use the meetings as a springboard for aggravated success.

Analysis

As stated already, one of the overwhelming problems with this particular team of professionals in the meeting is that there is an absence of clear, engaging direction. All team members are aware of the task, which is to share and discuss the most pertinent agenda and to follow the guidelines set forth by Stan. The team lacks engaging and specific direction from the team...

The team is communicating in a sloppy and disconnected fashion because there's no clear sense of balance. While Stan might be adept at planning the agenda, he needs to exert a greater level of responsibility at making sure that all members have a chance to talk and to be heard. Sometimes this is going to mean that Stan will need to be more aggressive: he will need to put some of the technical professionals on the spot, and reach out to them directly, asking for their thoughts and opinions.
Another clear manifestation of the lack of communication and the absence of an organized spirit of collaboration is via the fact that half the people at the meeting are rolling their eyes at the imbalance of communication. This demonstrates a team which lacks mutual respect and cohesiveness. This shows a team of people sitting at a meeting where a cavalier attitude is being demonstrated, where some members don't feel heard, where resentment is building and where the agenda is constantly being derailed.

Stan is indeed under great pressure to demonstrate that this team can work and engage with one another in an effective manner. However, before Stan crumbles under the pressure, he needs to be able to show real leadership and to impart his team members with concerted steps and objectives. Fundamentally, the team is failing because their leader is failing them. By not being specific, the leader is failing to empower the members of the team. "Leaders who give power to others can be very influential and motivating. When leaders use their power to help others accomplish great things, people often want to work very hard for them. When you empower someone, you're essentially saying that you trust that person. When people…