Does your team end Sunday evening with groans and dread of the upcoming Monday morning routines at the office? Starting a new week can be exhausting and stressful. The first day back at work seems to be riddled with problems. Monday morning meetings add to the stress and frustration for many staff members.
Why Are Monday Morning Meetings So Difficult?
Monday syndrome is the term to describe the negative effects of the beginning of the work week. Some people feel down thinking about returning to a routine at work or school. Experts suggest that Monday blues don’t cause stress or depression but can impact how the person responds to outside forces.
Do you get little participation and people watching the clock to see when the meeting might end? If you feel you aren’t getting the love for Monday morning meetings you’d like, there are some things you can do to ensure people at least don’t hate the idea of them.
1. Have a Point
Have you ever attended a work meeting and walked away thinking the topic could have been handled via an email? If you don’t have a reason to gather everyone together, then don’t. People dread meetings because they are boring and pointless. When you stick to a topic that is helpful or interesting, then you grab their attention.
Ask yourself if the message can be put in an email. If so, cancel the meeting. Decide whether the topic is urgent or important. If it is not, shift your focus or don’t meet.
2. Streamline Communication at Monday Morning Meetings
Encourage active listening to ensure employees understand the important elements of the conversation. It’s easy to drift off into a daydream, particularly during particularly dry topics such as facts and figures.
Teach your employees how to pay attention to the crucial details. Provide them with paper and pens to take notes, have them lean forward or conduct a standing meeting so people aren’t zoning out because they’re too comfortable.
Make sure your communication style is captivating. Add presentation materials, videos, whiteboard material and brainstorming sessions. An engaged employee gets a lot more out of the meeting than a disengaged one.
3. Invite Only Key Players
Invite only employees who need to be at Monday morning meetings. If you’re talking about the latest marketing campaign and how to tweak it, you probably don’t need Joe from the cleaning department in that particular session. Unless the person has a task to complete or a specialized set of skills that apply, don’t force them into a meeting.
Limit the number of meetings you hold. If you host them too frequently, they’ll lose their effectiveness and appeal.
4. Reward Workers on Mondays
Employees love to be praised for the hard work they’ve done. Typically, employers will host a session on a Friday where they pass out awards and give 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 off on a thankful note.
5. Keep It Short
If your meeting lasts more than ten minutes, you’re probably doing it wrong. You’ve heard of scrum meetings, which get everyone on the same page. The reason staff love a short meeting is that they don’t feel they’re being kept from vital tasks.
It can be extremely stressful for employees to attend an hour-long meeting when they have work waiting for them. Keep the meetings short, to the point and allow people to attend them in-person or via remote video.
Learn to Love Mondays!
If you come into the office excited about a fresh start to a new week, your employees could catch your attitude. Think about what workers enjoy and strive to offer the 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 throughout the short group chat.
Ideally, your workers will wake up Monday morning after a refreshing weekend of fun. They’ll jump into their transportation and rush to the office for a meeting they truly enjoy attending. With the right attitude, you can encourage anyone to love the short and highly effective meetings you hold each week.
Eleanor is editor of Designerly Magazine. Eleanor was the creative director and occasional blog writer at a prominent digital marketing agency before becoming her own boss in 2018. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dog, Bear.
