Why Using Daily Huddles in your Consulting Practice Matter
Imagine this. You’ve woken up lacking motivation and energy for the day. You head into the dining room – and there’s your family, gathered around the table, sharing breakfast.
They are discussing the day ahead, the challenges they may face and the goals they hope to achieve.
You share your emotions and feel seen and heard.
You’re supported.
You belong.
This infectious energy turns your mood around and you leave that family breakfast feeling connected and supported for the day ahead.
When it comes to your practice, a daily huddle is a lot like sharing breakfast with your family. When you run it effectively, it can lead to feelings of connection, belonging, and growth. That you actually care and that has a huge amount of value for your team.
What is a daily huddle?
A daily huddle is just a colloquially way to refer to a daily check-in meeting for your team. But it is widely acknowledged to be a system for communicating expectations for the day, giving feedback, answering questions and measuring the progress of a team’s work.
In general, it lets you review what happened yesterday and plan for what’s expected to happen today.
Why do we need daily huddles?
We’ve all seen the amusing, ‘this meeting could have been an email’ meme.
It went viral because so many of us can relate. Far too often, we feel like we’re wasting our time sitting in a meeting that leads nowhere. But that’s generally because the meetings themselves are inefficient and poorly handled.
On the other hand, an efficient and useful meeting can make a huge difference for you and your staff. Meetings are vital for leaders striving to keep people connected during times of growth and change. And they are equally important for people who need support and answers so they can do their job to the best of their capabilities.
If your team don’t know what’s expected of them, they simply can’t fulfil those expectations.
Research shows that globally, only about 50% of the workforce clearly understands what is expected of them. Lack of clarity leads to losses in productivity, motivation and focus.
Having clear expectations is a vital part of helping your team to take initiative and to become high performers. And the daily huddle is a fantastic way to check in with your team and convey your expectations.
Achieve higher performance
I recently met with a client, Amy (not her real name, but a true story) who was telling me she was unhappy with a new member of her team and thinking of letting her go. Even after 90 days with this employee, she was only rating her at a three out of 10 in terms of her performance. After that long, a new team member would ideally be around a six or a seven.
So, I asked the client, ‘How often are you meeting with her?’
She replied that she was speaking with them briefly about once a week. So, over those 90 days, she’d connected with her new staff member 12 times. However, if she had conducted daily huddles, she would have had more than 60 opportunities to connect with her.
More than 60 opportunities to convey her expectations. More than 60 opportunities to give feedback. And more than 60 opportunities to help her employees take initiative.
And that would have led to higher performance from her new team member.
What’s worse is if she decided to terminate her, she will go through the process all over again losing valuable time, energy and money. Equally, how would you feel as a new team member for your new boss not having time to meet with you? They’re not going to feel like they are valued or that you care, even though you probably do, it’s just that you’re so busy. And this is the whole reason you brought them on, right?
Better time management
When I suggested that she switch to daily huddles in order to help her employee thrive, she was initially very reluctant. She told me that she simply didn’t have enough time in the workday to conduct a daily huddle. She had clients to see and workshops to set up. A daily meeting just felt like too much.
But I told her that all she really needed was just 15 minutes. The important thing is fitting it in every single day.
We brainstormed when she could possibly fit them in and found that she could conduct a daily huddle on the drive to her workshops. Because by managing her own time to fit into the daily meeting, she was also demonstrating to her staff how to manage their time to accomplish their tasks. And by setting expectations, they became better at managing their time and focusing on the important things each day.
Manage change
Being able to onboard a new team member is like running a relay. One person is running with the baton ready to meet the next runner and the next runner is running ahead of them ready to sprint. As the first runner gets closer and closer, the second runner is starting to get ready and when that baton changes hands, they sprint.
Until a new team member is up to speed, they will be running behind you. You’ll be carrying them and lag can feel slow heavy and laborious. The more nurturing their development in the first 90 days, the soon that runner will catch up to the baton and can sprint.
The goal is to close the gap between you and your team member as soon as you can so they can even run past you and are working ahead of you instead of behind.
As Leadership expert and New York Times best-selling author Oliver Demille says:
“Great teachers and schools expect and nurture quality work and quality performance. Great teachers inspire and demand quality, ever urging their students to higher levels of excellence. They shun mere conformity and expect their students to think and perform to their ever-increasing potential.”
You need your team
The daily huddle gives you your chance to really bring your team online into your practice. And that can only mean more success for each of your team members, you and your practice overall.
Steps
If you want to run an effective daily huddle, you must set the standard and lead with excellence. Consider sharing the following expectations with your team:
Come prepared for the meeting, including any questions they might have. This encourages more productivity.
Expect to be asked what the focus is for the day ahead.
Be prepared to receive feedback and coaching.
I'd love to hear your thoughts.