The One Type of Team Meeting You Probably Aren’t Hosting In Your Bookkeeping or Accounting Firm (But Should!)
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As a bookkeeping business owner, you’re going to find yourself in a leadership position (even before you actually hire a team!). It’s a fun journey to start a business, scale, build a team, become a leader, and potentially even remove yourself from the business, leaving the operations to your well-trained team members.
But how do you get to that point exactly?
A LOT of it has to do with how you run your team once you have one! Having an open line of communication with each team member is crucial. So using something like Slack for daily check-ins and team wins is perfect (which is why we use it!).
And you might even run weekly team meetings to brief the whole team on what's happening in the company — which is something we highly recommend!
In this blog, we're going to explore another option that'll help you level up your team's success, your leadership skills, AND your communication.
It's all about layering in 1:1 weekly (or biweekly) meetings with team members. This technique has completely changed the game of how we operate as a team and how we create opportunities for our team members. Keep reading to learn exactly how you can implement this in your firm, too!
How To Structure Weekly 1:1 Team Calls
Since hosting these calls, we've seen HUGE improvements in the way our team communicates and works together. Because there are some things that you'll never know if you never ask, right? So we've structured these meetings to be a safe space for our team members to come with questions, goals, and concerns they may want to share.
1:1 Team Member Calls ARE...
A safe place to share concerns and ask questions
An opportunity to get coaching on how to handle a situation
The chance to set goals and make plans for professional and personal growth
During our weekly calls, we love to ask our team members what they'd like to achieve OUTSIDE of work as well as within the company. Sometimes these conversations give me ideas for ways I can create an incentive for hitting certain goals or change someone's scope of work to better fit their capacity. This is also a great time to learn what your team members expect out of their future at the company! You might be able to give them different tasks to help position them for success.
Pro tip: When you're coaching team members through a "What do I do if..." situation, don't just give them the answer and move on! Have them talk through their thought process and guide them toward the right answer. If needed, you can also explain your thought process around how to come to a decision.
1:1 Team Member Calls Are NOT...
Training calls to answer questions that could be answered in Slack, email, or found in other resources
An unstructured hang or coffee chat
To get the most out of these calls, it's best to have a schedule to follow and to come prepared. If your team member knows what to expect before the call, they can have their questions and other information ready to go instead of having to think of something on the spot!
How To Make The Most Of Your 1:1 Team Member Calls
We use Notion to house practically everything information-related in our business, and we teach our Breakthrough students to do the same! But it really doesn't matter where to store the data, as long as you're keeping track of it somewhere.
We highly recommend using some form of this structure when you're hosting regular 1:1 team member meetings:
Have a plan. Create a shared agenda (in Notion, Google Docs, etc.) so that you and the team member can stay on track and take notes during the call.
Press record. Recording the call is important in case there are any coaching moments or important topics that need to be revisited later. Keep these recordings secure and only available to management and the team member involved.
Ask questions. At the beginning of each quarter, we ask each team member: What are your financial goals? What are your personal goals? What are your goals for this company?
We actually borrowed these quarterly questions from our biz bestie Serena Shoup, CPA over at The Ambitious Bookkeeper. With her permission of course 😉 and we LOVE the connection they help us build with our team!
Let's say you have a team member who shares that their goal for the company is to move into a management role, but they're not sure how to do that. Even if that's not an option right now, you can keep them in mind when you have opportunities to train or add them to projects that could develop them further.
The info you can get from these calls is sooo invaluable as long as you're approaching them strategically!
How To Start Hosting 1:1 Calls With Team Members
So, how do you know if hosting these additional weekly (or biweekly) meetings is necessary for your firm? It's easy to get wrapped up in all the stuff going on between client work, marketing, closing new clients, setting up systems, etc. We get it!
Keep in mind that it might be tough to require 1:1 meetings with your contractors. If it’s important to you, it can’t hurt to ask if they’d be willing to hop on a weekly call! If you have employees, I recommend you make them mandatory and on a regular basis like weekly or bi-weekly.
1:1 meetings with team members don't have to be long. Sometimes even a 20-minute call is enough to check in, hear them out, and coach them through a question. Especially if you have a structure in place, you can keep the call moving and always know what to cover.
If you feel like you don't have time as the business owner to host these meetings, I challenge you to consider two things:
Can you find at least 30 minutes per team member per week? It might be easier than you think, and it's usually SUPER valuable when you consider how much you learn from them! If you find that weekly is too much, that’s OK and instead you can transition to bi weekly!
Do you have a team member in a management role? This person could run the meetings in your place! Or you could develop an existing team member to take on that role in the future.
You don't need to add these meetings into your weekly routine if you're confident in your team's communication already OR if you're working with a single contractor and a handful of clients. It's ultimately up to you if you think they're worth it!
Did you know that we actually have a group coaching program dedicated specifically to teaching firm owners (just like you!) our tried and true strategies for running team meetings, hosting 1:1 meetings, team management, implementing systems, and streamlining operations? Just to name a few!
Inside our program, Breakthrough for Bookkeepers & Accountants, you're getting access to so many valuable resources, trainings, templates, and industry experts. Not to mention the OTHER incredible people in the program. It's our highest touch, and most transformational offer yet. Are you ready?
