You’ve heard it a million times before: always make a good impression. Great advice, right? It’s time to do the same with your kickoff meetings. Start with a bang. Come out swinging. Now’s not the time to hold back. Anything less than kickass and you’re doing it wrong. How do you make it kickass? We’re glad you asked. Here are our 5 key kickass elements to invigorate a kickoff meeting:
1. Awareness – Right off the bat establish awareness. This is key. You don’t want a disconnected kickoff from the get-go. Quickly make it known why you are where you are at this point in time. Remember, clarity is important.
2. Acknowledgement – This is your recap. What you have done. It includes all of your success stories, and even times that maybe you missed the mark. It’s imperative to own your wins as well as your losses; always keeping in mind that being reflective will make you stronger as a team and as an organization.
3. Appreciation – Now’s the time to bask in the glory of your accomplishments. Everyone has hard fought victories, and they’re important to recognize and appreciate to help grow as a team. Be sure to highlight specific all-stars who really knocked the ball out of the park, too. But, as we said before, you have to own the losses too. You’ve probably heard it said, “Your past mistakes are meant to guide you, not define you,” and we really believe that.
4. Acceptance – Here you have to keep moving forward. Don’t let the wind out of your sails. You have to be willing to accept what has happened and adjust accordingly. The towel is there to wipe the sweat from your brow, not throw it in the ring.
5. Alignment – Everyone needs to be on the same wavelength moving forward. You’re all on the same team. This isn’t little league soccer where every kid on the team is trying to dribble the ball at the same time. You share a common goal and objective; work together to make it all possible.
There you have it, the five-A’s of a kickass kickoff meeting. This is part of our philosophy, and we don’t just preach this stuff, we live it. Don’t believe us? Here’s proof from SHIFT’s latest kickoff meeting.
