5 Tips For Leading Engaging Virtual Meetings

Setting up effective virtual meetings with distributed team members is not easy – especially in 2020, when most people are forced to work from home.

When it comes to increasing productivity and engagement, virtual meetings follow most of the principles that apply to regular meetings. However, virtual meetings are even more challenging; people are more susceptible to boredom, multi-tasking, and many other distractions. Time on virtual seems to fly faster, but so does people’s energy.

In my experience as a facilitator, coach and trainer, I've found that much of meeting dysfunction can be traced to the lack of design, poor meeting management, and participation planning. Not surprisingly, most organizations complain about having ineffective meetings, but they keep focusing on the process rather than on designing engagement.

Experiment with these 5 tips for leading effective virtual meetings. They will help you turn passive observers into active participants.

1) Plan ahead

Send the Proper Links: Every meeting tool or platform has a way to send participants a link to your virtual meeting. Make sure you use this approach, rather than copying and pasting links. Mistakes can get made, which no one will know until the meeting is starting, and people are having technical problems. Send the proper links, phone lines, and everything needed, and send it early. This will reduce your stress and ensure your meeting gets off to a good start.

Publish the Agenda: An effective agenda with time limits for each item is the single biggest predictor of a successful meeting. This is true for in-person or virtual meetings. There are a couple of additional reasons this is so important for a virtual meeting:

• Engagement. It is hard enough to participate in an in-person meeting when you don’t know how you can help or why you are there. If you are on your webmeeting platform, it is nearly impossible. With no one else watching, the temptation to multitask is hard to overcome.

• Details. If the meeting is information sharing only, that is fine. But if you want people to share ideas or opinions and have a conversation during the meeting, the agenda should make that clear to people.

Know the Capability of Your Tool. If you are leading the meeting, you must know how to do more than fire up the tool. Here is just one example: In the conference room, you can quickly go to the flipchart or whiteboard, and you probably do. Do you know how to bring up the whiteboard in your webmeeting tool? If so, do you know how to use it? Did you even know it existed? Spend time getting comfortable with your tool so you can focus on the meeting, not the technology. It will also reduce your stress and make you look far more credible on everything.

2) Establish virtual meeting norms

While each meeting might have its own norms, there is some basic virtual etiquette that everyone should abide by to create successful online meetings.

Think of them as the must-dos of online meeting etiquette:

• The meeting should start and end on time
• Put your camera on (visual language is everything)
• Dress accordingly
• Do the pre-work, and come prepared
• Be present––don’t work on other tasks or stare at your phone
• Turn your microphone off when not talking
• Use the chat to ask questions or make comments (the "chat-tender" will address those when possible)
• Use audio only when requested or during team breakouts
• Also, don’t forget to test all technology (including audio, video, Wi-Fi, etc.) before the meeting. Equally importantly, turn off all notifications, and join from a quiet area.

3) Begin your virtual meeting with a quick check-in

A check-in round helps ground a team by focusing on the meeting rather than on their worries. This is even more important for virtual sessions.

Start the meeting by asking one of the following questions:

• What's got your attention?”
• “What one word describes how you feel right now?”
• “What's the high point of your week. (If time permits you can ask for the low point)

Form a virtual circle, and let everyone answer it one-by-one. The meeting leader or someone they choose runs this exercise, and names the person who should go next.

A mindset check-in drives empathy and focus, but it’s also a way to give everyone their ‘moment of glory.’ Not only can teams members share their emotions but also feel acknowledged by their colleagues.

4) Turn participants into active contributors

Lack of engagement is not an individual issue, but a cultural problem. Rather than trying to ‘fix’ people, organizations must see colleagues as users. Leaders are responsible for designing an employee experience that increases participation.

Furthermore, most people don’t just want to participate; they want to contribute. The objective of any meeting, virtual or not, is to tap into the collective wisdom. It’s about learning, understanding the problem, and creating new solutions, together.

Involve people along the way. Invite them to help design the session or craft the agenda and desired outcomes. Have participants do some prep work. A virtual meeting doesn’t start the day the session happens; it happens the moment you kick off the planning.

5) Leverage the power of pre-work

Designing the session ahead is just part of the preparation; get people’s input and create a session for people’s actual concerns, not what you think they’ll need.

One-on-one interviews don’t just help you understand people’s expectations, but they also make people feel included. Surveys, when well designed, can provide valuable insights – keep them short and include open questions, too.

If your goal is to create a new strategy, share some inspirational reading ahead of time. If your team is dealing with limiting mindsets, make them do some exercises to start reflecting on what’s holding them back.

Pre-work is a powerful way to increase engagement in a virtual meeting before it even happens. Sending an exercise or asking people to analyze material prior to the meeting can save a lot of time. Use the time together to collaborate and co-create not to do things that people can do on their own anytime.

The biggest challenge of remote meetings is to keep everyone engaged and productive. Consider the tips above to design your meetings for active participation.

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant

SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step... 

Interested in learning how leadership coaching and training can help you create a high performance culture and drive results? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please contact: 

Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth. 

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

A Culture of 200% Accountability Is Required When Returning to Work In An Ongoing Pandemic

States and businesses are starting to "open up." Many people are returning to the "central" workplace but in a state of heightened vigilance. The "new normal" will be risk mitigation, not risk elimination because there is still a lot we do not know about the coronavirus.

Successful businesses will develop social protocols suited to the Covid-19 environment. Public health experts recommend that organizations rigorously practice social distancing and hygiene habits. Their guidelines include creating permanent spaced work areas to enforce social distancing. Airlines may need to issue face masks and stagger seating. Effective leaders will change meeting patterns to rely on virtual contact as a default not a temporary inconvenience. Hygiene prompts and associated cleaning products will be ubiquitous. And none of this will succeed without a culture of 200% accountability.

Two-hundred percent accountability means that not only is each employee 100% accountable for following the social protocols, they are also 100% accountable for enforcing the standard with their coworkers.

In a Harvard Business Review article, titled  The Best Teams Hold Themselves Accountable, Joseph Grenny discovered that teams break down in performance roughly as follows:

• In the weakest teams, there is no accountability.
• In mediocre teams, bosses are the source of accountability.
• In high performance teams, peers manage the vast majority of performance problems with one another.

Coaching your people to hold their peers accountable is a tricky but doable proposition.

Peer accountability differs from top-down, authoritative accountability because it requires and breeds transparency. Peers holding each other accountable requires trust, clear expectations, role modeling, assertive communication, and a spirit of helping not judging.

Build Trust

Peer-to-peer accountability can only be established when you trust someone. It is so much easier receiving constructive criticism from someone you trust and believe has good intentions. You would be surprised how much more time you have to get things done when people are transparent with each other and don’t have to second guess everyone’s motives or sincerity.

Work on building trust among your team first because being able to hold each other accountable won’t feel like another initiative, but rather a natural progression of a high trust team.

Click here to discover the essential activities for building trust.

Set Expectations.

Let your team know up front that you want and expect them to hold you and others accountable.

Click here to read about setting expectations.

Model the Way

You cannot expect your employees to be direct with each other if you can’t be direct with them.

Teach Assertive Communication Skills

Communicating using the assertive style (care and candor) is as a key principle in creating healthy work forces. Being assertive fits perfectly when trying to establish peer-to-peer accountability.

Communicating assertively with a coworker about a social protocol lapse sounds like, "I noticed you struggling with the social distancing protocol, I'm wondering what I can do to help you?" If the coworker replies, "nothing," you simply say, "let me know if you change your mind because I want all of us to be safe." The tone of the assertive communication is neutral.  No judgment, blame or shame.

Click here to learn about assertive communication.

Encourage A Spirit of Helping, Not Judging

Here’s the thing most people don’t understand: Accountability in the workplace doesn’t have to be painful, although it's not easy.

Too many people associate accountability with a negative confrontation involving a lot of harsh attitudes and biting messages, such as the following:

• What’s the matter with you? Why aren’t you wearing a mask? (Subtext: "You selfish buffoon.")
•         You’re letting us down.
•         Are you unable to keep a deadline?
•         Why is staying on schedule so hard for your group?
•         The work you’re doing is not up to this team’s standards.
•         We need to find somebody else, obviously…

Of course, the actual words that are used may be more professionally appropriate, but these are the messages that are too often conveyed when trying to hold others accountable.

The foundation of trust and healthy conflict quickly erode, and the team returns to a place of hostility, resentment, and distrust. The backstabbing and silo behavior will likely escalate.

The good news is that all this can be avoided by asking a simple question.

“How Can I Help You?”

It’s such a simple question, yet it’s one of the most effective ways to hold teammates accountable at work. Most people in business (or in many other life relationships, for that matter) fail to grasp the sense of duty and of willing accountability that you foster by offering to help another person.

By offering support to get a struggling coworker to comply with the social protocols, get back on schedule, help them through a rough patch, or by providing them with information or knowledge they need to get the job done, you reach them on an emotional level. They are challenged. They can re-engage.

Teammates who have received such support from their colleagues often feel a renewed obligation to perform at their best and will strive to “pay it back.” They’ll experience a natural desire to up their game and pull their own weight.

Here’s the truly amazing part — those were exactly the behaviors desired in the first place. Your teammates are back on track.

Being direct while still caring for the people you work with can feel super uncomfortable and messy.  However, as Henry Cloud said so well, “If you are building a culture where honest expectations are communicated and peer accountability is the norm, then the group will address poor performance (Such as the risky behavior of the not following the new social protocols) and attitudes.”

Ready to take the next step in developing a culture of 200% accountability? 

We are offering management teams a complimentary 90-minute virtual training titled: "Developing Accountable People."  Click here to download the flyer. 

Participants will receive a SMART Coaching Map: Holding Teammates Accountable with tips to help your team hold each other accountable in a principled and positive way.

CLICK HERE for a related post: 5 Ways to Transform Empty Accountability Into Real Accountability

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
Email: petercmclees@gmail.com   
Mobile:323-854-1713

SMART DEVELOPMENT

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth. 

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

Assertive Communication: Asking for What You Want Firmly and Fairly

Debra's patience is beginning to wear thin with her colleague Ronan. A few days earlier he had undermined her yet again, this time in front of other colleagues during the weekly team meeting. So, she decided to tell him how he made her feel. But just as she was about to approach him, she lost her nerve.

Ronan made similar comments again yesterday. And, once again, Debra felt humiliated and frustrated at his inability to see the effect that his comments had. But she still couldn't bring herself to speak to him about it. She feels cross with herself, but resigned to the situation.

It's possible that you've been in a situation like Debra's and, like her, you might have felt unable to do anything about it. But by learning how to be more assertive, you can stand up for yourself, and become a strong and confident communicator.

In this article, we look at why assertiveness is important in the workplace, and explore some strategies that you can use to become more assertive.

What Is Assertiveness?
It's not always easy to identify truly assertive behavior. This is because there's a fine line between assertiveness and aggression, and people can often confuse the two. For this reason, it's useful to define the two behaviors so that we can clearly separate them:

• Assertiveness is based on balance. It requires being forthright about your wants and needs, while still considering the rights, needs and wants of others. When you're assertive, you are self assured and draw power from this to get your point across firmly, fairly and with empathy.

• Aggressive behavior is based on winning. You do what is in your own best interest without regard for the rights, needs, feelings, or desires of other people. When you're aggressive, the power you use is selfish. You may come across as pushy or even bullying. You take what you want, often without asking.

So, a boss who places a pile of work on your desk the afternoon before you go on vacation, and demands that it gets done straight away, is being aggressive. The work needs to be done but, by dumping it on you at an inappropriate time, he or she disregards your needs and feelings.

When you, on the other hand, inform your boss that the work will be done but only after you return from vacation, you hit the sweet spot between passivity (not being assertive enough) and aggression  (being hostile, angry or rude). You assert your own rights while recognizing your boss's need to get the job done.

The Benefits of Being Assertive
One of the main benefits of being assertive is that it can help you to become more self-confident, as you gain a better understanding of who you are and the value that you offer.

Assertiveness provides several other benefits that can help you both in your workplace and in other areas of your life. In general, assertive people:

• Make great managers. They get things done by treating people with fairness and respect, and are treated by others the same way in return. This means that they are often well-liked and seen as leaders that people want to work with.
• Negotiate successful "win-win" solutions. They are able to recognize the value of their opponent's position and can quickly find common ground with him.
• Are better doers and problem solvers. They feel empowered to do whatever it takes to find the best solution to the problems that they encounter.
• Are less anxious and stressed. They are self-assured and don't feel threatened or victimized when things don't go as planned or as expected.

The Risks of Being Assertive
Some organizational and national cultures prefer people to be passive, and may view assertive behavior as rude or even offensive. Research has also suggested that gender can have a bearing on how assertive behavior is perceived, with men more likely to be rewarded for being assertive than women.

So, it pays to consider the context in which you work before you start changing your behavior.

However, this doesn't mean that you should simply succumb to the status quo! Rather, be bold while avoiding naivity. Experiment with small steps at first, until you find what works for you in your workplace.

How to Become More Assertive
It's not always easy to become more assertive, but it is possible. So, if your disposition or workplace tends to be more passive or aggressive than assertive, then it's a good idea to work on the following areas to help you to get the balance right:

1. Value Yourself and Your Rights
To be more assertive, you need to gain a good understanding of yourself , as well as a strong belief in your inherent value and your value  to your organization and team.

This self-belief is the basis of self-confidence  and assertive behavior. It will help you to recognize that you deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, give you the confidence to stick up for your rights and protect your boundaries , and to remain true to yourself, your wants and your needs.

Tip:
While self-confidence is an important aspect of assertiveness, it's crucial that you make sure that it doesn't develop into a sense of self-importance. Your rights, thoughts, feelings, needs, and desires are just as important as everyone else's, but not more important than anyone else's.

2. Voice Your Needs and Wants Confidently
If you're going to perform to your full potential then you need to make sure that your priorities – your needs and wants – are met.

Don't wait for someone else to recognize what you need. You might wait forever! Take the initiative and start to identify the things that you want now. Then, set goals so that you can achieve them.

Once you've done this, you can tell your boss or your colleague exactly what it is that you need from them to help you to achieve these goals in a clear and confident way. And don't forget to stick to your guns. Even if what you want isn't possible right now, ask (politely) whether you can revisit your request in six months time.

Find ways to make requests that avoid sacrificing others' needs. Remember, you want people to help you, and asking for things in an overly aggressive or pushy way is likely to put them off doing this and may even damage your relationship.

3. Acknowledge That You Can't Control Other People's Behavior
Don't make the mistake of accepting responsibility for how people react to your assertiveness. If they, for example, act angry or resentful toward you, try to avoid reacting to them in the same way.

Remember that you can only control yourself and your own behavior, so do your best to stay calm and measured if things get tense. As long as you are being respectful and not violating someone else's needs, then you have the right to say or do what you want.

4. Express Yourself in a Positive Way
It's important to say what's on your mind, even when you have a difficult or negative issue to deal with. But you must do it constructively and sensitively.

Don't be afraid to stand up for yourself and to confront people who challenge you and/or your rights. You can even allow yourself to be angry! But remember to control your emotions and to stay respectful at all times.

5. Be Open to Criticism and Compliments
Accept both positive and negative feedback graciously, humbly  and positively.

If you don't agree with criticism that you receive then you need to be prepared to say so, but without getting defensive or angry. The Feedback Matrix  is a great tool that can help you to see past your emotional reactions to feedback, and instead use it to achieve significant, positive change.

6. Learn to Say "No"
Saying "No"  is hard to do, especially when you're not used to doing it, but it's vital if you want to become more assertive.

Knowing your own limits  and how much work you are able to take on will help you to manage your tasks more effectively, and to pinpoint any areas of your job that make you feel as though you're being taken advantage of.

Remember that you can't possibly do everything or please everyone, so it's important that you protect your time and your workload by saying "no" when necessary. When you do have to say "no," try to find a win-win solution  that works for everyone.

7. Use Assertive Communication Techniques
There are a number of simple but effective communication techniques that you can use to become more assertive. These are:

Use "I" Statements
Use "I want", "I need" or "I feel" to convey basic assertions and get your point across firmly. For example, "I feel strongly that we need to bring in a third party to mediate this disagreement."

Empathy
Always try to recognize and understand  how the other person views the situation. Then, after taking her point of view into consideration, express what you need from her.

For example, "I understand that you're having trouble working with Arlene, but this project needs to be completed by Friday. Let's all sit down and come up with a plan together."

Escalation
If your first attempts at asserting yourself have been unsuccessful, then you may need to escalate the matter further. This means becoming firmer (though still polite and respectful) with the person who you are requesting help from, and may end in you telling him what you will do next if you still aren't satisfied.

For example, "John, this is the third time this week I've had to speak to you about arriving late. If you're late once more this month, I will activate the disciplinary process."

However, remember that, regardless of the consequences that you communicate to the person in question, you may still not get what you want in the end. If this is the case, you may need to take further action by setting up a formal meeting  to talk about the problem, or escalating your concerns to Human Resources (HR) or your boss.

Ask for More Time
Sometimes, it's best not to say anything. You might be too emotional or you might not know what it is that you want yet.

If this is the case, be honest and tell the person that you need a few minutes to compose your thoughts. For example, you might say "Dave, your request has caught me off guard. I'll get back to you within the half hour."

Change Your Verbs
Try using verbs that are more definite and emphatic when you communicate. This will help you to send a clear message and avoid "sugar-coating" your message so much that people are left confused by what it is that you want from them.

To do this, use verbs like "will" instead of "could" or "should," "want" instead of "need," or "choose to" instead of "have to."

For example:

"I will be going on vacation next week, so I will need someone to cover my workload."

"I want to go on this training course because I believe that it will help me to progress in my role and my career."

"I choose this option because I think it will prove to be more successful than the other options on the table."

Be a Broken Record
Prepare the message that you want to convey ahead of time.

If, for instance, you can't take on any more work, be direct and say, "I cannot take on any more projects right now." If people still don't get the message, then keep restating your message using the same language, with a NEUTRAL VOICE TONE and don't relent. Eventually they will likely realize that you really mean what you're saying.

For example:

"I'd like you to work on the Clancy project."

"I cannot take on any more projects right now."

"I'll pay extra for you to do it."

"I cannot take on any more projects right now."

"Seriously, this is really important. My boss insists that this gets done."

"I cannot take on any more projects right now."

"Will you do it as a personal favor?"

"I'm sorry, I value our relationship but I simply cannot take on any more projects right now."

Tip:
Be careful with the broken record technique. If you use it to protect yourself from exploitation, that's good. But if you use it to bully someone into taking action that's against their interests, it can be manipulative and dishonest.

Scripting
It can often be hard to know how to put your feelings across clearly and confidently to someone when you need to assert yourself. The scripting technique can help here. It allows you to prepare what you want to say in advance, using a four-pronged approach that describes:

The event. Tell the other person exactly how you see the situation or problem.

"Janine, the production costs this month are 23 percent higher than average. You didn't give me any indication of this, which meant that I was completely surprised by the news."

Your feelings. Describe how you feel about the situation and express your emotions clearly.

"This frustrates me, and makes me feel like you don't understand or appreciate how important financial controls are in the company."

Your needs. Tell the other person exactly what you need from her so that she doesn't have to guess.

"I need you to be honest with me, and let me know when we start going significantly over budget on anything."

The consequences. Describe the positive impact that your request will have for the other person or the company if your needs are met successfully.

"If you do this we will be in a good position to hit our targets and may get a better end-of-year bonus."

Key Points

Being assertive means finding the right balance between passivity (not assertive enough) and aggression (angry or hostile behavior). It means having a strong sense of yourself and your value, and acknowledging that you deserve to get what you want. And it means standing up for yourself even in the most difficult situations.

What being assertive doesn't mean is acting in your own interest without considering other people's rights, feelings, desires, or needs – that is aggression.

You can learn to be more assertive over time by identifying your needs and wants, expressing them in a positive way, and learning to say "no" when you need to. You can also use assertive communication techniques to help you to communicate your thoughts and feelings firmly and directly.

It likely won't happen overnight but, by practicing these techniques regularly, you will slowly build up the confidence and self-belief that you need to become assertive. You'll also likely find that you become more productive, efficient and respected, too.

Stay safe, be wise!

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant

SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step... 

Interested in learning how leadership coaching and training can help you create a high performance culture and drive results? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please contact: 

Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth. 

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

How To Strengthen Your Team's Culture

You are living a long-proven principle: you learn much about your team or organizational culture in times of crisis. The move to remote work may have exposed some cracks in your culture and may have highlighted some strengths, too. This new time of crisis and the remote work that goes with it is a tremendous opportunity to do more than learn about our culture, but to change it. Let’s talk about how you can strengthen your team's culture working remotely or on-site; no matter how long the cycling back and forth lasts during Covid-19.

How Can Remote Work Strengthen Our Culture Long-term?
You may be questioning my premise, and if you are, that is ok. Let me ask you some questions.

• Have your past patterns and routines of work been interrupted?
• Are people trying to figure out how to get work done?
• Are some people bonding in new and different ways now?
• And as a more specific example, are people even more aware of how meetings work, and wondering how to make them better?

My bet is that you answered “yes” to all four questions.  Notice that each is rooted in the thought that “the way we do things” has been upset.  Since culture is simply “the way we do things,” now you have a chance to as a leader, with the help of the group, to reset those norms both for now and the future.

Does This Mean a Culture Change Initiative?
Typically, when leadership wants to change the culture, there is an initiative, a project and a stated announcement of a long-term effort to make this change.  While I am not against this approach (and have helped several organizations with it), that is not what I am suggesting now.  Rather if we want to strengthen your team's culture during remote work, I am suggesting we use this time of upheaval to help the organization see its best self and learn from these experiences. Use of the word culture is completely optional.

Create Conversation
While you might have some specific behavior you would like to see changed, I recommend putting those thoughts in the back of your mind at least to start. Rather than guiding the questions with your wishes start by asking the group some open ended questions like:

• What are we learning about working together now (while we aren’t together)?
• What is working?
• Where are we getting stuck?
• When or how is “how we’ve always done it” getting in the way?
• What can we do differently now?
• As the leader you can participate in the conversation and share your ideas, but don’t lead with yours and make sure you don’t dominate.  Your goal is to get the group to identify and see the opportunities, not listen to you and your brilliant thoughts!

Note that you might not get through all these questions in one meeting, and that is ok. Take notes on the answers as they are discussed.

Transfer Lessons into Action
There are two steps to this process. One is immediate, and the other is long term.  Keep your focus on the immediate for now. In a follow-up meeting or conversation, help the group shift their thinking in two ways:

• What should we keep doing?
• What do we need to change?
• Help the group agree to the answers they identify and turn them into agreements for working remotely. In doing that you have effectively created culture change for remote work in the short term.  Without using the world culture, you have created culture change for the current working situation.

When you move your team back to together, you can ask questions about the lessons from the time working apart – looking at how many of these new agreements still apply (and are valuable) when working together again. This second step allows you to maintain the positive culture changes you are gaining now and keeping them as a positive outcome of the shutdown.

For all the change the shutdown has caused, this is one positive that can come from it – but only if you see it as an opportunity and use it. These steps will help create positive change from a change that was forced upon you.

Stay safe, be wise!

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant

SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step... 

Interested in learning how leadership coaching and training can help you create a high performance culture and drive results? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please contact: 

Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth. 

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.