Being a manager can feel isolating—particularly for middle managers who often face pressure from both staff and senior leadership. That’s one of the many reasons we have regular manager meetings at TMC. Done well, managers’ meetings can help build trust and connection amongst managers, strengthen the organization’s culture, and foster organization-wide alignment.
Here are some tips for making the most of them:
1. Create space for relationship-building.
We often say that if our schools and organizations are organisms, relationships are the connective tissue—they bind, support, and protect us. In managers’ meetings, relationship-building might look like:
- Giving folks time to connect in small groups or pairs (be mindful of putting direct reports with their managers!)
- Opening the call with a thoughtful check-in question
- Providing other opportunities for peer coaching and problem-solving
2. Set community agreements.
To build trust and relationships, managers’ meetings must provide psychological safety—it’s tough to talk about your management challenges if you feel like your peers will judge you! That’s where community agreements can help. Here are a few that we use at TMC:
- We own our impact and intention.
- We move up to share missing perspectives and move back to leave space for others to share.
- We offer each other the gift of feedback.
- We “press pause” when something feels off or out of alignment with our values.
If you’ve never created community agreements, this resource from the National Equity Project provides a helpful framework.
3. Practice the skills!
All managers benefit from having spaces to refine their management practices. Managers’ meetings can be a safe space for managers to practice skills and share ideas and feedback. Pick 1-2 management skills for managers to work on in each meeting. You could practice:
- Delivering effective feedback. Give managers 10 minutes to fill out the CSAW worksheet, then split them into pairs to roleplay delivering that feedback.
- Crafting SMARTIE goals. Break into small groups and workshop a goal for each group member, making them as SMARTIE as possible.
- Delegating effectively. Select two managers ahead of time to roleplay a sample delegation with verbal repeat-back while other managers watch. Have managers discuss what they thought the demonstrators did well and what they might do differently.
- Conducting performance evaluations. Craft a few likely scenarios, break people into small groups, and instruct them to share how they would respond. Debrief in the large group and share reminders about relevant organizational practices or policies, if needed.
4. Test the waters.
Managers’ meetings offer an opportunity to test ideas and processes before rolling them out across the organization. With closer vantage points than senior leadership, managers can anticipate problems and foresee how their staff will respond to new policies. Be clear about the mode of decision-making going into each discussion. You might ask:
- Do you have any concerns about this decision? What concerns might the people you manage have?
- What problems might we run into in implementing this new policy? How would you prevent or mitigate them?
- What would you do differently?
5. Roll out policies, procedures, and expectations.
Managers at an organization can function as a distributed implementation system—your built-in phone tree—but make sure it actually functions as a phone tree and not just a messy game of telephone. Roll out a new system or policy with your managers first, including expectations for how managers should uphold or implement the policy (consider adapting the Delegation Worksheet!). Invite managers to share questions and concerns—you can even solicit them by asking questions like:
- Do you have any questions about the expectations moving forward?
- What do you need to roll this out with your staff?
- How do you see this landing?
Then, lean on managers to run a similar process with their teams.