Hmm. You're getting some... strange advice in this thread.
First: A scheduled weekly meeting with you and three other people is most likely overkill. The only reason to have scheduled meetings with that frequency is if you are dealing with a large team with conflicting schedules. What do you do in these meetings? I hope it's not a status report meeting. I would certainly hope in that small a team you already know the status before even starting the meeting.
Always ask yourself "can this be solved with an email or a phone call" before calling a meeting. People resent having their time spent by their boss catching up.
Don't be afraid to grab two people and say "hey guys, we need to hash this out". If you feel that it's going to take more than 20 minutes or so, THEN schedule a meeting.
Try not to schedule meetings too far out in advance. Having a meeting scheduled 5 days out kills productivity. Nobody will want to make a decision because it will be talked about "in the meeting".
Something that I see a ton of in startups is the perceived need for formality. In a team of 4, I would assume you have other responsibilities than managing the rest of your team. If not, then I assume you're the money guy. Either way, be very careful of destroying your team's productivity because you're looking for a way to validate your position. You don't have to do that, I assume they already understand you're the CEO.
I can tell people have done a lot of reading about how other companies do their meetings; unfortunately none of it is good advice. You know your team and we don't. You know your product and we don't. If meetings seem boring, then you probably shouldn't have had one. If people can't keep in the loop with what's going on in the company, then you need more meetings.
Anyways, let's get to a TLDR version:
- Don't have a meeting without a clear reason for having one.
- That reason has to pass the "can this be solved by an email or phone call" litmus test.
First: A scheduled weekly meeting with you and three other people is most likely overkill. The only reason to have scheduled meetings with that frequency is if you are dealing with a large team with conflicting schedules. What do you do in these meetings? I hope it's not a status report meeting. I would certainly hope in that small a team you already know the status before even starting the meeting.
Always ask yourself "can this be solved with an email or a phone call" before calling a meeting. People resent having their time spent by their boss catching up.
Don't be afraid to grab two people and say "hey guys, we need to hash this out". If you feel that it's going to take more than 20 minutes or so, THEN schedule a meeting.
Try not to schedule meetings too far out in advance. Having a meeting scheduled 5 days out kills productivity. Nobody will want to make a decision because it will be talked about "in the meeting".
Something that I see a ton of in startups is the perceived need for formality. In a team of 4, I would assume you have other responsibilities than managing the rest of your team. If not, then I assume you're the money guy. Either way, be very careful of destroying your team's productivity because you're looking for a way to validate your position. You don't have to do that, I assume they already understand you're the CEO.
I can tell people have done a lot of reading about how other companies do their meetings; unfortunately none of it is good advice. You know your team and we don't. You know your product and we don't. If meetings seem boring, then you probably shouldn't have had one. If people can't keep in the loop with what's going on in the company, then you need more meetings.
Anyways, let's get to a TLDR version:
- Don't have a meeting without a clear reason for having one.
- That reason has to pass the "can this be solved by an email or phone call" litmus test.
- Don't waste people's time.