As HR Consultants, we’ve been around to facilitate enough weekly team meetings to know what works—and what doesn’t. It’s easy to get lost in the weeds and forget that these meetings should focus on helping your team stay aligned, motivated, and on track. Over the years, we’ve noticed that the best managers focus on five key areas in their weekly meetings to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Let’s dive into them.

First up- Team performance metrics. This is a crucial piece. Numbers don’t lie, but they also don’t have to be the sole focus of every conversation. It’s about showing the team where they stand, what’s going well, and where things might need a little more attention. Whether you’re looking at project completion milestones, sales targets, or customer satisfaction scores, sharing these metrics helps the team understand how their work is contributing to the bigger picture. Our recommendation is to use some type of visual metrics that your team can quickly graspt their standing. Celebrate the wins—recognizing progress can be just as motivating as solving a problem.

Then, of course, there’s action items with assigned responsibilities. This one’s simple but often gets overlooked. During your meeting, it’s important that everyone leaves with clear takeaways and a sense of who’s responsible for what in order to stay on track. It’s easy for action items to get lost in the shuffle if they’re not assigned and tracked. I recommend keeping it simple—if you can, follow up with an email or a quick project management tool update so there’s a reference point. This makes it less likely that those tasks will fall through the cracks.

Next, don’t forget challenges and obstacles. Every team faces them—whether it’s a bottleneck in the workflow or roadblocks with resources. Give your team the space to voice what’s making their goals harder to achieve. Sometimes just being heard can unlock new ways of solving those problems. Plus, this is where managers can step in with support and resources. If you're not already checking in on this, you might miss out on identifying a small issue before it turns into something bigger.

A team meeting isn’t just about work—it’s also about keeping everyone informed on announcements and celebrations. The little stuff can often be just as important as the big stuff. Maybe there’s a company event coming up, or a colleague’s birthday, or maybe your team just finished a project ahead of schedule. These announcements help build morale, strengthen relationships, and keep everyone in the loop. It’s also a great time to share feedback or testimonials from customers, which leads us to our last point.

Finally, don’t forget to share the achievements and any customer feedback or testimonials. Everyone likes knowing that their hard work is appreciated—whether it's by a customer or the leadership team. If someone on your team has gone above and beyond, shout it out! Recognition isn’t just about making individuals feel good—it helps motivate the entire team to keep up the great work.

To sum it up, a successful weekly team meeting should balance performance updates, task assignments, problem-solving, communication, and celebration. It’s about creating an environment where your team feels informed, supported, and energized for the work ahead.

How do your team meetings go? Anything on this list that you’d like to incorporate? Let me know!