Team meeting - rotating chair

I used to do this as a manager as it was a good chance for people to practice their chairing skills. If someone came to me and said they hated it though I would absolutely have let them off the hook! I always saw it as me doing a favour to them so it wouldn’t have bothered me at all if someone said “thanks but no thanks”.

Being scared to do it would be exactly why I'd do it.

It's totally fair. Just suck it up and give it your best shot OP. You might even enjoy it!

Fair enough. That’s a tough frustration. Although it seems like more of an organised thing in OP’s case but she just doesn’t like doing it.

In my last place of work we would take turns chairing and I loved it as I could keep the whole thing snappy. I'd pick a room with no chairs, so we would stand for about 10 mins and whizz through the general updates, quick AOB and on your way.

I was the least senior too, and just thought "everyone here has more important stuff to do than attend this pointless meeting"

@Didimum I should have expanded. I’ve replied to a PP the same.

My manager will ask us to chair meetings or run training sessions etc that should be headed up by them because I’ve came to realise she doesn’t understand our job. If you ask her to check over work or anything specific to the job she will get another team member involved jn the conversation.
We all sort of fell into these new roles after covid an our company had big shake ups with roles etc so she didn’t have to apply or be interviewed for her role.
I don’t mind doing stuff if it’s for development but i begrudge doing it because my manager doesn’t understand the material that needs to be delivered.

We do this in our much smaller team - I introduced it as a training opportunity for everyone to have a chance to do the chair and get more comfortable doing it for when they need to chair bigger meetings with external stakeholders.

It means we get different styles of meetings, different things on the agenda as the chair sets that (asks for items but they set it), I purposely make a mess of things occasionally when I'm running it (I've asked 1 person to give me a hard time occasionally too to model dealing with a tricky person), so they see that's ok too and how to deal with it...

It was great when I was junior in a different team, and a few of us used to talk as a smaller group on how to handle when it was our turn. But it was really beneficial when we started having to manage our own meetings later on. And I can see that being more important now as stakeholder engagement is much more important than it used to be, and some of the attendees are getting trickier so knowing how to handle them is important.

My current team has a lot of people who joined during Covid or who were back office type functions in previous roles. So building their confidence and ability to work together as a team are both important.

If it's a team of 35, you will only need to do it a max of twice a year.

What comes under reasonable development in your eyes?

Perfectly normal in my experience and as others say it gives you experience. Plus these are your team mates so the best people to practice any “public speaking”

This is so standard in fact that anyone who thought they shouldn’t do it wouldn’t be looked on too favourably

In my experience it’s great because every meeting is a little bit different because whoever is in the chair brings their style and personality to it. Rather than it being the same voice over and over again

You’re allowed to dislike it, OP, but it’s not ‘unfair’. It’s part of the role you are paid to do. If you do not like your role then move on.

Ask for training OP. Good luck.

It’s not.

Chairing isn’t ‘responsibility’ or hard, it’s just a routine task. If I’m in a meeting it doesn’t make any odds to me if I chair or not.

In the OP’s case is is clearly development she needs.

Our team do this and like you I am very junior. I use it as a chance to practice - I've put it on my cv as a skill. Before the meeting I make sure I'm confident with the agenda and timings then I just go for it. There are other more senior people who also dislike chairing but we all just get on with it.

It’s perfectly fair and OP it’s good for you to do it - Chairing isn’t presenting, it’s just going through a format. Just pay attention to other people and how they do it.

think of it as something to put on your CV

concentrate on well being
we do this
no issues

I have never come across this, but I actually think it's a great idea.

The idea that managers are asking people to chair as a way of "shirking their responsibilities" is pretty laughable in my view. If you're used to chairing meetings, which most managers will be, it isn't a big deal at all and it certainly isn't an onerous responsibility. In many ways, when you're used to being in the driving seat, it can actually be much harder to step back and let others take the lead.

It's a very "safe" way of giving development opportunities to staff and handing over a tiny bit of power with minimal risk. I might just have to steal the idea and implement it for my team!

Maybe it’s just my manager. I’ve came to realise she doesn’t really understand our job and what we do so to tackle this she gets us to head up training/daily or weekly briefings that she should be giving to avoid questions etc.

YANBU, equal opportunity and equal obligation are not the same thing.

Great opportunity for colleagues who want/happy to develop, push themselves outside their comfort zones, rise to the challenge or whatever. However, I don’t think that’s what OP is asking.

Equally ok for those who have anxiety, feel uncomfortable chairing meetings/presenting to a group to not do so. I guess the question is whether the requirement is in you JD, and if not, whether it could fall within ‘other reasonable tasks within your role’.

Personally, I think it’s also ok to simply not want to. After all, not everyone aspires to improve their presentation skills or whatever, and are happy to develop in other areas of their work - or not at all. That should be accepted as ok and not sone kind of developmental deficiency.

Speak to your manager

i was aware of colleagues not liking to read the agenda and I have passed it on to the next person or read it myself it’s not necessary and it certainly shouldn’t be forced.

of that doesn’t work for to hr this absolutely should be understood and anything that is causing you anxiety at work shouldn’t be ignored

only down side it’s the ones who just love the sound of their own voice and love nothing better than a team meeting have more time to bore everyone else

"Welcome everyone today's meeting is now over, I'll send you the crap they want me to read to you in an email later. Hopefully this hour can be put to better use. Please take a biscuit on the way out."

P.s. yes I was also hoping for a hilarious swivel chair story 😅

We do this in our team meetings. We found that there's so much better engagement when someone more junior is chairing the meeting. When the boss chairs it, it just becomes a lot of people listening to him talk.

Chairing a meeting isn't as hard as you think. You read out the agenda and do the timekeeping. Why not see it as an opportunity to practice public speaking? You can't really go wrong - read out from a bit of paper, put a listening face on, and look at the clock.

Yes, agree with this.