How to “Meeting”
7 Rules For a Successful Meeting
The most profound advice anyone ever gave me on meetings is “Don’t do them. They’re almost always a waste of time”.
While this isn’t always invariably true, it’s pretty close. We’ve all suffered from meetings that were chaotic, rushed, or painfully unproductive. When a meeting isn’t extremely effective, it’s usually disruptive and counterproductive. And it’s almost universally safe to assume by now that re-reviewing a mission statement during a meeting is overkill for everyone involved, and effectively communicates incompetence to most employees. (This would make a great recurring habit for another cringe-worthy CEO in “Silicon Valley”). If you’re really needing to re-connect the team, email it in advance. And do something fun like a gift card-laden quiz on company brand: mission, vision and values. It may be worth noting that if the mission or values have to be repeatedly touted, they are either off the real brand, or you’re likely not representing them via leading by example.
However, now that the work world has gone virtual thanks to COVID, we’re all doing more meetings than we ever thought possible.
The good news is at the other end of the spectrum - when a meeting is well run and well handled, they can leap frog a team.
So here’s our quick and simple successful meeting check list when you simply have to ask for the one commodity people can never replenish: time.
Ask yourself if a meeting is truly necessary? Will a text, email, memo, or phone call accomplish the goal?
If so, send an invite with an agenda. Make sure the time requested is enough to get the task done or information relayed.
Send a reminder the day before. Don’t reschedule. (I could, and may, write a whole other BLOG on this).
Stay on topic.
Walk away with clear next steps and outcomes.
If it’s a 1:1 progress check in, it can be helpful to get and give clear, concise feedback. What are 2 things that are going really well, and 2 things that could be working better?
Follow up. Set a calendar reminder for any deliverables, and make sure they’re complete and on time.
Last but least… just don’t be this guy. Even if that means getting heavily caffeinated before you Zoom.
