The Secret To A Good Meeting Is the Meeting Before the Meeting
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If I have learned one thing, I have learned that having a meeting for the sake of having a meeting is not the best way to do things. Further, allowing meetings to go on and on because round robin discussion has taken on a life of its own. Many times this implies that the group attending has not done the required preparation for the meeting.
Yes, this may seem to be coming across hard, but I am sure you will agree with me that time is the most important commodity that you have. Your time cannot and should not be wasted. In fact, by ensuring that your meetings flow smoothly allows you and your team to get on to the tasks at hand and not waste time and efforts.
Let me ask a few basic questions and see if any of these fit into your situation(s):
1. Have you ever planned a meeting only to be bushwhacked by the people attending? In other words, you lost control of your meeting.
2. Have you ever had people always arrive late because they think that by doing so they show their importance? Of course, this is disruptive to your flow.
3. Or how about never showing up for the meeting which makes you wonder where they are and why.
I am sure that if I asked you that you could come up with a few things of your own that you have and are noticing at your meetings. There are basically 2 main reasons why meetings fail:
1. The leader does not have a clear agenda
2. Other people attending the meeting have their own agenda.
Here is what I have found out and as a result of following this procedure have had great meetings and oh by the way, they don’t take all day / night to hold.
Hold a Meeting Before the Meeting.
-The Meeting Before the Meeting Helps You to Receive Buy-In
the more you can do before the meeting there is less of a chance for negativity to seep in.
-The Meeting Before the Meeting Helps Followers to Gain Perspective
give the “influencers” the right perspectives before hand and they will help influence the others.
-The Meeting Before the Meeting Helps to Increase Your Influence
Leadership is influence, nothing more nothing less. You must invest time in your people. If you only have time for your people at meeting time…you are in trouble.
-The Meeting Before the Meeting Helps You Develop Trust
You as the leader must be an agent for change. It is no fun to have to continually and constantly “run the gauntlet”! Here is the time to answer questions and let your people know of your motives. Because you are doing this one on one or in smaller groups your trust factor increases exponentially.
-The Meeting Before the Meeting Helps You Avoid Being Blindsided
This is pretty self explanatory. Do what you need to do so that you don’t get caught by surprise. You need to know in advance what to expect.
Let me conclude with some serious advice:
1. If you can’t have the meeting(s) before the meeting…don’t have the meeting.
2. If you do have the meeting(s) before the meeting, but it does not go well…don’t have the meeting.
3. If you have the meeting(s) before the meeting and it goes well…HAVE the Meeting!
“Good planning always costs less than good reacting” – W. Schmidt
A Leader Never has to recover from a good start. So there you have it. Give it a try. I have not been disappointed now that I follow this mentality. I was before.
Peace. BB