How to make your meetings remarkably useful

As you climb up each rung of the leadership ladder, your calendar becomes more crowded with meetings. Whether you are the leader or a participant your making meetings remarkably useful is your responsibility. Accept the responsibility for the stewardship of the company's most valuable asset — you. Make meetings useful and you will differentiate yourself from the pack, while your colleagues are watching the clock for the end of the meeting!

Meetings are hugely expensive. Yet, according to research by Fuse, Executives consider 67% of meetings to be failures. Estimated time in meetings:

• collectively ana organization spends 15% of all available hours in meetings
• Managers spend 35% of their time
• Senior Managers over 50% of their time

So many people spending so much time to do so little. Many people do not speak up about the big, complex, important decisions because they are afraid of embarrassing themselves. However, they still want to feel (and appear) as if they're making a contribution, so they will make sure to weigh in on the unimportant stuff instead. The result: triviality gradually comes to dominate. 

Great business relationships are created when people work together toward a common goal—and are able to count on one another to do their part, meet commitments, and get things done.

Great relationships happen when you produce tangible outcomes and achieve meaningful goals."  

Today, meetings take on continually evolving shapes, and they vary size, purpose, and duration   - meetings in person, by phone, by video teleconferencing, on new apps, and the list goes on.  However, what has not changed for leaders is the need for productive meetings. When meetings move forward in the right way, they can build relationships and help you share information, generate ideas, make decisions, drive strategy, and grow your business. 

As I look back on my career and think about the most effective meetings I have been a part of, it is clear we had the right people in the room. The participants were prepared and present. The agenda set clear objectives. The organizer acted as a facilitator keeping track of meeting progress and ensured only agenda's scope was discussed. The meeting resulted in actionable outcomes. In my recent post, How to use the collective intelligence in the room, I set out some of the tips that I discovered during my career that enabled great meetings to happen.

I have been incredibility lucky during my career. I attribute this luck to being present. I captured these thoughts in my post, The remarkable truth about leadership and presence. If you are a participant, you are noticed when you are present and when you are not present.  As the senior person at the meeting help the other participants be present. At the start of a session announce that if a call or an email is more urgent than the importance of the meeting, please go someplace outside of the meeting where you can give the urgent matter your full attention. You will be amazed how few folks have pressing matters! The no smartphone rule during the meetings will permeate throughout your organization.

Marilyn Hewson's 5 key rules

Marilyn Hewson, Lockheed Martin, Chair, President, and CEO, shared five fundamental rules she discovered over her career. By keeping these guidelines in mind, you can create the climate to take your team and organization to the next level.

Be present

Don’t just show up for a meeting – really be present for your team. How you conduct yourself reflects your work ethic. It’s important to put away your phone and your computer, and genuinely listen and engage. At Lockheed Martin, we stress that nothing is more important than listening to our customers. That discipline of listening should be strengthened at every opportunity by giving our full attention to every colleague and speaker in every meeting, every time.

Be prepared

To use time wisely, it is important to come to meetings prepared. Have a detailed agenda. Provide materials in advance, so no one wastes time absorbing information while the clock is ticking. Anticipate potential questions, ensure your answers are succinct and well formulated and make sure you have the knowledge and understanding of your source information to back up your recommendations so that your colleagues around the table can make informed decisions. 

Be productive

Whether you called the meeting or were invited to attend, keep a laser focus on the purpose of what brought you together. Ask questions that further the discussion (and remember, the more prepared you are, the more penetrating and impactful your questions will be). If a meeting goes off course, don’t hesitate to volunteer to tackle a task offline or suggest a different meeting at a different time.

Be proactive

Whether you are an early career professional or a C-suite executive, remember you were invited to the meeting because your perspective is valuable. So, take ownership of your role in the meeting. Do not hesitate to share your ideas and input. Many times, we feel we must prove ourselves in a group setting, but more often than not, collaboration is the fastest way to overcome shared challenges.

Be open

Great leaders rarely make great decisions in a vacuum. They listen to their customers’ needs, and they harness the collective wisdom and expertise of their team to find solutions. That means being inclusive -- encouraging every voice at the table, seeking out new ideas, and inviting different perspectives.

Make Your Meeting Remarkably Useful

Approach meetings in an intentional way. Apply each of these ideas and the others you will discover during your career journey.

Self-awareness gives you the capacity to learn from your mistakes as well as your successes. It enables you to keep growing.” – Lawrence Bossidy

I also encourage you to discover your behavioral strengths. Self-awareness can help you find out that you may be over-invested in one or more of your strengths. For example, I am very innovative, early in my career my novel ideas were welcomed at meetings. However, as the CEO, many staff would feel that ideas I am sharing were direction rather than just exploring ideas. They would be concerned regarding how they could implement my proposals. Ensuring clarity regarding suggestions and directions helped manage this over investment in innovation.

I recall hearing Ed Greenspan speak in the late 1990s about “Double Vision: The Inside Story of the Liberals in Power” a book he wrote with Anthony Wilson Smith. Their focus is the deficit, social security reform, and the reorganization of government. What I found striking was the insight into the self-awareness that Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and Minister of Finance Paul Martin exhibited. The Prime Minister gave his ministers a long leash and interfered only when necessary. This recipe has been remarkably successful for the PM. Minister Martin as the socially conscious Liberal transformed himself into the King of the Deficit Fighters. Martin crafted his budgets and imposed his policies on his colleagues. He merely out-argued and out-gunned left-Liberals in the cabinet — he saved Canada billions of dollars. We continue to reap the benefits of his work today.

With tips and excellent, you can be confident that you have laid the groundwork for substantial decisions and effective execution. Moreover, no matter what happens in the short run, you will have strengthened the relationships and created the climate for long-term success in the future.

Still curious?

Presence is a trait we measure. We start with your behavioral traits and your passions and find the matches that will provide career satisfaction. We use powerful talent analytics to determine which of your 85 behavioral traits are strengths and which ones are challenges. If you want to be a remarkable leader, drop me an email. We provide our services worldwide.