Your meetings are costing you time, money and good people.
Have you ever been in a meeting that could have been an email? Or maybe a meeting that did provide clarity but then dragged on for another hour of your time? Yep. Meetings that suck are an epidemic in the business world.
Meetings are not productive because of a mix of things. Here are a few reasons we’ve found here at The Leader HQ, why they don’t work:
There is no goal.
There is no structure to achieve the goal.
Why are we in this meeting? What do you need from me? What do I need prepared to get the most out of our time today?
Leaders often get together with their team just to “connect” to build culture. Often, leaving it up to their team to guide the meeting, with no goal and no path to get anywhere. This does not build culture. Setting goals and achieving them together creates culture.
I have made this mistake many times in the past decade of business ownership. I would ask my team members to meet me for coffee because I felt that we needed to spend 1:1 time. I assumed issues or ideas would just pop up in conversation.
The reality of those meetups is that my team spent valuable time they could have been making sales or completing client work, with me instead. This was the result of me being reactive versus responsive. AKA take a moment and prepare instead of acting.
They normally left the meeting feeling tapped out energetically or on a new trail of completing something we had just come up with during our caffeinated idea talk. Ultimately pulling them away from things that actually move the business forward.
Here is what I would have done differently:
Identified WHY I felt the need to meet. Did I have a new idea I wanted input on? Did I have a conflict I wanted to talk out? Was I afraid they weren’t doing their job and felt I needed to inquire more information?
Then asked myself: Is this something I can solve on my own, present my findings and then ask for input?
Most of the time, we are looking outward to others for validation in what we already know the answer to. The more you love your decisions, the less you need others too.
Your team does not need to be decision makers in your business or line of work. Allow yourself the time and space to come up with your own decisions. Collaboration does not need to look like a city hall meeting where everyone gets to vote on how things are done.
When you have open collaboration like that, the direction of growth gets foggy. This is because your team is made up of people who all have vastly different pasts, emotions, experiences and even a different perception of reality than you do. Plus, not everyone is a visionary. This is not a good or bad thing, its just different.
Too many cooks in the kitchen makes for chaos and confusion. Avoid this by allowing yourself to be the decision maker, you are the leader so LEAD!
A few different examples of how you can incorporate meetings for collaboration are:
Input: you’re gathering to get input on a decision moving forward. It’s important to layout the boundaries and expectations like “All of your input will be considered in making this decision”
Feedback: you would like feedback on a recent event or project you all have participated in. It’s important to preface this with what EXACTLY you’re looking for. We all know that team member ready and willing to give corrective feedback. Think of that person, how can I be as specific as possible to avoid unnecessary comments?
Ideas: you’re open to hearing different ideas on a subject. Again, be specific. Otherwise you leave the power of where the meeting is heading to whomever pushes a direction.
The common theme here is preparation. It will save you from overwhelm everytime.
If you have little to no company culture, try utilizing a survey instead of an open discussion. If you haven’t set the tone first, it will not be productive. If one meeting isn’t productive it makes the rest that follow difficult to sustain attendance or attention.
Don’t loose your people to sucky meetings.
Remember these 2 things: have intention behind what you’re doing and look to yourself for validation.
