Are Meetings a Form of Procrastination?
One of the roles of a leader is to make meetings more productive
Everything starts with having the right talent in place. Before I hired senior-level executives I would show up to our internal meetings and not hold myself accountable. Admittingly, I would come to meetings ill-prepared, and instead, use the meetings as ‘working meetings’ to do the work I should have done prior. In hindsight, I would waste my team’s time during the meeting to flush out ideas that I could have done myself.
The worst possible reason to meet is to disseminate information
I like having meetings. I enjoy interacting with my team and discussing ideas. That being said, meetings need to be productive and outcome-driven. The desired outcome should be stated in the meeting agenda, which should be prepared and circulated in advance.
Get comfortable with awkward silence
At the beginning of the meeting start with something fun and light. At Socialike if we do not have a major win for the week we will have one of our employees mention a few Instagram accounts they follow and why. The bulk of the meeting, basically the reason you pulled your staff away from their desk, should be to further formulate ideas or brainstorm about upcoming projects. We end every meeting by adding our follow-ups in Asana.
When you think about payroll, meetings are expensive.
Role of the leader:
- Have the best questions
- Create an environment that the team can speak their mind freely
- Be ok to table ideas, don’t let unrelated ideas derail meetings
- Encourage people to take notes
- Drive a discussion that leads to an action
