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Category: Management
5 Keys to short, effective meetings
You may have heard the expression that meetings are where “minutes are kept and hours are lost.” We are all keenly aware of this maxim when we are part of a meeting that lasts far too long and accomplishes nothing.
About three years ago I was able to experience the work of an excellent meeting facilitator. I was serving on a board, and Rick was the Chairman. Each monthly meeting was scheduled for 60 minutes, and during Rick’s two-year term, there was never a meeting that was so much as a minute over. Here is the best part: None of us board members every felt rushed, and the meetings were some of the most productive I have ever attended in my career. How did he do it? Here are the steps he followed.
- He handed out a simple, printed agenda:
- He went through each item and generated a discussion that opened us up and made it comfortable for everyone to give input.
- After a time, the discussion would start to get repetitive. Rick knew right when to intercede. He would say, “If I may summarize, what I hear you saying is…” He was usually right on because he was an excellent listener.
- After summarizing the discussion, he would ask for a plan of action that involved commitment from the members. They knew they would be held accountable to report in the next meeting.
- After summarizing each discussion and recapping the specific action steps: Meeting adjourned. Right on time!
I know, it sounds easy. It isn’t. Above are the fundamentals. The rest is up to us. (Practice)
The quickest way to business failure
OK. I know you aren’t reading this because you want your business to fail. You’re just curious. What is the quickest way to get a business to fail? Be rude! With today’s unforgiving social media reviews, one or two poor customer interactions can do serious harm.
Increase profit by reducing tolerations
If you are like most of us, when you look at your personal life, there are a few things in the “toleration” category. Here are some examples:
- Being overweight
- Not eating right
- Office clutter
- A half-finished project
This list can get pretty long. Let’s face it, there are some tolerations we just never get around to attending to.
There are also tolerations in business. Read More…
The value of a good sense of humor
Mark Twain once said, “A sense of humor is a sense of proportion”. He was so right. My coaching experience has taught me that top-performing teams have a hearty sense of humor. They laugh at life, and they laugh at themselves. They do not create humor at another person’s expense.
The enormous cost of low emotional intelligence
About 15 years ago, I was working in a key position for a worldwide training company. The owners decided to hire a new training director. She was from a large corporation and brought a new flavor to the team. The flavor she brought did not taste good. Sylvia was what is commonly referred to as a “body tripper”.
At first, Sylvia was friendly and gracious to everyone on the team. Then, once she got situated in her position, she began to change. She became aloof, ignored people, wouldn’t listen to anyone, and it wasn’t long before virtually everyone resented her. I said, “virtually”. There were a few people she was very nice too. They were all in top management. She had them snookered. Top management didn’t see what we saw.
Read More…