MANAGING, PARTICIPATING IN, AND LEADING MEETINGS
IN CHAPTER 33, WE MENTIONED COMPANIES that have closed periods during which office personnel don’t phone one another and don’t attend meetings. That gives them a certain amount of uninterruptible time each day. Indeed, the productivity of the entire country would be greatly increased if all office meetings of more than two people, in business and government, were banned for one year. Meetings are very expensive. You are taking people away from their work. Always consider what alternatives you have to holding a meeting. If the meeting is just for informational purposes, you can send out an email with attachments. If you want discussion and decisionmaking to occur, a meeting may still be unnecessary. You may instead be able to use an online document to facilitate a virtual discussion through comment tracking. While this method may not replace a final decisionmaking meeting entirely, it can allow that meeting to be briefer and more efficient. One-way communication does not require a meeting unless the meeting participants never see each other. Then, once in a while, it is nice to bring the group together.
THE COST OF A MEETING
Can you justify your meeting in terms of its cost vs. the benefits? Let’s say you have a meeting planned for your group of ten including yourself. You want to get reactions to new procedures put into place last week and address a few pending items. You have scheduled two hours for the meeting. Let’s calculate the cost of this meeting. Assume the average salary of everyone at the meeting is $80,000. Based on fifty work weeks per year, that would make the daily salary about $320 and the cost per person for two hours $80. We multiply that figure by ten and get about $800. Then add on any room rental fees, costs of snacks and coffee, and so forth. Then some of your attendees may have to travel to your meeting location. That takes them away from their work for an even longer period. Ask yourself the same question we started this section with: “Can you justify your meeting in terms of its cost vs. the benefits?” If you can, go forward with it. If you cannot, find an alternative.
ADVANCE NOTICE
One idea that helps generate a more productive meeting is to send the proposed agenda to meeting participants a few days before the meeting. Going to a meeting unprepared is counterproductive. Many meetings are spur-of-the-moment necessities, but a scheduled meeting should have an agenda.
If you are the only person knowledgeable about what is going to be covered, then that might feed your ego but it damages the quality of the meeting. Your agenda should list every topic to be discussed and the time frame for each topic. Whenever possible stick to the time frame so that you can end the meeting on time. Nothing exasperates people more than having meetings go beyond the agreed upon or announced ending time.
If you are approaching the time the meeting is scheduled to end and have more to cover, it is appropriate to let the participants decide whether to extend the meeting, reconvene, or handle the unresolved issues later. At the least, it may be appropriate in this situation to revise the agenda quickly, selecting the most urgent items to address in the limited time left.
It is good to have different meeting participants take the lead on different agenda items. This gets them more involved and helps them develop their leadership and facilitation skills. You can also involve your attendees in another manner. Ask them to contribute suggested items for upcoming meetings. Realize that you are likely not aware of all issues and opportunities within your organization.
Make sure you begin your meetings on time. You are wasting valuable time and resources when you have people sitting around waiting for the meeting to begin. When you become known for starting your meetings on time, people will make note and be more punctual. Plus you never want any of your meeting participants to feel that they are not as important as the people you are waiting for.
Another key thing to remember about agendas is to have the most important items listed and discussed first. You have probably attended too many meetings where the minor items came first, which took up most of the allotted meeting time. When that happens, there is never enough time to cover the important stuff.
MISTAKES MANAGERS MAKE
Many managers who are new to the meeting process feel obligated to have an opinion on every issue. That isn’t necessary. Have an opinion where your motivation is the issue, not the perceived need to speak. It’s far better to make a few thoughtful statements than to rattle on about everything. It’s preferable to have an executive attending the meeting say, “John is a thoughtful person,” as opposed to, “John always has something to say, but not necessarily anything to add.”
The other extreme of remaining silent during the entire meeting is just as bad. It implies you are intimidated by the situation, have nothing to contribute, or are just plain not interested. That is not an image you want to project. Even if the situation does intimidate you a bit, never let them see you sweat. Chapter 39, which covers public speaking, will help you in this regard.
Never say anything uncomplimentary in a meeting about anyone on your staff. It will be received as disloyalty on your part. Handle situations, not personalities. Managerial careers have been halted by a manager who trashed an employee in front of a high-ranking executive. As with inappropriate humor, this type of behavior reflects poorly on you.
Some managers view a meeting with higher-ranking executives as a place to display management skills and acumen. That is all right if you go about it correctly. However, if you view the meeting as a competition with other managers at your level, your emphasis is wrong. Your goal is to be a productive, contributing member of the team, not to show up other managers. Competition is the wrong element to bring to the table.
Another mistake that many managers make is seeing which way the boss is going on an issue, so that their positions are the same. The idea is that their bosses will think more of a manager who agrees with them, or thinks as they do. Most bosses immediately spot that game, and the manager may be thought of as spineless. Of course, if you have a point of view that is different from your boss, state it in a diplomatic, reasoned way—but you ought to do that anyway. If everyone agrees with the boss, you don’t need to have the meeting.
By the way, many managers lack the courage to take a position different from their boss’s. Probably in the vast majority of situations, the courage to state a thought-out position, even if different from the boss’s, does more for a career than transparent agreement. There are even executives who deliberately throw out a false position to see which sheep will follow, and then agree with someone who had the courage to state the correct position. (Most executives didn’t get to their positions by being stupid.)
Any executive chairing a project or a meeting with members she outranks would do well to hold back disclosing her own position until after everyone else has given their thoughts and opinions. Example: The president of a company headed up a corporate reorganization project team consisting of seven people. The president wisely didn’t announce her opinions until after she’d called for everyone else’s. That approach precluded anyone from playing up to the president, or withholding contrary information out of concern for how it would be received.
An executive does not need employees or project team members to play up to him. This approach might also teach new managers that it is okay to have a different point of view. Of course, as mentioned earlier in this book, some executives say they don’t want “yes people,” but their actions indicate otherwise. These executives end up with rubber-stamp teams and employees who merely provide cover for the executive, and that is a terrible waste of corporate and managerial time.
ADVANTAGES OF BEING ON PROJECT TEAMS
Occasionally, you will be asked to serve on a project team. Often the request is in the form of an invitation that you can decline if you choose. Always be discerning about which project teams and committees you join. They will all place additional demands on your time and take you away from your primary responsibilities. That being said, there are several advantages to being placed on a project team:
First, someone believes you can make a contribution or you wouldn’t have been asked. If you choose to join, make the most of it.
Second, you may come in contact with managers and executives across a wide spectrum of the organization. These can be valuable contacts and broaden your exposure.
Third, you may have the opportunity to become involved in decisions that reach beyond your own area of responsibility. This broadens your experience with the organization as a whole and helps you develop a broader perspective of how your team fits into the larger organization.
HOW TO LEAD A MEETING
When you become the meeting leader, you should take it as a compliment: Someone sees leadership or at least leadership potential in you. Don’t shy away from such an opportunity.
Some of the best training for leading a meeting is in being exposed to some poorly led ones. Most meetings last too long. You can’t help but wonder if some folks think sitting around at a meeting beats working. But probably the main reason meetings last too long is that they are poorly planned and poorly led.
In addition to the earlier suggestion about circulating an agenda in advance, distribute the minutes of the previous meeting. Most everyone then reads the minutes before going to the meeting, and except for a minor correction now and then, approval of the minutes is quickly handled. Contrast that with everyone sitting around for a quarter of an hour reading the minutes and feeling compelled to nitpick them to death.
Obviously, all agendas show starting times of meetings. It adds discipline to a meeting if you also show the expected closing time. People tend to stay focused on the subjects at hand if the meeting has an expected adjournment time.
Most meetings are run rather informally. You’ll seldom chair a committee that requires you to be an expert parliamentarian. If it does get formal, you’ll have to familiarize yourself with Robert’s Rules of Order. Having this reference available is a good thought, but you’ll rarely need it. In all the years you’ve attended business meetings, you probably can’t recall any parliamentarian questions having been raised, except in jest.
The rules of common sense should prevail when leading a meeting. Keep your cool. Don’t let anyone press your panic button. Be courteous to all meeting participants. Avoid putting people down. Act as a facilitator, not as a dictator. Keep to the subject. Don’t cut people off before they’ve had their say, but don’t allow them to drift away from the subject. Always deal with the problem at hand. A fair meeting leader discourages the same points from being expressed repeatedly.
Don’t get involved in personalities, even if others do. Be better organized than anyone else at the meeting. Develop the kind of thoughtful relationships with participants that will prompt them to come to you beforehand with unusual items, thereby avoiding unpleasant surprises. Be fair to everyone, even minority opinions that are unlikely to prevail. The majority view should not steamroll the minority opinion, at least until that opinion has had a fair hearing. If you are fair to all viewpoints, you’ll earn the respect of all the participants and make people comfortable sharing their ideas. An organization that welcomes ideas tends to be more innovative. Being a successful meeting leader is another chance to display the high quality of your leadership skills.
OTHER MEETING TIPS
Establish ground rules at the beginning of a meeting. Ground rules are agreed-upon behaviors that everyone follows. They help the meeting run more smoothly and help reduce disruptive behaviors. Ground rules may include not talking when someone else is, agreement that comments will be about the topic and not the person presenting the topic, agreement to abide by the meeting leader’s requests to wrap-up comments, and avoiding side conversations. Meetings have ground rules about staying on topic, allowing everyone to participate, commenting on the suggestion but not the messenger, and so forth. Ground rules are very helpful and you would be wise to develop a set with your meeting participants. The ground rules need to include whether phones and laptops will be used during the meeting for texting and email. To avoid using up valuable meeting time, this can be done in advance in an exchange of emails with the participants.
Asking someone to capture ideas and positions and write them on a whiteboard or flip chart helps participants feel confident that their thoughts have been recognized and captured. It will also reduce the chances that people feel a need to repeat themselves. If someone does, you can just point to where his point has been recorded and ask if there is an additional point he would like to offer.
When you are leading a meeting and multiple participants express a desire to talk, acknowledge their desire and let them know they will be heard in a certain order. This lets them know they will have a turn and can relax knowing it will soon come. The same method works if you have a problem with someone interrupting a participant. Simply let him know he will have an opportunity to speak but, “We all want to hear what Shannon has to say.”
If a discussion develops that is clearly just between two participants and does not involve others in attendance, ask the two involved to pursue their discussion at another time. If the outcome of their discussion is related to topics being addressed in the meeting they can report back on their outcome by email or at the next meeting. This way their one-to-one conversation does not eat into everyone else’s time. You may be surprised how often this happens and how rarely the two involved realize that they are diverting the purpose of the meeting to address something that just applies to them.
When facilitating a discussion, it is appropriate to ask a person before he starts to speak if two, three, five, or ten—whatever is appropriate—minutes will be sufficient for his comments. That way he has agreed to a “time budget” for his remarks and he knows he needs to be efficient. If he has used the amount of time he agreed to, it is appropriate to gently stop him and ask how much more time he will need. By doing so you have respectfully reminded him that he needs to wrap up so the meeting can stay on track.
Spend five or ten minutes at the end of a meeting to discuss with the group how the meeting went. You want to get feedback so you can improve the quality of the next meeting you run.
Have the purpose and the goals of the meeting on the top of your agenda.
Only invite those individuals who should really be there. As a rule of thumb, have the fewest people possible. Also, individuals do not have to stay for the entire meeting. They may be interested in or need to be there for only a couple of the agenda items.
You want your meetings to be as short as possible. Keep in mind that after about two hours most people’s attention spans are shot. If your meetings run longer, you need breaks. That can become time consuming and even more costly.
Prepare a follow-up action plan with action items for the different participants. Make sure everyone gets a copy so each person knows what other people’s responsibilities are.
Schedule meetings reluctantly. Pride yourself on making them quick and efficient. By doing both, you are likely to get a higher level of participation and superior outcomes.
REMOTE MEETINGS AND VIDEO CONFERENCING
Often you will be including people in your meetings who are offsite and participating through video conferencing. This situation presents unique challenges to keeping the meeting meaningful and productive. Avoid having people participate by audio only unless the meeting is very brief. Using an audio-only connection deprives both the remote participants and the onsite participants of the vitally important visual elements of communication.
A few of the basics to keep in mind when conducting meetings with remote participants are:
• These meetings are not the same as in-person meetings. Do not make the mistake of treating it as though everyone is in the same room.
• Remote meetings require more advance planning.
• Even with video conferencing nonverbal communication is hampered. That means your communication style will need to be clearer and more specific.
• Be sensitive to the local time zones of the remote participants. Try to find a meeting time that is convenient to all. If there is no way to avoid some of the people participating during non-work hours move the meeting times around so the inconvenience of off hours meetings is evenly distributed and does not always fall on the same person.
• It can be quite valuable to have one-on-one calls in advance with remote participants to initiate dialogue, set expectations, and get a sense of their goals and concerns. Doing so will allow you to avoid having to clarify their thoughts during the meeting when communication is less-than-ideal.
• There are times when remote meetings are not advisable. Lengthy, multi-topic meetings do not work well in a remote format. Brainstorming or strategy sessions that require more of a free flow of information and a lot of idea explanation do not work well with remote participants.
These ground rules will help make your remote meetings more successful:
• As always, be clear to all involved on the objectives of the meeting. This is even more important when some of the participants are remotely located.
• Distribute an agenda, materials, and ground rules for the meeting to everyone in advance.
• Keep the meeting to just a few topics.
• Ask your remote participants to find a quiet setting without background noise or distractions. This means their local coffee house or diner is not suitable.
• Start the meeting with a pleasant hello to each participant then have them introduce themselves by name and role. This will help to keep a personable tone and keep the meeting from becoming too sterile.
• Ask that all turn off their cell phones or at least silence them, as you feel is appropriate. If cell phones remain on remote participants will often send text messages to other remote participants during the meeting. It is up to you to determine whether this is positive or negative.
• The meeting leader needs to put extra effort into helping remote participants stay with the flow of the meeting. This may mean they need to occasionally take a moment to report to the remote participants on anything significant they cannot see or hear. They also may want to occasionally ask those offsite if they need any clarifications.
• If you will be seeking input or feedback ask each remote participant one at a time to be sure they have an opportunity. Avoid surprising them by telling them in advance that you will be doing so.
• The meeting leader needs to make sure that people are not talking simultaneously.
• Ask both onsite and offsite participants to identify themselves each time they talk in the event they are not in the frame of the video feed or presentation graphics are on the screen.
• Take a brief break every half hour or so to avoid having people step out unannounced.
You will be well-served to set expectations by distributing etiquette for the call in advance. This may seem a bit excessive but it is easy for remote participants to not be aware of how they can negatively impact a meeting. Suggested etiquette for a meeting involving remote participants includes:
• Asking those offsite to log in fifteen minutes early to validate their connection and confirm that the meeting application is working for them.
• Ask participants to focus on the meeting. This means not multitasking by sending emails, texting, or surfing the web while the meeting is underway. Keyboard clicks are an obvious giveaway. Many suggest that notes be taken by hand to avoid keyboard clicks in the background.
• Just like eye contact is important in-person it also is during a video conference. This means look into the camera.
• Dress appropriately. Your people are in a business meeting and should be appropriate. This does not necessarily mean formal business attire, unless that is what all will be wearing, but it means not wearing pajamas.
• Ask that participants let the meeting leader know if they need to step out.
Another tip: Be aware of what is behind you on a video call. You do not want a background that is distracting or unprofessional. If your work setting makes this difficult you may want to get a folding stand-up screen to put up behind you during calls. Finally, be aware of the lighting in the room. Poor lighting can make you look odd or ill. Neither is good.
Even if your team is all in one location you will still likely need to include remote participants into some of your meetings. You owe it to yourself and your team to be thoughtful about how to make such meetings productive and pleasant.