String of Mostly Unnecessary Meetings Or Actual Work
Summary: The more you try to have fewer meetings, the more you will allow your teammates to shine through actual work, and the more will you establish yourself as a Star Leader! How do you think the number of meetings taking place at a workplace could be brought down to a balance?
When meetings often flow freely and feel redundant, people are bound to stop paying attention to what is going on and become turned off towards each other’s wants and needs. How does a star leader make sure that their meetings actually matter? Read on to find out.
Meetings have become a way to reassure ourselves that we are doing something useful and productive, regardless of what goes down in the meeting and what we gain out of it. However, when meetings flow freely and feel redundant, people are bound to stop paying attention to what is going on and become turned off to each other’s wants and needs. This may even lead to a silo mentality, working isolatedly without sharing information1.
Besides, it is an observed fact that an absurdly high number of meetings don’t lead to useful discussion or work. An interesting real-life phenomenon was developed after observing that groups that have allotted deadlines and meet to finish that work behave in certain common patterns2. It shows that after the initial meetings, work groups hit a period of stagnation. Initial meetings may be about setting up a framework on how to act and what your roles are in the group, and later stages have actual work being produced effectively. But those in the middle are just empty spaces till the deadline approaches and the group suddenly spurs into greater action with ideas and labour both flowing freely.
So how do we stop this wastage of time and actually have meetings that matter?
Audit your meeting calendar!
For once, do in fact procrastinate!
Reserve one day a week to have no meetings
Impact on Leadership
3 Immediately Applicable Action Steps
- For every meeting, share a small brief with all the attendees on what the agenda is going to be and what the expected outcome is.
- Keep one day which is about relaxation from communication.
- Label whether the meeting is going to be about daily operations or strategic decisions.
References
1-Seers, A., & Woodruff, S. (1997). Temporal Pacing in Task Forces: Group Development or Deadline Pressure? Journal of Management, 23(2), 169–187. https://doi.org/10.1177/01492063970230
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2- Mankins, M. (2014, November 5). Stop Wasting Valuable Time. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2004/09/stop-wasting-valuable-time
Authored by Coach Vikram
Vikram is an Executive Presence Coach who supports CXOs and senior leaders to make an impact, influence, and lead with ease. He advises C-level leaders and teams to strengthen business performance through their executive presence and star leadership.
Vikram works closely with Boards and senior leaders to align leadership needs with strategy. His forte is his ability to develop trusted partnerships with senior leaders at some of the most recognized companies in the world. Vikram coaches senior leaders to draw upon their best selves, while growing their business and their leadership capabilities.
Vikram and his team have developed a groundbreaking model of executive presence and an Executive Presence Index (EPI) Assessment, the first frequency based, scientifically validated tool to measure executive presence.
Connect with him if you want practical and immediately applicable strategies to accelerate results, develop your people, and influence others to make a positive difference in your organization.
