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Meeting Skills
What is the actual
cost of six managers sitting in a meeting for three hours, each
earning £20,000 a year? When you take into consideration the wages,
loss of earnings for the organisation, preparation, travel,
refreshments, administration, etc., the actual cost is in excess of
£200. When managers come to me to sign a cheque of £1 or more, they
have to justify their spending. I sign only if I am satisfied that
their spending falls in line with our company policy and is
necessary.
"Are you attending
too many unproductive meetings?"
Do you know the
cost of your meetings? Would you sign a cheque for £200 without
asking any questions? Do you spend most of your time attending
meetings? Do others use the meeting to satisfy their ego? Are you
attending never ending meetings? Meetings without objectives,
timescales, action plans and effective leadership are just mere
discussions and a fantastic waste of your time and your
organisation's money. Consider every meeting you attend as a
business investment and invest in it wisely. Construct a meeting
appraisal relating to your organisation and your personal life and
check how much you are spending each year on meetings. I believe
that your findings will surprise you. Using this simple but
effective system will enable you to totally justify the number of
meetings you are attending:
Total Justification
Objectives
Timescale
Action Plan
Leadership
Total Justification
Before you organise
the meeting, be absolutely sure this meeting must take place and is
a good investment of your organisation's time and money. To ensure
this, ask yourself these questions:
| a |
Why is this meeting
necessary? |
| b |
Is there a cheaper,
quicker or more effective way than having a meeting? i.e.
fax, telephone, letter, memorandum, e-mail, etc. |
| c |
What is the agenda? |
| d |
Who needs to be there? |
| e |
Who will record the
meeting? |
| f |
Where will be the most
convenient place to have this meeting? |
| g |
What other considerations
do I need to take into account? |
Objectives
Make sure the
objectives for your meeting are clear, specific and simple enough
for everyone to understand. Objectives are essential as without them
you have no basis on which to judge how successful the meeting was.
Therefore inform everyone beforehand of the objectives and again at
the start of the meeting. Make sure that discussions and decisions
stay on target to your objectives as again without objectives your
meetings will suffer. At the close of the meeting, review and check
to see if you have achieved your objectives.
Timescale
In my early years
in management, I'd often make the mistake of not checking how long a
meeting would last. As a result of this, I wasted many hours. Once
you agree on the timescale of the meeting it will help focus
everyone's attention on the matters to be discussed. A meeting
without a timescale is like an open cheque with the authorised
signatures in place. If a meeting is to start at 3pm and end at 4pm,
start at 3pm and only exceed your time if you have the agreement of
the other members. It shows respect for other people's time. If you
constantly start your meetings late, individuals attending will
arrive when they think you will start. Throughout the meeting be
conscious of the time and in turn money as it passes by. One of my
major challenges in life is, "never be late for a meeting." Arriving
on time is respectful. You may have heard the saying, "If you want
respect, you must first give it." I say to you, if you want others
to respect your time, you must respect theirs.
Action Plan
When you attend a
meeting you are there to make decisions, analyse, solve problems or
be updated. Meetings where decisions have been made should form the
basis of an "action plan". This plan should indicate decisions made,
who is responsible for carrying out the action and the date and time
for completion. Failing to do this and holding individuals
accountable may result in an agenda item spending up to one year on
your agenda. When action involves more than one person, always make
sure that one is more accountable than the others.
Leadership
Leading a meeting
is an art. The success or failure of a meeting rests with the:
Attitude
Skills and
Knowledge of the leader
A good leader is polite,
sensitive, approachable, empathic and quick to listen. S/he is well
prepared and makes certain that everyone is comfortable and fully
resourced, enabling them to fully participate. Good leaders
recognise the unlimited and untapped potential in people and
therefore create an open, friendly and non-threatening environment
to foster creativity and generally get the best from individuals.
They are constantly working
on their attitude, improving their skills and updating their
knowledge to find better ways to lead and understand people. When
chairing meetings I am at my very best when like a judge I:
| a |
am very friendly. |
| b |
keep order. |
| c |
am neutral. |
| d |
allow everyone to speak in
turn. |
| e |
stop any foolish behaviour
which may allow the meeting to get out of hand. |
| f |
am time conscious. |
| g |
examine all the evidence
carefully. |
| h |
ask relevant questions.
|
| i |
consider every
contribution, no matter how small or great. |
| j |
give a summary and make
relevant decisions. |
When you follow
this technique and others inform you of how well you led the
meeting, humble yourself and seek further improvement.
Effective
leaders are in great demand.
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