subject: The Value of Effective Meetings in Leadership [print this page] Author: Nauka Shah Author: Nauka Shah
The best argument against holding regularly scheduled effective meetings finds support in one of the highest rules of leadership. That rule, simply stated: Never waste people time-not with unnecessary meetings or memos or reports or committees or busy work. If you waste their time, you steal a chunk of their lies. Theyll resent you for it, and rightly so. Why have meeting? You could buy a lot of goodwill by never scheduling a meeting. People get a sense of whats going on in other areas of the operation. Meeting put a human face on supervisors and colleagues with whom employees might not otherwise get a chance to interact. They help develop and maintain a sense of solidarity and shared mission and a spirit of cooperation. In an Effective Meeting: - Everyone hears the same thing at the same time, removing some of the possibilities for miscommunication when information gets repeated. - People ask for clarification. - The speaker can read non-verbal clues to determine the level of interest and understanding in the group. - Most important, when people interact, they get ideas they wouldnt have gotten otherwise. Not seeing a lot of energy and interaction at your effective meetings now? Then lets look at when you call those meetings and how you lead them and the effect that has on motivation. There are two schools of thought about holding meetings. (Well, three schools, if you count Never! as a school of thought.) One school says regular meetings are a good idea, even if you dont have any pressing business to discuss. If you schedule regular meetings, this argument goes, folk gets used to the idea. Once you start getting the group to work together toward common goals, however, youll discover plenty of good reasons to have regular meetings. You shouldnt just respond to crises, after all. You should meet to conduct your business openly, with full participation by everyone. So, schedule regular meetings. If you find a meeting date approaching and no real reason to meet (or compelling reasons not to), you can always cancel the meeting. Every time you lead a meeting, make it worth your co-workers time and energy to be there. Dont Meet Just to Meet: Dont have a meeting if you dont have a real reason to meet that will help people perform better as individuals and as a group. Meetings that dont do that undermine motivation.About the Author:
Nauka Shah, the author, is the founder of http://www.leadership-quality.com. A website dedicated to helping strategic leaders for his strategic leadership. She has written other leadership articles, press releases, leadership books, and has leadership videos on leadership development, motivation, self improvement, and organization development. Her mission is to help others all over the world succeed in their own business. To read more of her leadership articles and leadership tips visit her website at http://www.leadership-quality.com to learn how to develop leadership quality.
