Welcome to the November issue of the Pelican Coaching newsletter.
Thank you so much for all the positive comments, tweets and retweets on last month’s topic ‘Effective Use of Time’. This is obviously a very hot topic for many of you at the moment. If you do want to explore how you can get better with time, either through some focused coaching sessions or a team workshop, please get in touch and we can discuss.
This month the Featured Topic is ‘Effective Meetings’, hopefully this will prove just as interesting.
Meetings, often back-to-back meetings, are a way of life in organisations today, so how do you ensure that the meetings you are involved in are effective?
The Top 10 Tips below will give you some ideas and hopefully challenge some of your thoughts about meetings.
Featured Topic: Effective Meetings
Why not take half an hour of your time right now and think about the tip or tips below that might just make the most difference for you. You might find it helpful to print this article out and read it away from your desk.
Top 10 Tips
1. Decide if you really need a meeting!
I truely believe that many meetings in organisations today are completely unnecessary and a huge waste of people’s time.
Meeting are not very good vehicles for getting people on board with a topic or even for making decisions. If you want to get people on board or make a decision, talk to them one-to-one first, then you can decide whether or not you need a meeting.
Meetings are also not good vehicles for information sharing, particularly when the communication is one way. Think of how many meetings you’ve attended where you’ve switched off after just 5 minutes of a 20 minute ‘update’ presentation. Just because people are present at a meeting it does not mean they are prepared to listen or take on lots of new information. If you want to share information, think about who needs to know what, and then go and talk to them, send an email or organise an interactive session with lots of dialogue.
Meetings are also not vehicles for embarrassing people who have not followed up on a particular commitment. Keeping people on track with actions and tasks or inpiring motivation is something that is best done on a one to one basis.
So before you organise your next meeting ask yourself ‘is a meeting really necessary to acheive the outcome I want?’ and before you attend your next meeting ask yourself ‘what is the purpose for me attending this meeting?’
2. Keep it short
Meetings have a tendency to expand to fill the time available and organisational culture often drives meeting length. I think electronic diaries have a lot to answer for!
The most effective meetings are the short meetings. Short, punchy meetings tend to have greater engagement, a clear focus and by their very nature move quickly from topic to topic.
Why not see if your next meeting can be planned to fit into 20 minutes, go on – I challenge you to try and notice the difference.
3. Begin with the end in mind
Decide the purpose of the meeting and the key outcomes.
How will you know know that the meeting has been successful? How will others know? (Are you sure that each outcome is best acheived by a meeting?).
Circulate your purpose, key outcomes and agenda topics well in advance of the meeting to give people a chance to prepare.
What do you need to happen in advance of the meeting to make it a success?
4. Let the agenda drive attendance
It is difficult to break the pattern of attending meetings, but as your time is very precious you owe it to yourself and others to make the right decisions to maximise effectiveness.
Why not begin to drive a cultural change in your organisation if you find yourself attending too many meetings or suggest others drop out of your meetings if the agenda doesnt warrant their presence.
What meeting can you remove from your diary this week if you just go and have a quick conversation with the meeting leader?
5. Get others involved
A number of roles are needed for a successful meeting and it is very difficult to play all of them yourself.
Some of the key roles are: meeting leader, facilitator, time keeper, topic leader and note taker.
I believe that the meeting leader should focus on the role of facilitator (and perhaps also take on the role of time keeper) and that the other roles should be taken by other meeting attendees.
Facilitation is all about maintaining energy, momentum and engagement and it is very tricky to do this if you are taking notes or leading the discussion on a topic.
Why not separate out these roles for your next meeting.
6. Keep time!
If attendees know that a meeting leader is in control they are more likely to contribute.
Think of the meetings you have attended where the facilitator kept to time and kept things moving at the right pace. You were probably engaged and didn’t spend the whole time looking at your watch as you had confidence that things were under control and that this was a good use of your time.
What can you do to demonstrate your time control at your next meeting?
7. Keep people on their toes
If meeting attendance is driven by agenda topics then everyone present should have a contribution to make – before, during and after the meeting. So make sure you ask for those contributions.
Talk to the attendees before the meeting to set the context, solicit their input, understand their questions or issues and then call on them during the meeting.
Who do you need to talk to before your next meeting?
8. Remember the music and the dance!
As I’m sure you know, only a small percentage of communication is about what is said. How it is said (the music or tone) and your body language (the dance) is what most people will pick up on. As the meeting leader lead you can set the ‘music’ for the meeting and encourage others to ‘dance’ to your tune.
What tone are you going to set at your next meeting?
9. Take action
Effective meetings generate a clear plan of action and these actions are clearly communicated to those at the meeting, and all those with an interest. A meeting shouldn’t happen in isolation.
As the meeting leader you do not have to take forward many (if any!) actions but it is important to ensure ownership for all actions generated. If an action doesnt have an owner and a target date it is unlikely to progress.
How are you going to handle actions at your next meeting?
10. Keep the momentum going
As you know the real work for the meeting leader always happens outside of the meeting, making sure actions are progressed, issues are raised and everyone is on board.
Try and have regular check-ins with all the attendees to build or further develop the relationships.
Who would it be a good idea to talk to today?
Highlights from last month
New Leader Coaching
I am working with a number of new leaders helping them to ‘step up’ to their next leadership level. Each leader has a coaching programme tailored specifically to their needs usually involving an intake (or goal setting) session, six coaching sessions and review meetings with their sponsor.
This is what a recent client said about the experience
“I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity of leadership coaching with Helen. In the past, I have attended various management courses, which were quite helpful, but nothing like as effective as the coaching sessions. The coaching changed the way I think about leading a team and about how to manage my work-life balance. The changes seem very obvious and logical now, but I just could not see this before. Overall I feel much more positive, confident and enthusiastic about leading my new team.”
New leader Coaching takes place face to face or over the phone or skype.
Empowerment Coaching
We have been working with a number of clients offering short, focused telephone coaching sessions to help develop greater sense of staff empowerment. Through the sessions, individuals learn to solve their own challenges and develop techniques for self coaching and supporting their peers.
‘Letting Go’ *NEW BOOK*
I’m hoping to complete my new picture book by the end of the year. The new book has ideas and tips for dealing with major changes in life and work. The book is called ‘Letting Go’ and will feature a slightly different character and the pictures will have a slightly different look and feel (from my last books).
Coming next month
Next month’s newsletter will be the last of the year so the featured topic will be your Acheivements, Reflections and Learnings from 2010.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, if you have please let me know. I always love your feedback, and please do forward (or retweet) this onto anyone who may enjoy it too.
Warm wishes
Helen.
Leadership and Team Coach
Pelican Coaching & Development
