To Meet or Not to Meet?

Your work is never going to be good enough (for everyone). But it is good enough (for someone). 

- Seth Godin

The reason meetings don’t work is because you have both types of people in the same place. Their opinions on you are conflicted, they are driven by their own selfish motivations. People want to maintain their place in the hierarchy, or if you’re working with middle management - they want to prove a point. People are there to make a point, shareholders be damned. 

An office I worked in had life-sized cutouts of ‘customers’ we’d worked with in the past to encourage us to be customer focused in our discussions. They didn’t work. 

The more people you have in a room or, the harder it is to make a decision. Especially if there is a lack of connection, trust and understanding of where each person is coming from. How many times have you been in meetings about meetings? How much of a waste of time is that??

You can be sure any meeting taking place in a boardroom will lead to lack-lustre action, especially when there are several layers of hierarchy present. How can you expect the bottom level managers to challenge effectively when the person sitting across from them controls their salary? You can’t.

There are two ways to get around this.

1. Be very, very clear around your priorities and deadlines with your direct line manager. The goal is for them to say ‘okay’ to you missing the meeting that don’t align with the priorities you’re working on. 

Don’t think that’s possible? I got out of all management meetings and unnecessary things for 6 months. It was awesome, and it allowed me to really spend time with my team. 

Here’s the trick: your priorities have to mirror your boss’ priorities. The narrative you approach this conversation with is that you’re going to get to their goals. These aren’t your goals, these are your manager’s goals. In return, you’re hoping they can hold off the flood of nonsense, politics, and show face where you don’t want to be.

Give your boss more updates than he/she needs on progress being made. That is key. 

OR

2. If you’re the person owning the meeting, start the meeting with the main question. Why is everyone there? What decision needs to be made in this catch-up? 

Start the conversation the right way and make sure everyone is aligned and thinking about the same issue. 

OR

3. Move to a smaller organisation. Usually, you’ll find that there are less meetings. People who work there need to deliver results. But you might need to sacrifice the big brand on your CV and the nice elevators. But you might end up getting paid more (if you have the skills).

The reality is, the more time you spend in meetings the less you can spend with your team. As you move up the ladder, you’ll be expected to spend more time making decisions rather than managing people day to day. That’s normal. There’s a reason behind it, which I explore in the ‘motivation’ section. 

If you’re a new leader - the best thing you can do is spend as much time as you can with your team. 

Find a way. 

If you’re an experienced leader, let your juniors off the hook. They’ll have enough meetings to attend in their future so give them a break. Let them grasp the fundamentals by working with their team.