Meetings, one of the most criticized elements of the workplace, are often vilified for hindering productivity rather than promoting it. According to the Wall Street Journal, we spend an average of two full days per week in meetings. However, meetings should serve your ability to deliver excellent work, not hinder it. They should feel like a platform from which you deliver something important, not merely a drain of your time. Here are some strategies to improve your meeting experience and amp up your impact.
Hindsight audits of past meetings will help you spot these signals, enabling you to avoid unnecessary or irrelevant meetings in the future.
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2. Contribute to the meeting objective
Understanding the meeting’s objective helps you decide whether to attend, prepare, and contribute to achieving that objective. Your role becomes crucial to the decision-making or discussion process. For instance, you may deliver impact by providing informed votes, summarizing costs, or facilitating productive discussion, considering your role. True impact comes from speaking in the most appropriate moments, not the most often.
3. Observe from a distance
Playing the part of an observer can sometimes be beneficial. It allows you to spot patterns, unspoken dynamics, or trends that others might miss. Being able to point out these aspects can deliver significant impact towards the overall meeting outcome.
4. Highlight underappreciated ideas
Busy meetings often drown out softer voices or overshadow understated ideas. However, if you spot a compelling idea that doesn’t get due attention, draw the team’s focus towards it. Crediting the idea originator and amplifying their idea contributes substantial value to the meeting.
5. Personal objectives are important too
While you should contribute towards the host’s objective, there’s no harm in having a separate agenda of your own, as long as it doesn’t conflict with the host’s plan. It could be networking with a colleague, learning from an expert, or testing a new idea. Sometimes, the most significant impact we can have is on ourselves.
Communication is one of the most critical leadership skills in the modern workplace. But its job is to do so much more than just transmit information. Leaders who communicate with an intent to engage end up with, well, more engaged teams. For more, listen in the player below:
Armed with these strategies, you can confront a busy schedule of back-to-back meetings with more confidence, energy, and gusto. Remember, meetings should be a productive platform, not a barricade to your success.