Get Yourself Ready for Meetings

As a leader, do you use the 3 key steps for preparation? 


With so many meetings, busy leaders don't always have time to think about the goals of those meetings. But showing up unprepared only makes a meeting longer and less effective. Try blocking out time on your calendar for prep work and to think about what you want to accomplish. If a meeting is an hour, you may need 30 minutes to prepare. For critical meetings you may need much more time. If you plan accordingly, you'll arrive ready to accomplish what you've set out to do, not catching up.


Three key steps for preparation...

1. Establish a clear purpose for the meeting and be sure everyone knows it.
2. Uses processes for engaging participants.  Avoid talking at them. 
3. Be sure to include everyone who needs to know. 

Adapted from "Make Time for Time" by Anthony K. Tjan.

Leading Decisive Meetings

As a leader, do you know how to lead a decisive meeting? 

Simply because someone is appointed to a leadership position, it doesn't mean that they automatically know how to lead effective meetings.  To keep momentum in your work, you need to run great meetings. Make your next meeting productive with these three guidelines:

• Restate the meeting's purpose. Even if you think everyone knows it, it helps to remind them and sharpen the group's focus.
• Include everyone. If one or two people dominate the conversation and others are shy about leaping in, draw out people through facilitating by saying, "Thanks for those ideas, Carl. What are your thoughts about this problem, Megan?"
• End well. Close the meeting with specific actions to take and a clear time frame. State the decisions the group has made, who owns what, and when they need to report back to the team. 

Adapted from Guide to Project Management (HBR OnPoint Collection).

Saving a Meeting that's Going Nowhere

As a leader, how do you save a meeting that's quickly sinking?

We've all been stuck in long meetings that bounce aimlessly from one topic to the next. Instead of rolling your eyes, take control. Without bulldozing others, be brave enough to propose a solution:

• Play dumb. Ask someone in the room—preferably the strongest communicator—to help you understand what problem you're trying to solve and what needs to happen to resolve it.  This is helping the group get to the purpose.
• Identify the decision-maker. Sometimes meetings stall because no one knows who is responsible for the decision or what the decision-making process is. Ask who that is and inquire about what the decision-making process will be.  This helps get process to the surface.
• Get the right people in the room. Are there absentees who need to be there? Suggest rescheduling for a time when all the stakeholders can be present.  This ensures inclusion and that the best thinking will be available for the group.

Adapted from Guide to Making Every Meeting Matter (HBR OnPoint Collection).

Leading Effective Meetings

As a leader, how do you ensure purpose in your meetings?

As leaders, we generally have the positional authority to call meetings when we wish.  This has obvious advantages but it also has significant potential risks for you as a leader.  If your meetings are purposeful and engaging, you run the risk of dooming all meetings to events your staff members learn to dread.

Here are four simple ideas to ensure effective meetings:

• Have a clear purpose.  Be sure that each meeting has a clear purpose and that everyone attending knows the purpose in advance.  People who attend can come prepared.  If your purpose is clear, your outcomes will be more readily accomplished.
• Ensure everyone who needs to be there is present.  Be sure that everyone who needs to know - or wants to know - is included.  If the meeting is worth calling, it's worth having all valuable perspectives present in the room.  It's annoying and ineffective when you find you need someone there and they weren't even invited.
• Operate by pre-determined norms.  Establish clear, easy-to-follow norms and stick by them.  People appreciate how norms focus meetings and get the work done in a timely manner.
• Use facilitation strategies. A well-facilitated meeting engages the participants and it accomplishes the outcomes desired.  Without facilitation, the meeting can go on and on while its trying to find a focus.  What usually ends up happening is that one person takes over and it becomes their meeting and you lose the value of those who are present. 

Thinking Creatively

As a leader, how do you access the most creative thinking when dealing with issues?

Creativity is not genetically encoded. Anyone can learn to think creatively. The key is to use both the left and right hemispheres of the brain: logical and intuitive, respectively. Start by immersing yourself in a problem. Use the logical left side of your brain to understand what you know about the topic. Then switch to the right side by distancing yourself from the issue and mulling over the information. Exercise is a good way to access the visual nature of the right hemisphere. It often leads to an "ah-ha moment" where you see a new solution. Then switch back to the left hemisphere to challenge your creative breakthrough with rational thinking.

All this said, you can also access creative thinking by drawing on the wisdom of your staff.  If it's an issue that requires creative thinking in the workplace then it's an issue that others will care about.  Be sure to include them in the thinking around the issue. If you don't, the only creativity you'll access is your own.  That may be enough in some situations but strong schools/organizations are built on collaborative and collective wisdom, not the thinking of an individual.

Adapted from  "How to Think Creatively" by Tony Schwartz.

WAIT - Why Am I Talking?

As a leader, do you ask yourself to WAIT?

Last week, I heard a great little acronym - WAIT - Why am I talking?  It struck me as a great message to use as a blog post.  As leaders, we need - often - to ask ourselves this question.  We need to think about why we are talking and when.  When we're speaking, we're not listening....and listening is likely a much more valuable skill for leaders than talking. 

Think about the five leadership competencies proposed by Ken Leithwood.  Leaders:

• set direction and sustain vision
• build purposeful relationships
• develop people and the organization
• manage core business
• secure accountability

Think about these 5 competencies.  For leaders to enact them, which is more important, listening or speaking?  If you believe listening is more important you're likely more inclusively minded in your leadership.  If you believe speaking is more important, you're likely more directive in your work.  Each of us chooses our own styles.  Does your style align with what you say you believe in? 

Bottom line.....ask WAIT.  A bit more listening and a lot less talking can help you know your school/organization better.  Ultimately, that will help you as a leader.

Blind Spots in Your School/Organization?

As a leader, how do you ensure you keep an eye on 'blind spots'?

When our brains concentrate intensely on one task, we miss what is happening around us. This means that when your team diligently focuses on a task, it's likely they're missing something. Here are two ways to identify those blind spots:

• Assign the task of speaking up. Every time your team meets, include an agenda item that reads: "What are we missing?" Rotate responsibility for answering that question so everyone eventually contributes.
• Get an outsider's perspective. Bring people in from other parts of the organization to analyze your observe and comment on your work. They might not know about the progress, methods, or solutions being worked on already, but they may see something your team doesn't.  They too can ask the question: "What are we missing?"

Adapted from "Why You May Be Blind to a Good Idea (and What to Do About It)" by Cathy N. Davidson.

Sometimes They Need to Know

As a leader, how much do you share with your staff?  How do you share it?

As leaders, we have many conversations in our offices with many different people or groups.  In some cases, significant discussions take place.  Some of these discussions end up in important decisions.  However, just because the conversation happened in your office and it was held with a group of key stakeholders, it doesn't mean that your staff knows what's going on.  How do you share important discussions, decisions, or information with all staff? 

Here are a few questions to ask yourself about how you share - or not! - the conversations you have:

• Who needs to know?
• Does everyone need to know?  If so, why?
• Who would like to know?  And just because they'd like to know, does it mean you share with them?
• Who might be affected by the discussions or decisions?  How will they find out what was discussed?
• Might you be missing additional thinking if some people are left out of discussions?
• How do you share discussions / decisions / information? 
• Do people have a variety of ways to access information from you?
• What might be the impact if some people don't know about the discussions or decisions?

Communication is a critical aspect of any school/organization.  People can feel included - or excluded - based on their access to information.  Exclusion from information can have a negative affect on both performance and morale.  In 2012, communication has never been easier.  Multiple methods of sharing information (bulletin boards, memoes, Twitter, email, etc.) have made it possible for everyone to have virtually immediate access to information. 

Don't risk damaging staff morale or their performance because you - as the leader - neglected to share information. 

Are you a facilitative leader?

As a leader, do you lead in a facilitative manner?  Much of what any leader needs to do is to facilitate the meetings, conversations, learning, and the work of a staff.  Yet how many of us actually have the skills to facilitate?  Simply because someone is in a leadership position, it does not necessarily mean that they have the skills of a facilitator.  In fact, many don't.  Facilitative leaders use specific processes that engage and include people.  These processes are carefully thought-out and designed in such a way that the leader provides the time, space, and processes to ensure that everyone who needs to be involved can take part, has a voice in the work that is done, and has a sense of ownership over the work and/or decisions made.  Facilitative leaders have a calm and calming manner because they know the processes to use to work through virtually any situation.  If facilitation skills are not yet part of your leadership repertoire, it might just be a very wise investment on your part to look at how you can begin to be more facilitative in your leadership.  You just might be very surprised to learn just how talented, knowledgeable, and skilled your staff is!

Will your people follow your lead?

As a leader, how do you build and strengthen relationships right from the beginning of a working relationship? 

The cover of a recent U.S. business magazine posed the question; "Will your people follow your lead?" While this is a good question for leaders to consider. ... Rather than focusing on our role and content, and trusting that our participants will adjust to us, it is increasingly important that we establish an environment of inclusion and influence.... As people interact around a shrinking globe, both in person and electronically, the ability to build and strengthen relationships right from the beginning is absolutely critical to the success of projects and organizations. [Leaders]who lack the ability to nurture relationships or who are pressured to deliver immediate results without taking the time to establish a foundation of rapport, tend to be less productive in the long run. So how does one build relationships, strengthen positive influence, and establish an environment of inclusion when working with audiences around the globe?

By: Kevin Sensenig
Published in journal: Training & Development - February 2011, Vol. 65 Issue 2