Mastering Meetings: 7 Rules for Effective Leaders

Music. Welcome to the Manager Lab, where we delve into the increasingly dynamic world of talent management.

In each episode, we will unravel key insights, break down the most relevant books and articles, and provide actionable tips to optimize your approach in developing and retaining top talent. Stay tuned for a deep dive into the art, science, and strategy of unlocking your team's full potential. Let's enter the Manager Lab. Music.

Normally, on this podcast, we review articles from Harvard Business Review or Gallup or MIT Sloan Management Report. But today, we're not going to do that. We're going to review a handout I found while I was cleaning house, just kind of going through some old files, doing some filing on this Saturday morning.

So, anyway, I thought it was great. I don't know if this was a handout that I actually created myself when I was a consultant and did a lot of training on my own, kind of created my own work, or if this was a handout that I received by going to a webinar. Regardless, I thought, you know what, this is really worth sharing some really good tips in here. This is all about meetings and seven rules when you as a manager are leading

the meeting. So this is not just participating. This is when you are in charge of the meeting. Most likely, this would occur if you have like a regular staff meeting, but you can apply these principles to really any kind of meeting that you might be attending and leading. Number one, get the agenda you want with specific outcomes. So I can't, tell you the number of meetings that I go to that has absolutely no agenda. Some do, and it really, really helps.

So really think about when you're driving and leading a meeting, really put together an agenda. Now, you don't necessarily have to publish it, but good if you do. That helps other people get acclimated to the meeting, but get the agenda that you want with very specific outcomes that you want to drive. You can influence that, obviously, in advance. Make sure that it reflects your priorities and get those priorities. This is a really good tip. Get those priorities up front.

So if you have two or three priorities, make sure they're the first, you know, two or three things on the agenda. Because if for some reason the meeting derails, it goes in a way that you did not foresee, then at least your priorities are taken care of. That's number one. Number two, prep for the people that's going to be in the room, not just the topics on the agenda.

So when you're thinking about all the people that's going to be in the meeting, consider their agenda and know when you might be in alignment or disagreement with something that's going to be brought up in your meeting. So, you know, really kind of play the politics maybe before the meeting happens so that you can, you know, foresee any issues that might come up with the people that's in the room. And, of course, take advantage of the synergy based on who is going to be there as well.

You might be able to talk about an upcoming cross-functional assignment because someone is going to be in that room that's important to the development of one of your direct reports. Or maybe someone in your department is giving a presentation in another department and someone from that department is going to be in your meeting. You can really kind of help leverage their success there. So that's number two, prep for the people, not just the topics.

Number three, don't facilitate, lead the meeting. So this is where delegation comes in really, really handy. Let your number two or number three person on your team facilitate all responsibilities. So creating, you know, creating an agenda. Again, you're going to preload that agenda with your priorities, but let them come up with the agenda, how they communicate that, the location of the meeting.

If it's in person or on Teams or Zoom, make sure that they start the meetings on time, they end on time, they have an appropriate parking lot for things that are not relevant to that particular meeting. Make sure if you're gonna publish minutes or notes of the meeting, make sure they're responsible for that. So you can delegate a lot of things for routine meetings.

It gives you more opportunity to really contribute more strategically and make sure that you are looking for very relevant content that you can bring your expertise in on. And really, it allows you to sit back and kind of watch your team develop. And you can do a lot of evaluation during meetings sometimes. All right, that's number three. Number four, always speak last on every topic.

The less you talk, the more time you get to, again, evaluate your team, kind of think strategically about how the meeting is going, what's being said. It also gives other people in the room, you know, more time to share their ideas. It gives them more space to share. And, you know, just practically speaking, if you speak last on every topic, most of the time, the last thing that someone says is the thing that most people remember.

So it's going to be able to be more memorable and therefore stick in people's minds much longer if you speak last. Number five, own the shoulders of the meeting. Meaning right before a meeting starts or right after a meeting is over, own that period. You know who's coming. You know what the topics are. You can develop and hone your relationships with people that's going to be in the meeting. So show up early. Stay late.

Work on developing those key relationships by knowing who's attending and really leveraging those relationships to get your agenda accomplished. Number six, learn the value of follow-up. The biggest difference that really separates professional managers from amateur managers or new managers is follow-up.

If I hear any complaint about managers during the week, eight out of 10 of them is because the manager has not followed up appropriately. This is a huge issue. And really think about this. All the meeting or all the things that get done get done outside the meeting. You talk about things during the meeting, but all the things that are really executed happens after the meeting is over with.

And so if you're not following up and executing, then you're not getting the results, perhaps, that you want to see. This is a good time to make sure that you're taking your own notes, again, leveraging the shoulders of the meeting, and then putting reminders in your priority management system that allows you to follow up and to see the conclusion. I've got in my notes in the space here, I've got this is the separator idea.

Meaning it separates the professional managers from those managers who just don't have it all together yet. So this is a big deal.

And then finally, the last thing I'll say is pre-wire decisions, meaning, and this is very common in politics, right, where you count your votes. You kind of know how things are going to go before you get into the meeting. Do your homework. Run interference when you need to, and then, you know, obviously influence appropriately both on the shoulders of the meeting, in between meetings, so that you can ultimately make sure that your agenda is fulfilled.

Well, I hope that helps. I thought it was a really, really good handout, and I hope that over the next few weeks and months that you have really, really good and productive meetings. And until next time we meet in the Manager Lab, do good work.