ComputerHunter.org |
|
|
|||
|
 |
Leading Meetings: The Top Three Challenges
What do people really find challenging about leading meetings? Here are the top three questions that keep on cropping up followed by guidelines or simple ways to keep meetings under control and on track. Make your meetings work. 1. "Do you have any tips on encouraging people to be on time to meetings?" The general rule is to start the meeting on time. This gives the message to people that you are serious about time and meeting management. If you start late, it penalizes the people who make an effort to be there at the designated time. Also, if someone only needs to attend for one particular segment of the meeting, let that person know approximately when that agenda item will be dealt with. Then that person does not have to attend the entire meeting, but just the part for his input. Also, research suggests that setting a meeting time that is NOT on the hour or half hour is more likely to result in people arriving on time. For example, consider starting your meeting at 2:10 P.M. rather than 2:00 P.M. It certainly should get the attention of the participants. 2. "We hold regular staff meetings but often we spend a great deal of time on nothing at all. What can we do to be more productive? Meetings that occur every week, or on some other regular basis, can be useful provided that there is a clear, important and continuing purpose for the meetings. However, this is often not the case. Staff meetings, for example, tend to occur simply because they are scheduled, and people scramble to find something to talk about. If you are going to have regularly scheduled meetings, make sure first they are really necessary. Examine the agenda and ask: "Are each of these items essential or can it be handled outside the meeting? Or t format?" Second, have variety in your staff meetings. Occasionally bring in a speaker, have the meeting off-site, have a celebration, use a film clip or article to generate discussion. Put your creativity hat on and make the meetings interesting. 3. "No matter what we do, our meetings go on and on and on. What can we do to shorten our meeting?" First of all, always have an agenda and stick to it. Each agenda item should have a time limit. If you are going over the set time for that item, the group has several choices:
Second, it's important that the leader get the agreement of all the participants on certain ground rules. For example: A participant can 'hold the floor' on a single topic or item for a certain time limit that makes sense...two minutes, five minutes, ten minutes, and enforce it with a timer. Or a participant can speak on any given topic or item two times and that's it. This prevents talking the topic to death. Third, take time at every meeting to evaluate what went well; what we could improve on; and how can we make our meetings more effective. Then it becomes everyone's responsibility for coming up with ideas to make the meetings work. Marcia Zidle, the 'people smarts' coach, works with business leaders to quickly solve their people management headaches so they can concentrate on their #1 job to grow and increase profits. She offers free help through Leadership Briefing, a weekly e-newsletter with practical tips on leadership style, employee motivation, recruitment and retention and relationship management. Subscribe by going to http://leadershiphooks.com/ and get the bonus report "61 Leadership Time Savers and Life Savers". Marcia is the author of the What Really Works Handbooks resources for managers on the front line and the Power-by-the-Hour programs fast, convenient, real life, affordable courses for leadership and staff development. She is available for media interviews, conference presentations and panel discussions on the hottest issues affecting the workplace today. Contact Marcia at 800-971-7619.
Google News - Top Stories
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Innovation Management: The Quality and Quantity of the Idea Pool Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation. Writing and Revising Your Life Story Change is not simple. Why do we repeat behavior that doesn't work? Those actions that lead to stifling debt, disappointing careers, or stuck relationships? Then do it harder, yet expect a different result? Why is it not obvious that trying to exit an old story by simply writing a "better ending" only recreates the same story, and ensures that we remain in it? That a thousand better endings to an old story don't create a new story? That the past cannot be changed and is a settled matter? That too often, we see ourselves as the victims of the stories that we author and the feelings we create? Effective Meetings by Phone - Part 1, How to Plan a Teleconference Teleconferences can be a boon or a bust. On the positive side, they allow people at different locations to attend meetings without having to travel. On the negative side, they can degenerate into frustrating struggles with uncontrolled babble. This occurs because people lack visual contact, which hinders effective communication and provides opportunities to misbehave. Plan for Business Success - 6 Reasons to Succession Plan Succession Planning provides many valuable assets to your business. Yet it is easy to do, with a game plan. Here are some reasons why the business leader will find it a useful issue to put some focus on. New UK Laws on Staff Dispute Resolution and Disciplinary Procedures October 2004 saw the introduction of the Employment Act 2002, which has brought a new approach to staff dispute resolution. Train Me -- But Follow Through My mechanic has me trained. When I take my car in for an oil change, he places a sticker in the upper left hand corner of my windshield to remind me what date and mileage I should have my next maintenance completed. But every once in a while, he forgets to put the sticker on the window. Then I have to remember the date and mileage details. Strategic Clarity for Communication Management Over the past few weeks I've been developing plans for a communication project, a media relations campaign. Succession Planning for Your Business - 7 Key Benefits A core activity in many successful businesses, Succession Planning is simple and quick to implement - here are seven reasons why you will find it of great value in your business or organisation. But, you need to lead - it works only as well as the support it gets! Organizational Structure, Creativity, Innovation Organizational structure can inhibit or foster creativity and innovation. The problem with organizational structure though, is that it is resultant of many factors, including history, organic growth, strategy, operational design, product diversity, logistics, marketing, client base, supplier base and so forth. Therefore, what managers need, are not recipes for complete structural change, but insights into the properties of fostering structures that can be adapted into the existing structure. Is Your Business A Dysfunctional Family? The other day I brought my mother into an appliance store to purchase a television. By the time we left with her new television, she was completely disgusted. Unlike most of us, she comes from an older generation that actually expects salespeople and store employees to think of customers as valued visitors that represent their primary source of income. I wish that I could say that the store we visited was the exception, however, it was more the rule. How to Find the Right Virtual Assistant for You If you search on Google for "virtual assistant", you'll find a ton of listings. You can search through those, check out their services and do some interviews. I'd take a shorter route. Why Businesses Fail - And What You Can Do About It! Have you unintentionally set your business up for failure? Objects in the Mirror are Further Than They Appear Definition From http://www.merriamwebster.com -- "Virtual: - being such in essence or effect though not formally recognized or admitted." Managing Performance: Don?t Let Slackers Bring Down Your ?A? Players As a manager, it is your job to ensure that the work gets done effectively. Coaching and discipline are unpleasant tasks. However, it must be a part of your everyday job duties. Here are some common mistakes managers make in handling poor performers. Sarbanes Oxley 404 Compliance - How Nov. 15, 2004 Deadline Affects You Fast Relief for Sarbanes Oxley Section 404 Compliance Think Time... Its Now Or Never I recently read an article published in the June, 2005 issue of Fast Co. magazine. Linda Tischler wrote an essay entitled "Death to the Cubicle!" In it, she says 'Collaboration is great, but sometimes I'd kill for a door.' Juggling Demands in an Organization JUGGLING DEMANDS: All leaders constantly juggle a multifarious array of demands from those of their organization, employees, and themselves. Good leaders, never drop one demand at the expense of another equally important requirement. They give each demand its fair share, while balancing the organizational goals with their employees' needs, while still fulfilling their own personal/professional purposes. Successful leaders meet both these business and personal needs through their staff. They learn about their staff's aspirations, their strengths and potential contributions to the organization. From this knowledge, they mesh together a successful working team. Sounds easy, doesn't it? For starters, it becomes much easier if you know your organization. Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Providing Career Opportunity This article relates to the Career Opportunity competency, commonly evaluated in employee satisfaction surveys. It explores issues such as internal growth opportunities, potential for advancement, career development importance, and the relationship between job performance and career advancement. It examines whether your employees believe they have a chance to grow within the organization. Studies show that lack of career opportunity is one of the top reasons why employees leave an organization. Lets Flourish and Prosper! Some say that in business as in sex: if it is good, it's great and if it is bad it's still pretty good. This does not happen to be true. If business is bad, it can get very bad. There are personnel problems, production expenses, overhead, laws, taxes, fines. Faulty financial decisions, inability to accurately evaluate the situation and quickly resolve problems all lead to an extremely high mortality rate among new business: up to 95% do not survive past their first 12 months. The Seven Cs: Partnership Danger Signs - Conflict Becoming the Norm ? Part 1 A series of articles exploring the seven critical areas that can indicate a partnership is in trouble.
|
|
|
|
|
