| |
| |
|
Management Information |
|
|
|
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.
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Cross Cultural Solutions for International Business Globalisation, the expansion of intercontinental trade, technological advances and the increase in the number of companies dealing on the international stage have brought about a dramatic change in the frequency, context and means by which people from different cultural backgrounds interact.Cross cultural solutions to international business demands are increasingly being viewed as a valid and necessary method in enhancing communication and interaction in and between companies, between companies and customers and between colleagues. Why You Need a Business Plan This article was originally called "Do You Need a Business Plan?"The title was changed because in truth, every business needs a business plan. It's a common misconception that business plans are used only for raising capital, as in "my bank wants to see a business plan before they will approve a loan," or, "I need a business plan so I can get venture funding. Conflict at 36,000 ft This was supposed to be one of those sleepy flights that leaves late, crosses two time zones, and arrives at 11:00 p.m. Business Innovation - Ignoring Content Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas. Problem-Solving Success Tip: Measure the Right Things. Measure the right things. It's not enough just to measure-you have to measure the right things. Quality Improvement is Free The point of a quality improvement program should not only be to improve a product or the delivery of healthcare but it should also be to save time and money by reducing or eliminating waste or errors. For example, a doctor or nurse practitioner writes a prescription. Innovation Management - Emotion, Habit, and Culture can be Hard to Change! Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. Faith is the LIFE-blood of Your ACTIONS before the Benefit - Nothing has changed. Your ancestors lived by faith. How Managers Can Turn Failures Into Successes Although there are real, external reasons for managerial difficulty - including massive reorganization after takeovers and the realities of discrimination due to age, sex, and race - managers fail most often for reasons they themselves create.These reasons include ignoring the application of emotional intelligence, failure to recognize individual motivation to be effective, and a failure to adapt to change and rebound from setbacks. Dont Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Credit Policy Do you know how many customers you have that are past due right now? How many bad checks are sitting on your desk that you don't know what to do with? How many dunning letters do you send out a month?How would you like to answer those questions with none, or very few? In a new book, "Become the Squeaky Wheel," Michelle Dunn, explains and outlines some easy procedures you can use to erase bad debt, and prevent it in the future."One thing that is often overlooked is how to prevent future credit issues," says Michelle Dunn. Employee Retention: Five Leadership Fundamentals Are your management practices on the right track? Retaining your valued or high performing employees must be a strategic issue for your company. Throwing more money at your workers is not the answer and can become very costly. Creativity and Innovation Management: The Creative State Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas. You Cant Afford the Luxury of Disengaged Employees In today's business environment with increases in staff reductions and rapidly changing roles and responsibilities, it is crucial that all of your team members be fully engaged in the tasks at hand. According to a Gallup survey, 350 billion dollars are lost each year in American companies due to disengaged employees. Smart Staffing Practices: Don't Confuse Activity with Results Does your hiring process consist of proven practices or just a hodgepodge of activities that get into gear when someone says, "I need more people" or "Sally has left and we need someone to take her place NOW?"Smart hiring is more than running ads, screening, interviewing and checking references. It is a series of specific procedures that can work well or create bottlenecks and inefficiencies. The Power of "Ask" For Call Center managers, it is not a pipe dream to improve employee moral while increasing productivity. It may even come easy to some to find fresh, new ways to reduce performance problems. 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. Don't Get Down - Manage Up! "Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him." - Aldous HuxleyEver have one of those supervisors that just didn't quite get it?Perhaps you even wondered from time to time how in the world this person ever became a manager in the first place?The truth is that most of us, at some point in our career, will experience this firsthand. Sweet Parting Of Ways Why settle for bad feelings when your employee leaves the firm? Human resource managers can help to sweeten the occasion during the exit interview, and get valuable information to help the company in the new knowledge age.More often than not, human resource (HR) managers place more importance on job interviews than on exit interviews. Employee Surveys: a Strategic Tool for Positive Change Do you want to measure your workers' level of satisfaction? Or change policies and procedures to make them more effective? Or find out if your supervisors are stuck in out-dated ways of managing? Good Idea! But how do you make sure you are getting reliable information to make sound management decisions?When it comes to conducting quality research, a pound of prevention is worth much more than one ounce of cure. Here are five steps to turn your employee surveys into a powerful strategic change management tool. Lets Make Training More Interesting! Many HR managers believe that by sending their workers to participate in external training programs, they have fulfilled their responsibilities. This is not the best situation.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
