5 Simple Keys to Ending Painful Company Meetings
It’s no secret that most people cringe when they hear the words, “let's have a meeting.” In fact most meetings are not only awful they are a major drain on humans resources and don't deliver too much. Our weekly WIPs were becoming more and more disorganised, we were scheduled to meet on Mondays, but something always seemed to come up—an important sales meeting, an operational firefight, or a key team member that double-booked themselves. As a result, we’d attempt to change the day and time of the meeting so everyone could make it. Often, I wasted countless hours just trying to get everyone there at the same time!
We’d rarely start on time—someone would always be late. And let's face it, most of the meetings never ended on time. I felt like it was an act of God just to get everyone together at the same time, so I wanted to make sure we got through everything. Yes,everything.
Now, EOS makes it possible to focus your leadership team on the most important use of everyone’s time each week. The solution is baked into weekly Level 10 Meetings, along with five simple rules to running great meetings.
5 Points That Make a Huge Difference in Running Effective Meetings.
1) Same Agenda. Use the same agenda each week. The Level 10 Meeting agenda is simple and effective. It saves time because you won’t need to create a new agenda each week.
2) Same day. Pick a day of the week, and stick to it. If someone is on vacation, the meeting must still go on—don’t change it!
3) Same time. Set your meeting as a recurring appointment in your calendar as well as the rest of your team’s. If your meeting is 9:00-10:30 a.m. every Monday, make sure it’s blocked out on everyone’s calendar every Monday, forever. Plan everything else around this meeting time and treat it with the highest level of importance. Plan customer meetings around this time block.
4) Start on time. You’re paying your team to be there—eliminate frustrations, wasted time, and wasted money from people waiting around for the meeting to begin. All of our clients subscribe to Vince Lombardi’s rule: “Early is on time, on time is late.” Plan to arrive at least five minutes early every week for your meetings.
5) End on time. There is nothing more frustrating than a meeting that never ends. By not ending on time, you’re creating a domino effect for everyone else in the room, potentially throwing off their entire day. Protect your team’s time and give them confidence that they can plan activities right after your stated end time.
If I had known about these five simple rules to running great meetings years ago, our team would have been more productive, and would have gotten more done in less time. And now I feel sorry for putting everyone in our business through that mess! I can only imagine how much they must have dreaded those meetings.
Next Steps
Download our eBook on leading world-class meetings
Watch this video to find out more about Level 10 Meetings
Schedule a 90-Minute Meeting to learn more about how EOS can help your leadership team
