Meetings that Get Results and People Want to Attend: June Frontline Festival

Posted on June 21, 2018June 18, 2018 by Karin Hurt and David Dye | No Comments

Welcome to the Let’s Grow Leaders Frontline Festival on meetings that get results and that people want to attend. We asked thought leaders from around the world to share their very best post on this topic.

Thanks to Joy and Tom Guthrie of Vizwerx Group for the great pic and to all our contributors!

Next month’s Frontline Festival is all about the art of the tough conversation. New contributors are always welcome. Submit your relevant blog posts here.

Preparing for Meetings

Skip Prichard of Leadership Insights provides Five Tips to Master Your Next Meeting. Meetings are often the source of many complaints, but also key to advancing a business agenda. Skip’s tips will help you master your next meeting. Follow Skip.

Jon Mertz of Thin Difference gives us What Meetings Do People Want to Attend? Design an experience. Too many organizers fail to think about the answer to this question before scheduling a meeting. It’s up to leaders to design a better meeting experience. Follow Jon.

William Steiner of Executive Coaching Concepts asks 8 Questions to Guarantee Meeting Productivity. Ask these before, during and after a meeting to get the best results possible. Follow William.

David Grossman of The Grossman Group gives us Leading in Person: Six Reasons to Communicate Face-to-Face. There are more than enough ways to communicate – email, voicemail, text message, instant message – yet too often they can add up to message overload for employees. That’s why when something is important, nothing compares to face-to-face communication. When a leader needs to inspire people—or move them to action—the best way to do it is to look people in the eye and tell them exactly what they need to know. Follow David.

Shelley Row of Shelley Row Associates shares Fire Up Your Conversations! When to Use Email–or Your Voice. Some “meetings” happen using written communication, others benefit by voice and face-to-face. Shelley helps us determine what medium to use. Follow Shelley.

Making the Most of Meetings

Kaylee DeWitt of Patriot Software, LLC writes How to Make Meetings More Effective. Unproductive meetings can burden employees and waste time. Use these five tips to make your next meeting more effective, build teamwork in the workplace, and improve business operations. Follow Kaylee.

Chip Bell of Chip Bell Group gives us 10 Ways to Killer Meetings. We spend more time in meetings than we do eating. We cannot live without eating; you would think the same was true of meetings. Here are 10 ways to make your meeting effective, fun and valuable. Follow Chip.

Ken Downer of Rapid Start Leadership offers 10 Unusual Meetings to Make Your Team More Productive. Meetings don’t have to be long, boring, and unproductive. Try these ten unusual approaches to get out of a rut, stimulate more creativity, and be more productive. Follow Ken.

Jesse Stoner of Seapoint Center for Collaborative Leadership writes the Planning Doing Cycle. Rarely will you have the luxury of time to plan everything out before you start a new project or change initiative. And even if you do, it’s likely that unforeseen circumstances will send you back to the drawing board. Instead of planning and then doing, try approaching it as an iterative process, as a “planning / doing” cycle – like building a vehicle while you are driving it. Follow Jesse.

Julie Winkle Giulioni of DesignArounds encourages us with Making the Most of Meetings. Given the commitment individuals and organizations are making to meetings—and given the reality that they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon—it’s incumbent upon leaders to ensure that they squeeze as much value as possible out of the time invested. This article offers 3 P’s to consider before calling your next one. Follow Julie.

Reflecting on Meetings

Paul LaRue of The UPwards Leader shares How to Make Change after the Conference. Most conferences lead to little or no lasting change. Paul provides ways to reverse that trend. Follow Paul.

John Hunter of Curious Cat Management Improvement provides Better Meetings. Meetings are perennial problems. People sit through meetings and then complain about how big a waste of time it was. Here are a few very simple tips to help achieve results with meetings (instead of just agreeing that meetings are wasteful, but doing nothing to improve them). Follow John.

Robyn McLeod of Thoughtful Leaders Blog presents To Plan, or not to Plan, that is the Question, where she shares that life is what happens while you are busy making plans. By learning to focus both on what is happening in this moment and what you need to do to get you to your ultimate goals, you’re more likely to get there. Robyn offers tips on learning to walk that balance of leadership along the way. Follow Robyn.

Beth Beutler of H.O.P.E. Unlimited provides What You Should Do When Meetings Don’t Meet Expectations. This infographic provides tools for preparing for, making the most of, and reflecting on meetings to achieve better results. Follow Beth.

Your turn.

Do you have a best practice to share? What topics would you like to see us cover in a future Frontline Festival?

We also have some exciting news coming later this month. Stay tuned for more information.

Are you a blogger? We would love to include you in our next Frontline Festival on the Art of the Tough Conversation. Submit your relevant blog posts here.

Three Simple Secrets to Running Remarkable Meetings

Posted on August 8, 2017March 17, 2019 by Karin Hurt | 6 Comments

Do you love going to meetings? Are meetings the best use of your time? How do people feel about the meetings you run?

It’s not that we hate meetings, we just hate bad meetings

Why do people hate meetings? Here are just a few examples of the biggest frustrations we hear.

“This is so stupid–they asked for my opinion and then ignored it. I don’t know why I even bother! From now on, I’m going to just shut my mouth and do my work.”

“Arghhh. We keep rehashing the same conversations. Why can’t we make a simple @#%*&% decision?“

“I don’t know why we even try! We make a decision and by the time we get back together, no one has done anything we agreed to.”

Sound familiar?

I’ve heard these words so frequently, in focus groups, in one-on-ones, and even behind closed doors with seasoned managers. If you’ve been working in organizations for any period of time, you may have said them too.

Everyone hates bad meetings. And bad meetings are everywhere.

If you want to be a great manager, build a reputation of running great meetings, and watch for an immediate improvement in who shows up and what they contribute.

Three Simple Secrets to Running a Remarkable Meeting

Communicate a clear objective for the meeting.
Be clear up front. Determine if this a “Where are we going?” discussion, or a “How will we get there?” conversation. If you’re not clear, you don’t have a fighting chance of an organized dialog. Yes. You can have both conversations in the same meeting, but not at the same time. Put it on the agenda. Reinforce it in your opening remarks. Heck, put it in the meeting invite: “By the end of this meeting, we will have decided __________.”People want to know that something will be accomplished with their time. Make that “something” perfectly clear. One of our Winning Well clients has started including this message in their Outlook invites

This meeting’s goal is to reach a decision on xxxx, and to begin to define how we will achieve this, we need your best thinking on _______.
Be clear on how decisions will be made.
Nothing is more frustrating to people than asking for their opinion and ignoring it. Be clear up front as to how the decision will be made.“I need to make this decision, but I would love your input”or “We’re going to decide by consensus”or “After 30 minutes of discussion, we’re going to take a vote.”Of course, the most important part of this approach is to make a plan and stick to it. If you say the decision will be by consensus, and then hate where the conversation is going and just make the call yourself, you would have been better off making the decision in the shower and communicating it well.
Establish accountability for every decision.
For every next step stop and ask “Who will do what, by when and how will we know?””Joe’s got this” is not sufficient.” “Joe will talk to Sue and make a decision about X by Friday and send us an email with what they came up with,” works better.

Very few managers run meetings well. Can you imagine the possibilities if you were known as the go-to for holding a great meeting?

Learn more about great meetings and other easy to implement management techniques in our book Winning Well: A Manager’s Guide to Getting Results– Without Losing Your Soul

The Secret to Holding a Meeting that Gets Results

Posted on September 14, 2015September 14, 2015 by Karin Hurt | 8 Comments

Does this sound familiar? You went to a meeting where you had invigorating discussions, examined alternatives, came up with a cool plan of action, everyone left the meeting feeling motivated, and then six weeks later you get back together. As everyone enters the room and takes their seat, there are sideways glances, “Did you do that thing we talked about?”

“No…how about you?”

A quick shake of the head and you realize that the great idea everyone talked about has languished.

The prior meeting, the discussions, the new meeting – all of it – are a waste because nothing happened. In fact, it’s worse than doing nothing because now you’ve created negative energy…that feeling that “it doesn’t matter what we talk about because nothing really changes around here.” That corrosive malaise will eat away at your people and leave them looking for excuses to take your next meeting via conference call so they can multi-task and “get real work done.”

Every meeting you hold should produce activities that move results forward, build momentum, and build morale with healthy relationships. You can achieve all this in just ten minutes at the end of every meeting.

The Best 10 Minutes of Every Meeting

At the end of every meeting ask these three commitment questions:

Commitment #1: Who will do what?

There are actually two questions here:

What is to be done?
Who will do it?

Every task must have a specific person who is responsible to complete it. For smaller decisions there might be only one or two answers to this question. For larger strategic initiatives you might have an entire work plan that outlines dozens of tasks and people responsible.

Commitment # 2 By When?

This one is straightforward. What is the finish line for the tasks people have agreed to complete? When these deadlines are shared and publicly available, everyone is more likely to meet them.

Commitment #3 How Will We Know?

“How will we know?” is the magic question that moves your meeting from good intentions to real-world impact. It’s also the one managers most frequently ignore. “How will we know?” closes the loop from intention to action and creates momentum without you having to spend hours every day tracking down action steps. Here’s how it works: When someone completes a task, what do they do next?

Do they need to pass the results to another person or group?
Should they update the team and let them know?
Will they make a presentation of their findings?
Do they report completion in a common area or software?

The specific answers depend on the task and project. What matters is that the accountability and next step are “baked into” the decision. Everyone knows what he or she is accountable to do, the team knows if it’s been completed, and no one is left waiting around for information they need.

Combine these commitments into one sentence: Who does what, by when, and how will we know? and you have the Winning Well Meeting Formula to get clarity, accountability, and results in just ten minutes at the end of every meeting: In fact, you can ask these questions whether you are the positional leader of a group or not. That’s a great way to establish yourself as a leader who gets things done – people notice when you produce clarity, accountability, and results. Don’t let the simplicity of these questions fool you into not using them. These are the most important ten minutes you’ll spend to make your meetings achieve results.

Exciting news, the book I’m David Dye and I are publishing is off to the AMACOM for publication this Spring. We’re jazzed and honored that Marshall Goldsmith wrote a smashing foreward. More to come, but in the meantime here’s a peek at the cover.

5 Secrets To Great Skip Level Meetings

Posted on April 25, 2014March 4, 2020 by Karin Hurt | 14 Comments

Done well, skip level meetings can inspire, engage, motivate and inform the skipper, skipee, and even the skipped. On the other hand, poorly run skip-level meetings inadvertently bring on diaper drama feedback and diminish trust.

Skip level meetings help you connect “what to why,” reinforce the MIT (most important thing), help you build genuine relationships, give you a chance to ask strategic questions to learn what’s really going on, and most importantly, to build genuine relationships.

Maybe that’s why after over 1000 blog posts this continues to be one of our most popular posts. Why the intrigue?

Because done poorly MBWA becomes OCHTC (Oh Crap, Here They Come). If your skip-level meetings are backfiring, follow these tips, and avoid these common traps.

How to Hold Great Skip Level Meetings

1. Prepare.

Get off to a great start by really doing your homework. Understand what the team is doing very well and know what concerns to anticipate. Know something about the people attending—have a few specifics to recognize. If you can bring along a note-taker, it will make it much easier to fully engage in a dynamic conversation. But of course, you don’t want to overwhelm the room with too many extra spectators.

2. Make it personal.

I always start skip-level meetings in the same way by inviting participants to share their name and asking “What makes you a ROCK STAR in your current job?” People like to share what they’re good at, and it’s beautiful to see what matters most to them.

3. Relate through stories.

Skip-level meetings are not only a great way to find out what’s on people’s minds, but they are also a great way to reinforce key messages through strategic storytelling . Share your stories, and invite them to share their stories and then summarize the themes. For example, “Tell me a story of when you turned around a really frustrated customer.” Or, “Do you have a story about the team leader who was most helpful to you?”

4. Ask positively framed open-ended questions.

Framing your questions in a positive light makes it more comfortable for employees to share ideas for improvement.

• What’s the best part of working here?

• How do you know how you’re doing? In which areas would you like more feedback?

• If you were in my shoes and could change one thing to make your work easier, what would that be?

• What could we do to improve the customer experience?

• Which of your tools/resources do you find most helpful? Why?

• If you could invent a tool or resource to help you do your job, what would it be, and how would you use it?

• What does your team leader do that’s most helpful to you?

• If you were the team leader, what would you focus on (or do more of) and why?

• How can I help you with additional support or resources?

• What questions haven’t I asked that you wish I would?

5. Follow-up.

Share a summary of your notes and key takeaways with the group. When giving readouts to others, including the “skipped” leaders, be curious, not accusatory. Remember there are always many interpretations of every story.

Avoid these 7 Big Mistakes

1. Not Doing Your Homework

Sure you’re their bosses’ boss. They should be glad you’re there, right? Hmmm … Want to ensure you make an impact? Learn what’s up with the people in the room. Get their names. Know what’s driving them crazy. Be able to speak articulately about a few of their biggest accomplishments.

2. Showing Up Needy

Yes, I get it. You’re sandwiching this skip-level in-between really important calls with C-level execs, vital customers, your boss. Go minimalist here. What do you need? A closed-door in-between your skip-level meetings? Ask for that. Otherwise, show up as low-maintenance as you can (and ensure your assistant gets this too.)

3. Sticking To Your Agenda

The real magic of skip-level meetings is never planned. Even if your team gave you a carefully crafted list of conversation starters, stay real and open to where the conversation may lead.

4. Talking Too Much

Resist the urge. You will learn way more by listening.

5. Asking the Wrong Questions

So often I see leaders ask leading questions that ensure they get told what they want to hear. You already know what you think. Have the courage to ask the questions that might surface answers that frustrate you. It’s better to know what people are really thinking.

6. Failing to Recognize Contributions

Your people want to know that you know what they’re up to. Be sure you do and tell them.

7. Neglecting to Follow Through

If you promise to look into something, be sure you do. If you promise to get something fixed right away, do it. And just as importantly, be sure you close the loop and let them know. Making commitments without follow-through does more harm than not showing up at all.

Great leaders spend lots of time talking to the people closest to the customer. It’s worth the extra effort to dig deep and do it right.

If you’re looking for more open-ended questions that work well, check out, 7 Icebreaker Questions to Melt Frustration and Build Trust, or read our book, Winning Well: A Manager’s Guide To Getting Results—Without Losing Your Soul.

Are you looking to achieve better business results through stronger employee engagement and commitment? We can help. Please call me at 443-750-1249 for a free consultation.