I find it hard to take self help books and by extension Business self help books too serious. The very first one, Think and Grow rich was a con. https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/the-...-he-1789385645
I've had a couple forced upon me by work and most of them are mental candy. They tell the reader things they want to hear or reaffirm things they already know about success, without helping in the heavy lifting of actually producing a successful business or life.
With the meeting thing, for me, it is either an abuse of authority, ego or aging boomers.
Some basics are
1. Respect people's time. Your meeting isn't the only thing they have to do today.
2. Can you use something other than a meeting for the same goal? Would a call, text or email work?
3. Don't use meetings to force people to complete work in that meeting.
4. Don't use meetings to gather information you could complete on your own, or ask for through email.
5. All meetings should meet a need of the people at the meeting. If its just for the boss, don't have it.
6. Meetings should be as short as possible.
7. Leave your office and talk to people. Don't use meetings as your primary form of face to face communication.
8. Don't use meetings to cover your ass. Some people have meetings just to tell their boss they had one when things go to shit. Find some other way to cover your ass, like actual work.
9. Consider combining and changing the times of meetings. It might be better to have 1 final meeting at the end of the day, instead of a morning meeting or mid day meeting. You usually get better information from your direct reports when you do this if you give them more time to prepare.
10. Don't play the blame game in meetings. Assign problems to scenarios and causes, not people. Lastly, assign responsibility to teams to fix those problems. But ultimately, success is everyone's job. This attitude can make meetings more productive and avoid dread.
Most of this usually falls on closed ears. People don't like to be told how and when to extend their authority. Even if getting everyone together for an hour to do the boss's work is a waste of work time and money.
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