Today, I was sitting in the terminal of DFW International Airport ready to board my flight back to Atlanta. Two individuals who were obviously co-workers were sitting beside me and discussing various work items at their place of business. One looks at the other and says, “Everybody loves your meetings.”
That phrase caught my attention.
After they talked a little while longer, I said, “Excuse me. I apologize for interjecting myself into your conversation but I heard him say that everybody loves your meetings. Can I ask you why because most people hate meetings?”
She said, “Absolutely. I only have meetings when I HAVE to have meetings.”
“So what about the concept of meeting rhythms or regularly scheduled updates?”
“You handle most things through continual on-going conversations and email. The thing I hate most is when I am scheduled to attend a meeting or video conference and then I have to lead the conversation because there is not a clear agenda.”
“I get it.”
She concluded, “Yeah, only have meetings when you NEED to have meetings.”
Honestly, I appreciated her passion but I slightly disagree with her. On one hand, it is quite frustrating having to attend a meeting where nothing is accomplished. I’ve said far too many times, “Well, that’s 30 minutes (or an hour or a day) I’ll never get back.”
However, I lead a regularly scheduled meeting with my team every two weeks. There are regular check-ins and on-going coaching during the interim but this meeting every two weeks is locked in. I put in a lot of effort into making these times together interesting, informative, challenging, uplifting or all the above. I have also recently become very focused on driving home our organization’s culture during each meeting. I recently wrote about one such instance in the post What I Recently Told My Team About Our Culture (And Why Telling Them Now Was So Important).
Meetings are important but I get it. There is a reason the book and phrase “Death By Meeting” resonated with so many leaders.
So here is my question for all leaders – What is more important, meeting rhythms or meeting only when necessary?
My answer – Meeting rhythms are more important but it is your responsibility as a leader to make them “can’t miss” times together which improve performance and deepen your organization’s culture. Otherwise, it will be 30 minutes (or an hour or a day) that your team will never get back.
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