How the Situational approach can help you manage meetings more effectively.
Leading meetings ...
The estimates vary, but the New York Times reported in 2006 that we spend between 8 and 11 hours per week in meetings. Other research by MCI suggests that the average executive attends 60 meetings per month.
Now on their own those statistics are not a problem. But when 75 percent of people say that the meetings they attend could be more effective, and when 45 percent of people report feeling "overwhelmed" by the meetings they have to attend and that half of our meeting time is "wasted", we do have a problem.
All of us have experienced badly run meetings. We've probably even run some of them! So what can we do? Because leading meetings is a very real leadership task that can reflect the strengths and weaknesses of our leadership.
The Intel Corporation is famous for having three questions on the wall of its meeting rooms:
–* Do you know the purpose?
–* Do you have an agenda?
–* Do you know your role?
They're great questions! And the answers to those questions begin with the person leading the meeting.
If you don't know the purpose no one else will either. And if you do know but don't communicate it, they still won't know. So they'll invent their own. (If you get bored in a meeting this week, just watch how true the old saying is about "if you don't know where you're going you'll end up somewhere else" - it's certainly true of poorly led meetings.)
So provide some clear direction and task focus with a clear statement of purpose - ahead of and at the beginning of each meeting.
Your purpose naturally drives the agenda. Too often - particularly when meetings are delayed, avoided or ad-hoc - we try to throw in everything at once (at least everything that's apparently urgent). A focused agenda focuses attention and achieves the meeting's purpose.
Roles in meetings vary. Sometimes our role is to provide expert input. Or to brief others, or to provide an update or to test propositions. But for now, let's focus on the role of the meeting leader.
We've already seen that your role is to establish a clear sense of purpose and direction and to support that with a focused and purposeful agenda. Now you need to determine how to manage your role as the meeting unfolds.
Your direction setting role is important at the beginning but if you continue to dominate the discussion you'll be shutting out valuable input and also sending the signal that you either don't respect or want others' expertise and knowledge.
As the meeting moves forward you'll normally find it most effective to add more facilitating behaviour to your initial direction setting communication. Facilitating behaviour involves inviting, stimulating and encouraging input and participation from everyone (which may mean moderating the more verbose to make room for the less loquacious), and asking clarifying questions to enrich everyone's understanding. In the early stages of participation you will probably find you need to continue to provide some direction to ensure the discussion focuses on the purpose and agenda topic at hand.
As others' participation increases and is properly focused, you can reduce your direction setting and focus on your clarifying, questioning and encouraging roles. This is not a passive role at all, but it does take discipline and skill: discipline to control the urge to tell, overide and decide; skill to ask open questions, listen to understand and encourage more information. Your supportive behaviour is also an important part of developing others' confidence and understanding.
Sometimes you will be in the fortunate position of being able to take a purely monitoring and assessing role - observing what is happening and allowing the group to interact and develop decisions without too much involvement from you at all. But again, this is not passive - or easy. You still have responsibility for ensuring the group stays focused, that all contribute and that the agenda is being achieved within the time allowed.
You will probably find yourself engaging more actively at the end of each agenda item to summarise the agreement and ensure there is shared understanding (even if not complete acceptance) of decisions. And at the end of the meeting you will probably need to put your directive hat back on to ensure there is clarity about: Who will do What by When.
Meetings are a real test of our leadership. The influence we exert in meeting situations is critical to our effectiveness beyond the meeting itself. It is also critical to the development of other individuals and the teams we lead.
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Here's to the success of your next meeting!
Aubrey Warren
Situational Leadership Australia®
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