We behave as we treated

Common concerns raised in leadership teams I work with are that meetings are repeatedly rescheduled, rarely start on time, or more often run out of time.

The way we are treated is often modelled in how we treat others. So, reflect on how often you reschedule meetings and whether your meetings start and end on time. How productive are the meetings and how energised do others feel leaving the meetings?  

As a leader, your highest level of service is to respect others’ time. A reason for the current levels of fatigue and burnout is that we don’t respect our time, and neither do others.

 So, here’s what you can do to be respectful of your own and others’ time:

•  Ensure every meeting has a clear purpose and declared outcomes. Only invite those who need to contribute and ensure they understand what is expected from them.

• Start and close every meeting on time, irrespective.

• Never use ‘time’ as an excuse – we allocate time to whatever is important to us. It’s not that we ran out of time, it’s we chose not to allocate time. 

It’s in your hands to stop the ‘meeting madness.’