In our busy working worlds people are often overwhelmed by too many meetings. With so many meetings to attend, we end up arriving late and often unprepared. Then once everyone gets into the room, it takes about 15 minutes for people to settle in and to decide what the agenda should be. Going from meeting to meeting with no thought on the best use of time and strategic direction can be a drain on valuable resources and time for any business.
Over my professional and athletic career I have witnessed a lot of similar performance challenges, in both worlds. One such challenges is how we prepare for meetings. This sounds simple and obvious, but the fact is, we can waste much time in and around meetings. In a competitive marketplace, with limited resources, improving meeting effectiveness is critical for any business looking to develop efficiencies and build effectiveness within their organization.
High-performance athletics teach us some valuable lessons on how to show up and get the most out of our meetings. Would an athlete come to practice unprepared or show up even 10 minutes late? Well, the coaches I have worked with would certainly not allow that to happen. To start creating high-performance meetings within your company, try some of the following strategies and watch the positive impact they have.
Readiness
Simple as it sounds, you would be surprised about the number of people who show up to meetings not prepared.
In order to be ready and have everyone engaged from the start, send a brief email outlining the required outcomes of the meeting and the key points that need to be discussed.
Another way to improve your meeting readiness is understanding your mindset. Instead of focusing on the topic of the meeting, are you maybe dwelling on an issue from past meetings or thinking about all the work back at your desk? Wherever your mind is, try to stay completely focused on the meeting while maintaining a positive attitude. You will be surprised how smoothly things flow and how much you will accomplish during the meeting.
Focus
We are all living in the age of great distraction. My yoga instructor joked the other day that on average, people now have the attention span of a goldfish. To improve your ability to concentrate during a meeting, try turning off all your devices, and focus on the various people speaking in the room. You will be able to ask the presenter more relevant and impactful questions.
Positive images
This is a great skill high-performance athletes use frequently, and more and more professionals are starting to incorporate it into their daily routines. I often ask my clients to build up in their minds a positive image of how their meeting will flow. This is especially helpful before challenging meetings such as a sales presentation – when you’re in front of a new perspective client and you need to be 100% on.
Meetings are not going away any time soon, and with remote meeting solutions being used more frequently, it’s now becoming more important to maximize the effectiveness of your meetings.
Try using these meeting improvement strategies and you will be surprised how fast your meeting performance improves.
All the best in achieving your highest performance.
Paul
Image courtesy of Ambro at FreeDigitalPhotos.net