Here’s the big cost that we need to be worried about when we’re working virtually: the cost of people’s time, their attention, their goodwill, and their productivity. We need to think about those costs because they are so important. And once you squander them, you have to work super hard to regain the credibility to get them back from your people.
You need to build your game plan in a way that it not only makes sense before you have the meeting, but that you can respond and adapt it to what’s actually happening in the meeting. You might feel it yourself, but our attention spans are shorter than they’ve ever been.
How do you really hear from everybody? How do you ensure that you’re getting a diversity of views? That it’s not just the people who are comfortable to make their points in a group discussion? What do you do about those voices that are a little bit held back or maybe need a little bit more reflection time?
How you start a meeting is so important! It really sets an energetic tone and a space for the entire conversation, which is so critical. I think it’s an area where I’ve been noticing a lot of people are just blowing by how we start a meeting and often not doing it as well as we could.
When you think about taking the kinds of meetings that we used to have when we were meeting in person and making them virtual, it’s challenging. People are feeling a lot of pressure with that, there’s a lot to communicate, there’s a lot of information to share, there’s a lot of decision making that needs to happen.
When we decide to meet virtually online, let’s not just make it a default knee jerk reaction, some habit that we used to have when it was easy for us to grab people into a boardroom, peel them away from their work and their email, and get folks in a room talking together.
We need to really value people’s time and attention and use all of the tools at our disposal to solve problems together.
For too long in our society, we have relentlessly pursued wealth and power as the key metrics of what makes up whether you are successful or not. The driving and striving to get ahead, to beat out the competition, and to win in life and business no matter what the stakes have been costly.
Do you ever feel stuck? Find it hard to see your way ahead? We’ve all been there, done that. In a world where you can pay the really big bucks for the high-powered business and leadership coach, I’ve instead been learning a ton from lately from a very understated but powerful teacher: the UnBlockMe iphone app.
Communicating your ideas, points of view and requests to others is something we all do every day. Whether it’s negotiating a deal, enrolling a new client, or settling an argument between two hormonal adolescents, being able to communicate effectively and being understood is crucial not just to your success, but to your peace of mind and well-being too.
We all know the story of how Hansel and Gretel laid a trail of bread crumbs out to help guide them out of the deep, dark woods and back home safely. Great plan, but not optimal execution. Unfortunately for them, the bread crumbs were left out too long and the birds ate them up, leaving them in the woods and the clutches of the witch.
5 minutes. 7 questions. Find out where you are and where you need to be leading from.