Management and leadership tip: Meeting management
If you’re in back-to-back meetings all day every day that aren’t consciously selected, the reality is that you’re not going to be able to show up at your best as a leader or manager. Being overwhelmed by nonstop meetings leaves a leader’s brain without the space to be able to process the last meeting and switch context to be present in the next meeting. Over time, meeting fatigue can drain a leader’s energy to manage each new situation and can obscure their clarity in decision-making.
Moreover, nonstop meetings pull leaders into a reactive mode of thinking, rather than focusing on guiding and being proactive. Without consciously deciding which meetings to participate in and which not, a leader is passively led by others, rather than taking ownership over leading others.
But how do we extricate ourselves from the “call wall” when there are so many needs across the team and business?
5 quick tips to your reduce your meeting clog
It’s not just about meetings
Remember that it’s not only about meetings that other people schedule for you, but also meetings you schedule with others. What meetings do you control now or in the future that you should actually cancel, change the cadence of (going from weekly to bi-weekly is an easy win), or shorten?
End meetings early
One simple way to create space in nonstop meetings is to end meetings before the half-hour or hour-mark. End meetings 5-10 minutes before the half hour mark, or 10-15 minutes before the hour mark. Adobe is one corporate example to implement this tactic. If you follow this policy, it is essential to be vigilant and defend it ruthlessly against backsliding and allowing meeting bleed into the precious overage time you freed up.
Review meetings quarterly
Meeting creep and doing it because we always have is a real thing.
Once a quarter, make a list of all your recurring meetings and re evaluate whether they are still driving value for you and others. Explore canceling or decline any that are no longer worthwhile. To make this habit stick, tryin hooking it into your quarterly business planning/forecasting rhythm.
Test meeting creation friction points
Test out new policies that make meetings harder to schedule, while adding value and making meetings more meaningful. Try requiring a meeting goal, agenda and role for each attendee before allowing new meetings be created, or before you accept them.
Delegate meetings to others
Especially for director+ roles but also applicable for managers of less junior teams, make it a habit to regularly review your team leadership bench to identify which people on your team can be trusted and are able/interested to stand in as a proxy for you on some meetings. Be sure to provide clear expectations, communicate a clear why to all meeting stakeholders, and offer any tribal knowledge you have on the meeting in order to help the person slide into owning the meeting in your stead smoothly. Be sure to keep notes on who takes meetings over for you for career development conversations later on.
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