Introduction

Meetings are an essential part of the life of every organization. As a manager, one-quarter or more of your career will be spent in group meetings. As much as 70 percent to 80 percent of your career is going to be spent face-to-face and one-on-one with other people as well as in groups.

The more people there are in your workplace and the greater the complexity required for the performance of interrelated tasks, the more necessary it is for people to meet in groups to solve problems, make decisions, share information, and exchange views and opinions.

My favorite expression is that “meetings are management in action.” They are a major opportunity for you to display managerial competence (or lack thereof) as well as to develop your communication skills, to influence and persuade others, and to advance the goals of the organization.

However, meetings are like advertising. It is estimated that 50 percent of the dollars spent on advertising are wasted, but nobody knows which 50 percent it is. It is also estimated that half of the time spent in meetings is wasted, but nobody knows how to eliminate the unnecessary half.

Many meetings go on too long, are ineffective, are not results-oriented, or are vague and directionless. Nonetheless, they cannot be avoided. Meetings remain absolutely essential in the business environment and essential to your success.

Influence Others

In this book, you will learn how to manage and participate in meetings more effectively so that you get the maximum return on the time invested in meeting with other people.

As a manager, the way you plan and conduct a meeting and the way you perform in a meeting are major factors in your career success. In a meeting, you are being observed by both your supervisors and your subordinates. Your superiors especially will be very alert to the quality and quantity of contribution you make in a meeting. If you handle yourself well in meetings, you’ll be hallmarked as an up-and-coming leader. You can shine and be a star contributor, or you can bomb. It’s up to you, but you cannot hide.

If you are the leader, your subordinates will evaluate your credibility, competence, intelligence, and your general personality by the way you conduct meetings.

Successful executives are those who know how to run meetings well and perform effectively in a meeting environment. Peter Drucker said that “meetings are the primary tool of management.” Since a major part of your career will be spent in meetings, it is essential for your success that you learn how to get the very most out of meetings and how to ensure that the meetings in which you participate achieve the results desired.

Save Time

If you become excellent in participating in and conducting meetings, you can add as much as 40 percent of lost time back into your day for doing productive work and getting more results, which will help you move rapidly up the corporate ladder. But if you cannot function excellently in meetings, you cannot be successful in management.

In this book, we are going to talk about two main types of meetings. The first one, with which you are most familiar, is the group meeting where people come together for a variety of reasons. The second is the one-on-one meeting, where you meet with one or a small number of people to negotiate, interview, discipline, hire, fire, reward, delegate, or carry out other managerial activities.

This book includes twenty-one key ideas derived from many years of study and research into the organization and coordination of effective meetings. When you begin incorporating these ideas, or even some of them, into your meeting management strategy, you will become so much more effective in meetings, and probably quite quickly, that you will not believe the difference.