Meetings are a key business tool for getting things done.There are fourfundamental reasons forbusiness meetings, yet too often we see people and organizations wasting precious time and meeting for the sake of meeting; that is, simply out of routine. Some managers and executives spend as much as 40-60% of their time in meetings. And, unfortunately, meetings—that is, too many, mis-run, lacking accountability and outcomes – are still a key complaint across market sectors. Here’s what to know before your next one:
First, WHY are you meeting; otherwise said, what is your objective? There are four fundamental reasons to meet:
1. To share information with others (one way line of communication, that is information is shared by one side)
2. To exchange information with others (to give and receive information – two way, mutual exchange)
3. To make a decision where input from others is either valued (being solicited) or is required (Note: a sign of a good leader is that input for decisions is truly valued whether or not it is required)
4. For relationship building and team alignment purposes
Next, when you are clear on why you are meeting, the type of meeting that best suits the purpose can be identified.
In his book Death by Meetings, Patrick Lencioni identifies four different types of (regular) meetings that high performing organizations should adopt and practice:
• A Daily Check In – which holds a brief administrative focus (meaning not to exceed 10 minutes) Like Ritz Carlton hotels practice, he suggests you hold this one standing to promote brevity.
The daily check in reflects a share information purpose.
• A Weekly Tactical which focuses on quick updates and progress reports composed of critical metrics or benchmarks. All strategic discussions are agreed to be captured and tabled for the monthly meeting. Timeline for the weekly tactical should be 30-90 minutes based on the size of the group and the updates. A weekly tactical meeting reflects an exchange information purpose.
• A Monthly Strategic which focuses on a handful (prioritized) of strategic topics that can be dynamically discussed, whereas “healthy debate or conflict” is encouraged to flush out criticalissues that will affect the business/organization. Suggested timeline is 1.5- 4 hours.
The monthly strategic indicates a need for decision making.
• An Off Site Quarterly which is an“out of office” 1-2 day session, focused on comprehensive strategy review (of your overall strategic plan or strategic direction framework); self assessment of individual and team performance; personnel review (if relevant, related to personnel issues, successor identification or other talent development elements) and an update (“pulse point” and forecasting) on the market and competition.
The Off Site quarterly (or at least semi-annually) reflects purposes of decision making (including analysis/assessment) and relationship building and strategic alignment of the team.
Our suggestion for insuring meaningful, results oriented and time efficient meetings is that you first know why you are meeting (the objective) then focus on what type of meeting is needed to frame the gathering. For more specific tips and techniques on Running Meaningful and Results Oriented Meetings, see our Resources and Tools page for a free tip list and sample agenda at http://www.kubicalaforestconsulting.com

Assuming – a dangerous business behavior.

As business people we make assumptions every day. We assume when Word runs a spell check, it will catch the misspellings. We assume when our sales staff tells us we are losing to the competition because our products or services are priced too high – they are correct. We assume when we tell our team what we need them to do, they will do it.

Assumptions are decision-making short cuts. We often see this as an over-reliance on experiential based decisions. The more experience we have, the faster we can reach conclusions and make a decision. Make sense? Sure, unless the assumptions are based on an incomplete or incorrect understanding of the facts. And when this happens what we find is we’ve abdicated responsibility for knowing and understanding the facts. The more experience we have, the more we tend to abdicate.

Let’s go back to the spell check example. When we were writing the paragraph above, we initially wrote “And hen this happens…” What we meant to write was “And when this happens…” Spell check didn’t catch this because there wasn’t a misspelling. If we didn’t proof read, you would now be wondering what hens have to do with our message. Our experience tells us that spell check looks for and finds misspelled words. True–it does. True also is what it doesn’t do – look for the more subtle issue of context. In other words, it only works unless it doesn’t!

While the spell check example may be amusing, making quick assumptions based on little or no facts in our business is anything but amusing. We have seen a business person muse about the lack of response from a prospect to a note sent three weeks after the initially meeting with the prospect. Their conclusion (read: assumption) was that the prospect was not interested in their product. The facts are different. The prospect concluded after not seeing a follow-up until three weeks after the initial meeting that the seller was not interested in (did not care about) their business. How do we know? We asked?

Assuming is dangerous, and we offer the following thoughts for your consideration:

• Before making an assumption ask yourself – what’s the evidence?
• If you have no current evidence and you still believe there is an important issue to address – go out and find the evidence and begin by asking
• When you find it, base your decision on the facts
• If you can’t find it – accept the fact that there is no issue and move on

Time is precious, as is our mental health. Don’t waste it addressing or worrying the wrong issue or worse yet, no issue at all.

Copyright 2010 Kubica and LaForest

Leaders create and run successful companies. Leaders also destroy companies. What we’ve found is that far too many leaders create problems and negative challenges for their organization and staff, and they do it without realizing it. In fact, they often think they are doing the right things and behaving in the right way.

We are writing a book on self-sabotaging behaviors in business. David Doltich and Peter Cairo wrote a book called Why CEOs Fail and Marshall Goldsmith wrote a book titled What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. The themes are the same. Whether we call it self-sabotage, derailers or annoying habits, they are behaviors that can prevent us and our organizations from succeeding.

Common examples include:

• Lack of (timely) responsiveness
• Inability to build and maintain relationships
• Arrogance
• Perfectionism
• Spouting (vs. speaking) when angry
• Playing favorites

What makes it even more difficult is that the very behaviors that are causing you problems as a leader may be the same behaviors that resulted in you becoming a leader. We have all heard the phrase – our greatest strengths can become our greatest weaknesses. And so it is.

What we are describing can blindside you. It is very difficult to understand that what worked so well for you in the past is now one of your greatest risk factors.

Want to know if you have a tendency toward self-sabotage or derailers? Or should we say, do you have the courage to find out?

Consider doing the following:

• Take a business personality assessment
• Reflect on the times when you were unsuccessful – when you failed to achieve your goal. What patterns can you identify that were repeated?
• Ask your direct reports
  • This is very powerful and can provide the best feedback and information to you. But you must create a safe environment for them. Remember, no real relationship, no trust, no risk and vulnerability)
  • If you doubt this, think about the times you wondered why your boss couldn’t see in himself / herself what was so obvious to everyone else
• Ask a trusted advisor or colleague

If you are truly serious about becoming a more effective leader and running a successful company, start first with looking at and within yourself. Other people’s behavior may be nothing more than a coping behavior to deal with you. So start with the source.

Copyright 2010 Kubica and LaForest

On Monday we wrote about building an imperfect business by focusing on success and not perfection. Today we provide 8 tips on how to do this.

1)    If this resonates with you, ask for honest and candid feedback on your perfectionist tendencies – ask the truth teller in your organization or a trusted  peer or colleague, or even your subordinates

2)    Prioritize, with your direct reports, the work that must get done -

a.    There should not be more than 3 to 5 high priority initiatives at a time

b.    Remember, when everything is important or what is important changes frequently, then nothing is truly important

3)    Delegate meaningful components of the work to your direct reports and designate by interest and strengths

a.    Follow-up on their progress during your regularly scheduled meetings and not in between to minimize micro-managing

4)    Develop and use an Implementation Planning document that identifies:

a.    Tasks to be done

b.    Responsible person

c.     Milestone dates

d.    Completion date

e.    Anticipated resource/costs to tie to budget priorities

5)    Use an administrative assistant to correct grammar, punctuation, font sizes and other “appearance” issues

6)    Ask questions that are material and important for making a decision. When your questions become hypothetical and address unlikely consequences, have a trusted advisor let you know it’s time to stop asking questions and make a decision.

7)    Adopt the 80/20 rule: when you’re 80% ready – decide and stick with it (assuming there are no egregious unanticipated consequences that require a course correction)

8)    Acknowledge and recognize results-even consider providing incentives for getting the right things done – well and faster.

Copyright 2010 Kubica and LaForest

As we enter both a new year and a new decade, we all have at least one common goal: to grow our business. And 2010 will be a good year to realize that goal. The economy is improving, opportunities are increasing, and demand for quality goods and services is on the rise.

But are you ready to capitalize on the opportunities?  Or, is your quest to run a perfect business, while it may be a great intention, running the risk of deteriorating employee morale and missing opportunities?

There are leadership traits that if left unrecognized will prevent you from not only recognizing opportunities, but also reacting fast enough to benefit you, your employees, your customers and your business. And speed to market is a differentiator. Overdoing and perfectionistic traits, which lead to low morale, include:

• Failure to Delegate – Withholding key assignments from your direct reports because you believe they cannot do the work as well as you can do it.
  • This also results in them working on meaningless or minor assignments
• Micro-managing employees work. This is similar to the above, except that you actually assign and delegate work, but thereafter you tend to tell them what to do and how to do it, not just the goal/objective but you do not allow them to figure out the best means to the end
• More concerned with how the report looks than what it says. (Appearance verses content oriented.)
  • How many times have you had your punctuation and grammar corrected, or slide backgrounds and fonts changed, but received little or no meaningful feedback on the content?
• Detail (verses strategy) focused – Asking for more information when it becomes clear that no one can answer all the questions – nor do you need to, at least at the time.
• Everything is important – that is, they have a hard time determining priorities, and often, not much gets done, or done well because they are spinning.

And the likely result from this quest for perfection in business is:

• Delay in making important decisions.
• Competition gets to the market before you do.
• You become surprised by events that should have been predictable. This is also known as being predictably surprised.
• Not capitalizing on the strength of your group and the power of a contributory team
• People may leave, seeking more challenging work and a more empowering boss.

Perfection is rarely achieved and we believe it is a fool’s goal. Give up the quest for perfection. Good is good enough. As George S. Patton said: a good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. Besides, the market doesn’t stand still. Things change, and it is your responsibility to adapt. Don’t waste your and others time creating the perfect plan and the perfect business. Develop a good plan, execute it with passion, monitor and make mid-course corrections along the way, work as a real team, and you can celebrate growth and success. And who knows, you may be happily telling someone how you grew and succeeded in the imperfect business.

Copyright 2010 Kubica and LaForest