What is a Meeting?

A Meeting is a Leadership Moment

Influential leadership is a social construct—invented and used by people for people.

The purpose of influential leadership is to change- and make things better for people.

Also, the practice of leadership can arise and should exist, wherever we are—in our: homes, schools, teams, play, places of work, communities, government and country.

Another social construct that serves a variety of collectives is the meeting.

Meetings are purposeful events that we create across all our social domains, wherever we should also be practicing leadership.

So, what is a meeting?

What is the purpose of a meeting?

How does a meeting fit into the Influential Leadership System?

We always need to ensure we have a common understanding of what we mean, so let me offer a definition of what a ‘meeting’ is.

Meeting, the word, can be an adjective, a noun and a verb.

In this Note we are interested in its use as a tool for productive ends.

For our purpose, a meeting is a formal real-time gathering (physical or virtual) of two or more people for the purpose of achieving a common goal through conversation and interaction.

We differentiate a meeting from other kinds of conversations through the following qualities. A meeting is:

Mutually declared and formalised. There is agreement that it should take place, with a designated group of people, and someone schedules the occurrence.
Associated with a purpose, which should be clear to everyone invited to participate. In other words, meetings are not convened without purpose, even if sometimes for confidentiality, it is only in the mind of the convener. The clearer the purpose, the more productive a meeting tends to be.

Arranged with a defined start and end time, and embodies clear phases: preparatory (before), during (the meeting itself), and follow-up (afterwards).

In general, meetings are a management tool for the effective use of resources to achieve a particular outcome.

So, meetings are an important part of managing any sort of collective; in homes (what should we do for our vacation?), sports teams (working through a new tactic idea), businesses (finalising a fresh marketing strategy) and governments (setting up a revised safety policy).

Here comes the leadership element.

Meetings are also a potential leadership moment.

The distinct roles that people hold in a meeting define different types of leadership moments.

Leadership moments are not necessarily the same for the convener, those who play an administrative role, the person who chairs or manages the meeting, the participants and the people affected by decisions and outcomes of the meeting.

Each person involved must treat the meeting as a leadership moment—a circumstance that has the potential to activate their influential leadership—for a productive contribution and outcome.

I offer eight filter questions that help to institutionalise productive meeting practices.

Is a meeting the best use of our scarcest resource—time—to manage the matter in question? A meeting must be a necessity rather than a cure-all. Many organisations drown under a culture of meetings for the purpose of meetings. Cut them! Apply the Marcus Aurelius principle: Less is more!
If you are the convener, is it clear to you and others what the meeting purpose is? How do you know it is clear to others? Is documentation and other material necessary to explain and support the purpose? A gathering meeting without a clear purpose is not a meeting.
Who are the right people to invite and involve, ensuring the purpose (objective) is met? Often clarity of purpose will direct you to the right contributors.
If you are an invited participant, is it clear to you why you have been invited and what your contribution must be? If not, it is your business to ensure you know. Find out, work it out, prepare. Being at a meeting for no purpose is not smart. In a productive environment the chair or meeting manager would ask those who have attended and made no contribution why they are there!
What must I do to prepare properly? We know that for every endeavour preparation is 80% of the success. It is no different for a meeting. The best result always depends on proper preparation.
Am I able to prepare properly within the constraints (time, other commitments and so forth) I face? If not, have that conversation with the convener. Too many people flit from one meeting to another without proper preparation. It is disrespectful to yourself, others and the purpose of the meeting if you are under-prepared!
Who is the best person to manage the meeting? It might not be the most senior person, for example, but the person best suited to solicit inputs and contributions. Innovative, learning and inclusive organisations expect participation, the sharing of alternative ideas and solutions, and through such an approach they breed success.

Before the meeting ends, am I clear about what the decisions are and what I am responsible for (and others)? If it is not clear, ask. A gathering that does not tie up the proceedings with the purpose and subsequent responsibilities is not a meeting.

Let us be reminded how we can apply the eight influential leadership behavioural attributes to our ‘meeting lives’:

When faced by the leadership moment of:

convening a meeting, or asked to participate (not attend!),
when participating, and
following up afterwards,

apply the influential leadership behavioural attributes.

Be:

Self-aware (what is my role, what do I need to prepare, how do I contribute, how do I encourage contributions?)
Courageous (state your case, don’t group speak and encourage left thinking)
Hopeful (offer solutions to the purpose)
Principled (test the questions and answers with first principles)
Purposeful (keep rooted to the purpose)
Questioning (question, and allow questioning)
Strategic (how does this fit into the big picture of our family, team, business, country…?)
Thoughtful (less speed, more haste)

Design your meetings to be productive, like an orchestra conductor who draws out the sweetest notes from every member. Make your meetings work!

Regards,
Colin @ Karoo
Influential leaders prepare!