My passion is creating internet products since 1997. Today i am working at Eresnet as CTO. Our Vision is to become Europe‘s leading online serviceprovider for real estate search and marketing. Delivering immobilien.net, webreal and other services.
Value the time of others by making it short and focused
I have spend much time unnecessary in meetings. Experiencing endless discussions, leaving without results. When attending a meeting, often I felt, my time was wasted. But even worse, sometimes I organized meetings, and noticed bored people who’s time I wasted. What a shame!
Non exiguum temporis habemus, sed multum perdidimus, Seneca * (Something like: It isn’t little time we have, rather it is much time we don’t use)
There are tons of recommendations for productive meetings. Most of all: organize only relevant meetings. But those relevant meetings are important and as a manager you are responsible. Getting it right isn’t easy. One of my favorite leadership methods is leadership by example. Show good practices and support them.
- All my weekly status jour fixe are focused and follow the 22 meeting minute guidelines by Nicole Steinbok. As a result all attendees show up in time, they are focused and interested. Nobody has the feeling, his time is wasted.
- All my meetings, which can’t be done in this way follow the major standard meeting rules (target, agenda, clear action points, the least possible number of attendees, time boxed, etc.) But most of all, anything I do in the meeting is towards achieving a result. The result could be a decision, a plan, a list or a next step. Results are key, as it shows, you actually have achieved something.
Conclusion
By keeping the meeting overhead to a minimum and the meetings focused, I value the time of my employees and achieve results.
(* Es ist nicht wenig Zeit, die wir haben, sondern es ist viel Zeit, die wir nicht nutzen.)
