imapMyTeam Blog

Good Meetings are Everyone’s Responsibility

An Old Joke: A meeting is an event where minutes are taken and hours are wasted.

Old jokes often come from past realities. In today’s business world the new reality is we certainly cannot afford to waste the most precious commodity we have – time.

Meetings in the workplace are meant to be informative, collaborative and help teams or projects stay on track, so why do they seem to have such a bad reputation? The quick response to that notion is likely to be, everyone just has too many meetings to attend. The truth is, it’s not the meeting itself or the sheer number of meetings you object to; it’s HOW the meeting unfolds that influences your opinion of whether the meeting was ‘good,’ ‘bad’ or maybe worse.

While those charged with leading the meeting are largely held responsible, how you participate also has an impact on the meetings success and whether you and others view the meeting in a positive way. Do your actions and behaviors contribute in a positive way, or do they slow down or stifle the participation of others? Being aware of how your actions and behaviors may be influencing the meeting gives you the ability to adapt your behaviors to help you and others make the most of the meeting.

The ‘Managing Meetings’ report in imapMyTeam is a great tool for both meeting leaders and participants to occasionally review. This report describes various strengths you have and where those strengths are helpful to influencing meetings in a positive way and making meetings productive. The report also suggests ways in which you will need to modify that strength when it is not producing the results you want.

You will find the ‘Managing Meetings’ report in the center pane drop down report menu.

Next time you are in a meeting and you see team members that are not engaged and progress is at a stand-still you’ll be better prepared either as a leader or a participant to have a positive impact in getting the meeting back on track.