High Performance Leadership

Do you have too many meetings? Many leaders do. Staff meetings, committee meetings, team meetings, project meetings, all-company meetings...the list goes on. Most of us can think of many meetings that were simply wastes of our time. Time is too important to waste is bad meetings. Do the people in your meeting want to be there? If not, maybe it's not a meeting that you need. Maybe there's another way to communicate your message. Maybe the work that is waiting is too important to wait. We can like the feeling of having a meeting. It feels like we're doing something. But if we're not -- if we are delaying real work, maybe we don't need that meeting after all. What scheduled meeting could you eliminate this week? Wouldn't it be nice to have that time to be...well, happy and more productive? -- Doug Smithy

Do you show up on time? How do you feel when you're in charge of something and people choose NOT to show up on time? Not everyone - some people respect you enough and your work to show up on time. But what about those who make other choices? What about those who have de-prioritized your event? Yesterday I facilitated a training program on time management. Some people thought it was funny to say "I don't have time for time management." That's OK. I get it. Managing time is hard. It's a challenge in today's world of multi-tasking and parallel meetings. And yet, tossing the blame onto others won't manage your activities for you, will it? Not only were some people late for my time management workshop - some didn't show up until after lunch, when it was more than half over. Then, they wondered why they didn't find what they needed. Learning is an investment. Learning is a discipline. Managing time is all about managing yourself, and having t...