For my first job in Washington, DC, I worked very long hours. One night, a rare dinner date was lined up. “What time do you get off?” my date asked to coordinate. A long, awkward pause followed. “It’s kind of a philosophical question,” I finally admitted. That was fine by me at the time, but […]
Archive for Leadership
Self-Care As a Leadership Discipline
For leaders, there never seems to be enough time in the day, and our own needs are often the ones that get shortchanged. Now imagine what your life would be like if you really did have time for career, family, and self-care.
5 Ways to Hold Shorter Meetings
Take Things to the Next Level, in Half the Time
When Bryan Stockton was pushed out as CEO of toymaker Mattel, he fingered a complacent company culture for dipping profits. In fact, he went one step further and blamed the lack of innovation on bad meetings. Stockton’s story has been on my mind because I’m releasing a new book today called No Fail Meetings. Meetings […]
How to Shut Down Annoying Meeting Behaviors
Tips for Dealing with 8 Common Disruptors
As a young leader, I was excited to attend the annual gathering of my professional organization. It promised three days of learning and networking, plus a few business sessions. During the first session, one of my elder colleagues, a man wearing bright red suspenders, rose to ask a question, something about whether a point of […]
How Did We End Up with So Many Meetings?
A History of Distrust and Micromanagement
Meetings are a necessity. Meetings also often stink. Typically, they are a waste of time. There are too many meetings—and most of them are often poorly-organized, lack coherent agendas, serve to do little more than reaffirm hierarchies than achieve results. As a result, poorly-run meetings cost companies $37 billion a year in lost productivity. Employees […]
How to Keep Meetings from Ruining Your Productivity
Meetings are a necessary part of organizational life, and every leader needs to convene them. Unfortunately, we often allow them to run on autopilot, trapping our team in a never-ending cycle of pointless meetings. Today, we’ll show you the real purpose of meetings. And we’ll share 3 questions that will make your team more productive […]