Meetings
New bosses are popping up lately, as more offices streamline staff. If that’s the case in your office, cast yourself in the best possible light—quickly. Follow this advice from executive recruiter Jay Gaines and executive coach Licia Hahn.
Straddling the line between “smart” and “smarty pants” can be tricky. How do you show off what you know—and become more visible around the office—without alienating people with a showy attitude? Here’s a strategy to employ at department meetings:
The time-waster meeting is a common fixture in offices across America. The reason, says Reid Hastie, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, is that we’re not thinking about and valuing our time the right way.
Admin Brooke Wiseman knew that administrative professionals in her company weren’t being used in the most productive ways. For example, some shared the same title but had wide variations in duties. Her goal was to bring more value to the company by turbocharging the partnerships between executives and their assistants. Here’s how she did it.
One of the best ways to come up with creative ideas is to hold a “greenhousing” session where ideas are nurtured before they’re judged, says Dave Lewis, who runs ?What if! The Innovation Company.
Collaboration works, until it starts to resemble groupthink. That’s when healthy dissent evaporates, self-defeating tendencies surge and negative emotions corrode the group’s work. Make sure your team is working more like the Manhattan Project and less like Enron.
You are in charge of a committee at work that no one seems to care about. Meeting attendance is lackluster, and those who do come rarely speak up. Here are 11 ways to make people feel more engaged.
Planning an out-of-town meeting? Here’s how to deal with delays, cancellations, shutdowns, mergers and other airline industry woes.
Work is ever more collaborative, and the need for daily efficiency stronger than ever. So who has time for boring, unproductive meetings? No one. Keep meetings focused by heeding these don’ts.
Kate believes the meeting is a huge waste of time because colleagues always ramble on when it’s their turn to speak, and there’s no real structure to the gathering. At this point, says family and divorce lawyer-mediator Laurie Puhn, Kate can handle this situation in two ways. One is a communication blunder; the other a communication wonder.
“I work with a constant complainer. And now, other admins have started to join in. How am I, as the team leader, supposed to put a stop to it?” Hold a gripe session, providing a forum for negative employees to vent.
“I hate taking minutes. What do I write down? How do I know what’s important?” Streamline your minute-taking by recording notes as bullet points. Distill any conversation down to its essentials.
Even if you’re not the person’s manager, you can gently coach a “difficult” co-worker toward positive behavior. Try taking the employoee aside after a meeting and follow these steps.
