Show Notes
Today’s episode features a few tricks for helping you to improve your meeting proficiency. It’s an enhancement to my “4 steps to better meeting outcomes” and my “5 recommendations on how to make meetings a vital career tool.”
Every time you turn around there’s yet another meeting. I hear a lot of people say that by the end of the day they’re burned out on Zoom or other digital platforms. The tips I’m providing today will help you deal with the overabundance of meetings by reinforcing your leadership role.
Your Leadership Role as Meeting Leader or Participant
You have a leadership role when you’re the meeting leader. But you are also a leader as a meeting participant. Here are some ways you can be an effective leader whether you’re heading up the meeting or participating as an attendee.
When Women Engineers See Themselves as Leaders, Others Do Too
As a woman engineer you may find it hard to take on a role as a leader because others don’t see you as one. (There’s a recent episode on HBR’s Women at Work podcast on this topic.) This makes it hard for you to feel respected and be taken seriously in meetings.
But really others won’t see you as a leader unless you see yourself as a leader first. So envision your leadership role and step into it.
See yourself as a leader so that others do too.
If you’re the meeting leader, there are certain tasks you can do that emphasize your leadership characteristics, like:
- Take charge of the meeting. Own the objective and manage the agenda.
- Focus in on the purpose and guide the meeting toward it.
- Listen to all participants and be open to ideas. Seek to understand and don’t presume an outcome.
When you’re a meeting participant, there are other qualities that identify you as a leader. Some examples of how to embrace these qualities are:
- Contribute to the idea pool and the meeting objective without dominating the discussion.
- Represent your role in the organization and fulfill your purpose for attending the meeting.
- Communicate professionally. Practice inclusion and curiosity.
These are things that are going to identify you as a leader, whether you’re the meeting leader or one of the attendees.
Setting Norms Results in More Effective Meetings
Another trick to conquering meetings is to set meeting norms. These are the guidelines that explain the rules of engagement. Meeting norms ensure fair opportunity to participate and encourage different participation styles.
Examples of meeting norms might be: putting a limit on discussion time, holding questions until the end, or going around the room to give everyone a chance to add their input.
When you’re the meeting leader, show your leadership qualities by:
- Setting and enforcing the meeting norms.
- Stating them up front and eliciting buy-in from the participants.
- Facilitating the meeting in conjunction with the meeting norms so that there’s a diversity of ideas and points of view.
When you’re a participant, show your leadership qualities by:
- Respecting the meeting norms.
- Supporting the meeting leader when other participants are not respecting the meeting norms.
Stating What You Want to Accomplish Helps Set Meeting Expectations
One more idea to help you set your meeting up for success is to state what you want to accomplish. Beyond the objective and the agenda, state specifically what you hope to accomplish during the meeting time.
By doing this you’re defining the scope of the meeting and setting the expectations of the participants. You’re also showing respect for the participants’ time. The participants, in turn, know what needs to be accomplished and will be supportive.
When you’re the meeting leader:
- Communicate what you want to accomplish ahead of time or at the start of the meeting.
- Steer the meeting back toward expectations whenever the discussion goes off on tangents or down rabbit holes.
When you’re a participant:
- Stay on topic and don’t push your own agenda.
- Support, question and challenge ideas, as appropriate, while satisfying meeting expectations.
Use these simple ideas in your next meeting: See yourself as a leader. Set and follow meeting norms and expectations. I think you’ll find the meeting will be more valuable and constructive.
Take each meeting on as a leadership challenge and it will benefit you not only in your job but in your engineering career.
Next time on Her Engineering Career Podcast I’ll have a few ideas for you about how to advocate for yourself. Tune in for Episode 30.