By Sondra Calhoun
As an executive, are you constantly in meetings? Is it hard for people to connect with and get time with you because you are in meetings all the time? Can you barely find the time to get “important stuff” done because you are in meetings all the time? We hear these concerns quite frequently from executives and their direct reports, and both are a bit frustrated by it.
In coaching executives and their teams, we find that some of the meetings they attend are truly a waste of their time. They are invited so that they are “kept in the loop”, others want them to hear what is being discussed, they have always attended, or they hold all the decision-making authority and this is the only way to get things moving faster. Some of the negative impacts of executives always being in meetings are:
· Decisions actually take longer to make because the executive is the bottleneck and “always in other meetings.”
· Strategy is put on the back burner when the executive is the only one who can make the tactical decisions.
· People are unable to get any 1:1 time with the executive to discuss critical decisions and must wait for the next meeting which derails the purpose of that meeting, and so on.
· Executives are consistently working 10-12 hour days which drains their creativity and energy.
· There is not time for executives to commit focus to the annual initiatives or make sure big decisions are aligned with the overarching strategy.
What meetings should executives regularly attend?
1. First Team focus – this is the regularly scheduled meeting with the other strategic decision makers in the organization where the annual initiatives, scorecards, rocks, culture, and strategic pivots are discussed. This meeting should only be built around these strategic conversations and should happen at least twice a month if not weekly.
2. Alignment of departments – in this monthly or bi-weekly meeting the department head (CFO, COO, CGO, etc.) is sharing and discussing with their direct reports how they can support the annual initiatives, scorecards, rocks, culture, and strategic pivots.
3. Quarterly Planning Sessions – annual initiatives should be broken down into quarterly rocks which are reviewed and possibly changed depending on the results of the scorecards.
4. Board Meetings – to gain clarity and guidance on governance issues.
5. First Team Check-ins – daily 15-minute meetings to discuss priorities for the day in order to create accountability for executive focus and priorities.
For the other meetings that continually pop up on the calendar, executives should ask themselves what role they will be playing in that meeting. Is there someone else who could move things forward if they had enough authority? Could the information from the meeting be shared in an email to the executive? Will the executive’s presence stifle open and transparent conversation and debate? Could that meeting be utilized as a career development opportunity for a high potential to lead or attend?
The role of an executive is to lead the organization and not just as a representative of their department. Their true value is in bringing their expertise in their area to the strategic conversations that affect the entire company. They should be continually analyzing the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, and marketplace trends. If there is not enough time for them to research and strategize on these three areas, they are doing a huge disservice to the company and themselves.