One Meeting Minute Thought for Your Week
When was the last time you asked your customers for their feedback?
And, by customers I mean the people you invite to your meetings.
If you want to make your meetings better, do this as a start.
Ask the people in your meetings these 3 questions.
1. How can we make this meeting a better investment of your time?
2. How can we make this meeting more valuable for the company?
3. What part of the meeting is most beneficial for you?
You might be surprised by the answers.
And, keep reading for a Bonus Question that might take more than a little courage to ask!
Question 1: How can we make this meeting a better investment of your time?
Take a moment to consider the wording of this question.
It’s intentionally designed to create engagement with your meeting “customer”.
Notice how it acknowledges that being in your meeting is an investment of their time. They have some degree of choice when it comes to what they do at work and they’ve chosen to entrust their time to you.
You’re recognizing you are a steward of their most precious resource – their time. And, you want to do your very best to deliver the payback they expect and deserve.
But, you can’t do that on your own. You need their help. Which is why this question uses the term “we”.
You’re empowering them to take actions to improve the meeting you lead.
While they are your customer, they’re also your partner in delivering a productive, effective meeting.
With this question, you’re giving them agency to control the situation they’re in.
If they don’t like your meeting as it is, they can do something about it!
But any meeting in your company is not only about the needs of the participants.
And, because that’s true, you need to ask them Question 2.
Question 2: How can we make this meeting more valuable for the company?
This question is also intentionally designed to guide and train your teammates.
When you and your coworkers are in a meeting at work, the choices you make need to ultimately be evaluated based on the results you deliver for the company.
A meeting in your business is always a business meeting.
Not every meeting focuses on financial results or external customer satisfaction.
But what is done in any meeting must somehow add value to the company. And, this includes improving the productivity and well-being of all employees.
This is the focus of Question 3.
Question 3: What part of the meeting is most beneficial for you?
This question is personal. You’re asking it because you want to know how your meeting adds value to the person as a unique individual.
Each participant in your meeting is there for a specific purpose – if you’ve designed your meeting well.
You don’t invite random teammates to your meetings. You’re intentional when you create your list of attendees.
This question gives you the opportunity to confirm they are getting and delivering the value you expected they would.
And, more importantly, it reveals new insight for you. You can see how they are benefitting in ways you didn’t expect.
By asking this question to multiple participants in your meeting, you’ll learn what to keep doing and what to stop doing.
You’ll be equipped to adjust and improve your meeting.
This questions provides an additional benefit of “locking in the learning” regarding your meeting.
It creates a learning moment as it causes the person you’re talking with to recall and reflect on what aspects of your meeting was most helpful for them personally. Through the process it stimulates the creation of new neural pathways in the brain.
This of course assumes they are getting value of some sort from your meeting, which they almost certainly are.
But, if they’re struggling to think of anything positive to say, this bonus question is worth asking.
Bonus Question: Is this meeting wasting your time?
The reality is you don’t always get your meeting participant list right. You may invite someone that really shouldn’t be there. And, the meeting is actually wasting their time.
If that’s the case, you don’t want them to keep coming. They need to be somewhere else where they’re adding value to the business and not having the life sucked out of them as they sit in your meeting where they’re not needed.
Or, your meeting may be wasting their time now, but after you implement the changes sparked by your conversation around the first three questions, this may change.
Your meeting that’s currently not a good use of your teammates time might become one of the most productive and enjoyable parts of their job.
So ask this bonus question even though it takes courage and, in some ways, you may not want to hear their answer.
What you learn will be worth the temporary discomfort.
Ask, Listen, and Learn
When you ask the people who attend your meetings these questions and take time to truly listen to their input, you will gain new insight and learn.
1. How can we make this meeting a better investment of your time?
2. How can we make this meeting more valuable for the company?
3. What part of the meeting is most beneficial for you?
Bonus: Is this meeting wasting your time?
And, when you apply what you learn from your customer input, you will undoubtedly improve your meeting.
More Resources to Help You Build Your Career and Your Business
Learn more about the power of “Learning Questions” like Question 3 in Michael Bungay Stanier’s excellent book, The Coaching Habit. He also provides free resources on his website (click here).
You can also listen to Michael on the Coaching for Leaders podcast episode, These Coaching Questions Get Results. The host, Dave Stachowiak, is one of the best podcast hosts around.
For more powerful questions, check out my blog post, How To Ask Powerful Questions – Getting Started.
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That’s All for this Issue
Focusing on serving customers, both internal and external, is essential for any business leader.
When you lead with a customer-first approach, your teams will thrive along with your company.
If this M4 issue helped you think of your meeting participants more like customers and sparked ideas on how you can learn from them and serve them better, please share it with another business leader you know.
You can help them make their meetings better for their teams and their companies.
Let’s lead with kindness and confidence!
Greg
Here are 3 ways I can help you when you’re ready:
- Get more free resources you can use today (Click here to Start)
- Improve on your own with digital courses (Click here to Improve)
- Accelerate your progress with coaching (Click here to Accelerate)
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