M4 035 How To Align Your Values And Your Meetings

M4 035: How To Align Your Values And Your Meetings

One Meeting Minute Thought for Your Week

If you can’t align your values with your work, your job will be hollow and unfulfilling.

But when you line up what you do in your career with what’s most important to you, you’ll find satisfaction and meaning even in your day-to-day tasks.

And, that includes leading meetings.

While you may not be able to align your values with every detail of every meeting, it’s not as hard to make the connection as you might think.

But that initial step can be challenging for some people.

Here’s what I mean.

The first step to align your values and your meetings is the hardest

One of the most important questions you can ask yourself in meetings and in life is this one:

🤔 “What DO I value?”

The answer drives everything you do – whether you realize it or not.

Because, your behaviors follow what you value.

So, if that’s not an easy question for you to answer, invest some time thinking about it.

If you get stuck, keep reading. These ideas will stimulate your thinking.

What you’re currently doing in your meetings may confirm that your behaviors already match up with your values.

Or, you may realize you to need to make a few corrections to better align your values with your meeting behaviors.

Either way, the time you invest to reflect on your values will be beneficial.

Even your meeting details reflect your values

Preparing for meetings involves making countless decisions – big and small.

When you create an agenda or an invitation list, your choices are being influenced by your values.

This is true for all of us.

And, it happens at a subconscious level, so we don’t always recognize what’s going on.

Here are some simple examples.

If finishing a project on time is most important to you, the schedule will be the first item on your agenda.

You, knowingly or unknowingly, made a choice to align your values with the order of items you will discuss during your meeting.

If it’s critical to you to hit the project budget, you’ll be prepared to discuss the current forecast. You’ll also have a clear financial analysis in the pre-read material.

Do you value keeping your teammates safe and healthy?

Safety will be a topic you cover at the start of every team meeting.

When you value collaboration across the business, you’ll invite someone from each department when a decision that will impact them is being made.

Your invitation list will align with your values.

Let’s take a moment to dive into this example a bit more.

Too many people create their invitation list without investing much thought.

That’s why so many cross-functional meetings leave critical people out.

The voices of affected groups go unheard and the corporate silos remain. In fact, they’re made stronger and taller!

Some may SAY they value teamwork and inclusion, but the choices they make about who to invite to their meetings suggest that may not actually be the case.

How we prepare for and design our meetings before they occur demonstrates what we value.

And, how we behave DURING meetings can be even more revealing.

The most important thing to value

As I’ve said many times, meetings are where people come together to do work.

If you don’t have people in a meeting, you don’t have a meeting!

Meetings require people – live human beings.

So, if you value people and you believe each individual is important and deserves respect, meetings are a perfect place to align your values with your behaviors.

Because the opportunities in meetings to show people you value them are beyond measure.

Here are 15 examples to illustrate my point.

✅ You choose your words intentionally instead of letting emotions drive your responses.

✅ You help others improve their performance in meetings using constructive criticism.

✅ You tell each person how they specifically contribute to the meeting’s Purpose.

✅ You invite less experienced coworkers to your meetings to help them develop.

✅ You don’t let a rambler go on and on and damage their professional image.

✅ You do Preparation so others are in a position to succeed when they arrive.

✅ You don’t invite People who don’t need to be there and waste their time.

✅ You let others express themselves without cutting them off.

✅ You are sincerely curious about each person’s perspective.

✅ You invite a diverse set of participants to your meetings.

✅ You demonstrate compassion with your tone of voice.

✅ You empathize when someone shows up late.

✅ You adjust when a person must leave early.

✅ You encourage and build people up.

✅ You end on time or early.

✅ You show respect.

✅ You are kind.

And, that short list is just the start!

If people are important to you, you can show that in every meeting you lead or attend.

You can align your values and your everyday work and positively impact people’s lives.

More Resources to Help You Build Your Career and Your Business

If you value people AND productivity, schedule your meetings for 25 or 55 minutes instead of 30 minutes or an hour.

This will help others transition between meetings without rushing.

Those minutes give people a chance to process what they’ve learned in one meeting and be ready for their next meeting or work activity.

They’ll be more productive and effective in both meetings.

This simple practice is an easy way to align your values and your behaviors.

And, Microsoft makes it easy to do in Outlook.

Here’s how to set your default meeting time. 👇

Outlook Meeting Settings

And Now a Word from Our Sponsors

I’m growing my network of sponsors for M4, the Monday Morning Meeting Minute.

So if you or someone you know would like to reach other business leaders like you and tell them about the products and services you offer, please let me know.

And while I’m continuing to grow that income stream, here’s the current situation.

I’m my biggest sponsor of M4.

The work I do as an Executive Business Consultant and Coach brings in the revenue that makes distributing this newsletter possible.

In previous M4 issues, I’ve shared about the work I do with clients related to The 6 Types of Working Genius. Those sessions bring me joy, energy, and fulfillment because they match my own Working Geniuses – which are Enablement and Discernment.

You likely noticed my reference above to leading training sessions to help clients lead productive, effective meetings in their business. That’s a service I also offer.

And, I do one-on-one coaching too. (click here to learn more)

All of these let me help others by sharing what I’ve learned in my 30+ years in business while doing work I LOVE.

If any of these services (or something else you have in mind) sound interesting to you, just reply to this email.

And, feel free to have others reach out to me if you think I can help them.

Since this is a side business, I want to have a conversation to make sure I can meet your needs given my limited availability to take on new clients.

That’s All for this Issue

Our behaviors reveal what we truly value.

So take a moment to think about what’s most important to you.

When you have that clear in your mind, consider your choices and actions before and during your meetings.

Review the topics you discuss and how you discuss them. Look at your participant lists and your agendas.

Do the patterns you see match what you want to be true? Or do you want to make some tweaks to align your values and your behaviors?

Notice I chose the word “tweaks” and not “drastic changes”.

Because if you’ve reading this, I expect you’re already being deliberate and intentional – even if you (like all of us) need to evaluate and make minor corrections at times.

I’m confident you’re already consistently showing others what you truly value.

If I’m right (and I expect I am), keep it up. You’re doing great!

Let’s lead with kindness and confidence!

Greg


Here are 3 ways I can help you when you’re ready:

  1. Get more free resources you can use today (Click here to Start)
  2. Improve on your own with digital courses (Click here to Improve)
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