One Meeting Minute Thought for Your Week
When you’re in meeting after meeting, day after day, it can be hard to believe you’re having any long term positive impact.
The daily grind can cause you to question whether all the time you invest in preparing for and leading meetings is worth it.
I want to encourage you that your work IS worth your time.
Because I have a perspective you may not have depending on what stage of your career you’re in.
After 30+ years of leading meetings I see things differently than I did when I first joined the professional world.
To help you see the world from my perspective, let me ask you a question.
How many meetings will you lead before you complete your career?
The answer may shock you.
How many positive impact opportunities you’ll have in your career
Here’s the math I use to think about the positive impact people can have through meetings.
✅ 2 meetings each week (I expect this is WAY too low for you but we’ll be conservative)
✅ 50 work weeks every year (Hopefully you get at least a couple of weeks of vacation each year!)
✅ 35 years in your career (Again, probably too low for most of us.)
2 x 50 x 35 = 3500
Based on this conservative math, you’re going to lead 3500 meetings during your career!
The reality is you’ve led or you’re going to lead A LOT MORE meetings than that.
That’s especially true if you’re a leader in your business (and I expect you are).
On top of that, you’re reading M4 – the Monday Morning Meeting Minute to get even better at leading productive, effective meetings.
So you’ll likely lead more meetings than the normal professional.
But to stay conservative with our estimate of the long term positive impact you can have, we’ll stick with these estimates.
But only thinking about leading 3500 meetings during your career doesn’t give you the full picture.
The positive impact potential for people
Because you’re leading meetings, you’re going to be working with people.
Meetings aren’t solo events.
If you’re by yourself in a meeting, it’s not a meeting!
At a minimum, you’re going to have one other person with you – like in your one-on-one meetings you have with your direct reports.
Through those one on one meetings you have the opportunity to impact two people (the person you’re meeting with AND you).
Obviously, most of the meetings throughout your career will involve a larger group.
Staying with our conservative number, we’ll assume an average meeting size of 5 people.
Going back to our positive impact of meetings calculator, we’ll enter:
3500 meetings x 5 people in each meeting
And we get at total of 17,500 people.
Think about that for a minute.
During your career through the meetings you lead, you’re going to have the opportunity to make a positive impact on 17,500 people!
Of course, some of those meetings will involve the same people.
But that’s make your influence on them even more powerful because you’ll be repeating and reinforcing your positive influence on them.
So what’s keeping you from being encouraged and excited about the positive impact you can have by leading meetings.
I can think of a couple of potential mental barriers and they both involve where you are in your career.
The timing is always right to have a positive impact through meetings
If you’re at the beginning of your career, you may not be leading meetings.
And you’re not sure if you’ll ever be given that opportunity.
I encourage you to be patient.
If you want to lead meetings and you’re willing to invest the time and effort required to get good at it, you will absolutely be given the opportunity.
To get started, ask your supervisor if you can step in as a backup for someone leading a meeting you attend.
At some point the person leading that meeting will take a day off and that will be your chance to lead the meeting and make a positive impact immediately.
Your journey to leading 3500 meetings during your career just started.
But what if your career journey isn’t starting but near the end?
Don’t worry.
It’s never too late to make a positive impact through meetings.
Even if you only have one year left in your career, you can still make a difference in people’s lives.
If you start now and schedule 2 meetings each week for your remaining 50 weeks, you’ll lead 100 meetings.
With 5 people in each of those 100 meetings, you’re going to have 500 human interaction experiences.
To say it another way, you’re going to have 500 opportunities to have a positive impact on your coworkers.
If you want to finish your career strong, leading meetings is a great way to do exactly that.
More Resources to Help You Build Your Career and Your Business
If you are at the beginning of your career, leading meetings is one of many fundamental career skills you’ll want to develop.
These articles will help you understand why getting good at the basics is critical to your success.
🔷 3 Reasons We All Struggle With Fundamental Career Skills (click here)
🔷 3 More Reasons We All Struggle With Fundamental Career Skills (click here)
If you’re a basketball fan, you’ll appreciate the content from legends like Steph Curry, Kobe Bryant, and Coach John Wooden.
And Now a Word from Our Sponsors
If you’d like to learn more about the importance of fundamental career skills, check out the archive of Connect Mobilize Deliver podcast episodes.
I interviewed experts from a variety of industries and professions and asked each of them to share 3 fundamental career skills they encourage every professional to master.
Explore the Connect Mobilize Deliver episode library by clicking here.
That’s All for this Issue
I’ll wrap up this M4 issue with a quick summary.
If you’re just starting your career, you’re going to lead THOUSANDS of meetings during your career.
Those meetings are going to give you the opportunity to have a positive impact on THOUSANDS of people.
And if you’ve already started your career or even about to end it, you can still have a positive impact on your coworkers.
It’s never too late.
Make every meeting count and have a positive impact on every person who attends.
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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