Week 51: Making the Most of Meetings – #AlphaFemaleFriday

Week 51: Making the Most of Meetings – #AlphaFemaleFriday

“ WEEK 51 / 133 – 133 WEEKS TO SUCCESS ”

                You’ve heard it all before. Lean in at the table. Thrive in the workplace. This week, I’ve been thinking about how to make the most out of meetings, and why so many people dread them. Two of the main reasons why people dread meetings is that they run too long so it makes them feel like it’s preventing them from actually getting anything done or they feel like they’re not contributing enough to the meeting.

                I love the idea of a quick meeting just to meet face-to-face, because so many things get miscommunicated and misunderstood over other mediums, but people define quick meetings in different ways. In my mind, a quick meeting is fifteen minutes. For others, a solid hour is a quick meeting. That one hour long meeting starts to feel quite long when you’re hearing the same thing over and over again.

                When you’re in a meeting, there are two crucial roles you need to play to get the most out of the meeting. Most people know they have to be active contributors, but people often forget they need to be active listeners, too. In the same way that people are too shy to dance on the dance floor in fear of what everyone else thinks, when everyone else is actually thinking the exact same thing, people who are so busy preparing for their next brilliant piece of conversation that they forget to actually listen to what others are saying.

In the business world, we are so focused on being more aggressive to get ahead. Have confidence. Know your value. Be fearless. Win friends and influence people. It’s crucial to have all of these confident qualities, but the truth is if you really want to make your mark in this world, you cannot do it alone. Not everyone has to be your best friend, but you must continue to respect people by listening to them, and not just letting the words flow in through one ear and out the other. Once you have given others the respect they deserve, you solidify your reputation and can continue to demand that respect for others to listen to you when you’re at the table.

Cheers,

Kelly

@AlphaFemSociety tweets by @KellyRGonzales      

About:

Each week, I take a tip from Lois P. Frankel’s book, Nice Girls Still Don’t Get the Corner Office, and explore how each of these tips affect myself and other women in similar positions on the road to becoming the women we want to be. There are far and few between who are a few steps behind me, and many more who are far advanced. I found that Lois P. Frankel’s advice applied to novice, intermediates, and experts alike. It helped me see that I was already doing right, served as a reminder to keep on doing what I was doing and how to keep that momentum going. The book also showed me areas where I could improve, and gave realistic tips to jump on board. There are a total of 133 tips, and explore one tip per week in a program I call: 133 Weeks to Success.

Join the movement using the hashtag #133WeeksToSuccess with posts which are posted every #AlphaFemaleFriday.