9 Ways To Positively Impact Leadership Team Meetings

From Dysfunction to Impact and Influence in Leadership Teams One thing that continues to surprise me with senior leaders is how many do not contribute to senior leadership meetings. Having worked with thousands of team leaders, I notice typical behaviours and one of these behaviours is to remain silent in meetings. Of course, there are many reasons for their silence. Kate, one of the leaders I spoke to, let me know what affects her: Without meeting protocols, others talk frequently...

Quit the Blame Game – Glitches and Roadblocks are Normal

Hindsight, and reflection: Insights into Learning Hindsight; I find unhelpful. Reflection, I rate. What is the difference? Hindsight leaves me feeling inadequate, and with a sense of failure, that my effort was not good enough. Hindsight encourages fault finding, blame and criticism. Each is entirely unhelpful in any learning process. Reflection enables me to identify causes, helps me reset a vision of what is possible, identify what I want to learn, and apply. Why is reflection valuable? Setting out to...

Beyond Lockdown: The Four Stages For Inspiring Re-entry

What a time we have all been through. One of the many unusual aspects of this pandemic has been how the whole world has had shared experiences. Most of us have retreated to personal bubbles within our homes, worked remotely, and are hyper-alert to being physically distant from friends, colleagues, and people dear to us. I rapidly shifted my business online. I noticed the strain of looking into a camera and not being able to read people’s responses has stressed...

Leading Exceptional Online Meetings

“How do you stop meetings from being boring?” This question dominated my recent free zoom session on leading exceptional online meetings. I had asked participants to submit their top two questions, and everyone had asked that question, or a version of it. It is a great question, and too few leaders recognise their meetings are boring or irrelevant to participants. If your own meetings don’t excite you, and you aren’t looking forward to getting together with those in the meeting,...

Taking People With You

Come From Away was one of the Broadway shows David and I chose on our recent visit to New York. An unlikely and poignant musical based on the 39 planes which were diverted to a small Newfoundland town for a week during the 9/11 disaster. The story centred on the interactions with a town of 7000 people accepting an equal number of bewildered stranded travellers desperate to be with their work colleagues or families. The awkwardness, delights, and setbacks which...

When Meetings Go Awry

How often does this happen in your meetings? The conversation goes into irrelevant details Someone is holding forth and it is unclear what is important Someone is holding forth and they are definitely off-topic What is happening? Essentially, there is a leadership gap. What does this mean? The leader has lost their way, or group members are anxious of the consequences of redirecting the meeting, or the meeting chair senses whoever is talking is more ‘senior’ than they are...

Save 100s Of Hours – The Secret To Great Meetings

Have you ever rolled your eyes and silently steamed as individuals dominate, drone on endlessly, and talk over one another? Have you left meetings wondering what on earth was that about? How often have you known both you and others have more to contribute yet don’t get the chance? What enables people to make their best contribution succinctly in meetings? Astonishingly, many people don’t know how to contribute in meetings. Leaders leading meetings blur the power structures unless they use a process for participation...

Valuable Questions To Create Engagement

How often have you reviewed a project with your team and asked: What worked? What didn’t work? What lessons have we learned? With these questions, I noticed people’s responses don’t get to the nitty gritty of what happened. I also noticed people go through the motions, are usually pleased to be together and discussing their work, but rarely have we discovered significant lessons. We might make minor adjustments to how we work, yet I notice the same mistakes are often...

Transformative Top Teams

What makes a top team? What makes some teams super successful while others work hard yet don’t produce the results they want? What creates a disheartening team culture? The top teams I work with invariably align three key elements; vision, results and right relationships. By right relationships I mean teams which ensure both their internal connections and their stakeholder relationships are fit for purpose. Many teams have two of these three elements – the secret to success is in aligning all...

The Power Of Purpose In Leadership Teams

I love working with leadership teams on their development. A consultant like me is called in for a range of reasons, including: New leader(s) joins an established team There has been restructuring and team members don’t know one another There is a major shift in direction, expectations or context The team is floundering as a result of an incident Poor interpersonal relationships Culture survey results indicate the team is not engaged with their staff Wanting to shift the agenda...