Meetings are a Must?

Meetings are a Must?                                                                    

When I conduct my workshops on ‘Time Management’ and ask the participants to list down the top 10 time wasters. Invariably, there is a mention of meetings and meetings as one of the top ranking time wasters. And as employees go up the seniority ladder in the organization, this monster called ‘MEETINGS’ eats away more and more of their time.  In all such cases, employees find themselves busy all the day. There is a lot of activity but accomplishment is probably meager and that leaves them dissatisfied at the end of the day.

Majority of you, who are reading this small article, must be thinking, ‘Yea! There have been umpteen number of times when I have sat through a meeting and said to myself, “what a waste of time yaar!, I could have done something better!”  But then the meeting was called by the boss himself. And you had little role to play in what was being discussed. During most of the meeting time, you are a mute spectator. You do contribute when Samosa and Tea/Coffee arrives ;-)

Meetings are in fashion. Any minor issue comes up, the boss calls the secretary ‘Call a Meeting’. According to me this is a global epidemic that is killing hours and hours of highly productive people by minutes and minutes. For the manager level employees, 40 to 50% of the time getting wasted in meetings is quite common and that leaves very little time for the actual work that needs to be done and that is most important for the growth of the company and even its survival. Let me hasten to add here that exceptions are always there. And if you as an individual or your organization is an exception, my heartiest congratulations to you and you may even stop reading here itself so that you don’t waste your further time in reading a few more irrelevant lines ;-) and instead just forward it to your friends who are the likely victims of this monster.

The question now arises that do we have a solution? And the good news is that there is a solution. Though there is no single formula or one shot doze for this malady but despite meetings being indispensable  it is possible to drastically reduce the time being wasted in meetings and use the same time constructively for the growth of your organization and for improving the quality of your life as a person and as a family person.

You must have observed that normally meetings expand to fill the time available for the meeting. If you set an hour for the meeting, people will use that full one hour regardless of the agenda and many times meetings are extended by a few minutes just because tea and snacks got delayed, though all the points as per the agenda were over ;-). So the important point here is that if you are the culprit, calling the meeting, ask yourself at least five times if the meeting is a must. Can it be avoided? Possibly, you can just call your deputy and sort out the matter face to face in may be 15 minutes and even take the opinion of another guy in between on phone on some tricky issue.

Once we start asking ourselves these questions like ‘Is this meeting a must?’ ‘Can a phone call to one or two persons sort out the issue?’ ‘Can I just get up and go to the adjoining cubicle for a quick clarification and even to the department in the next building to kill the issue?’, you will realize that the number of meetings will start reducing in your organization. And I assure you that you shall be able to reduce the number of meetings by almost 50%.

The regular ‘Status Update Meetings’ or ‘Briefing by the Boss or for the Boss’  waste a lot of valuable time, and majority of the people complain  that these meetings don’t help them get any work done. The junior people in the hierarchy spend a lot of time in preparing these briefs and status reports for the big boss. A large number of people remain busy for preparing for the next status update meeting/briefing. What a waste of time? Despite having the so called - ‘On Line Monitoring Systems’.

Long project meetings with duration of three or four hours at a stretch or sometimes even for the full day become boring and at times become counterproductive. The energy of the participants gets depleted, and they may make bad decisions or choices. While the outcome of all the business meetings should lead to commitment, focus and sound decisions by the participants. Official meetings should not be used as a platform for networking.

Have a meeting only if it is must. Sometimes you need a body of a lot many HODs to support a decision that has already been made. Do not use the platform of meetings with such large number of participants to make decisions. Let one person give a brief presentation about the problem and the plan of action that has already been discussed in detail at the lower levels and briefed to the concerned persons in one to one discussions. Just get a stamp of formal approval in this meeting and move ahead.

By now, we feel that 100% elimination of meetings is not possible and that is perfectly right but elimination of useless meetings to a large extent should be possible. We must also ensure that all meetings that are eventually held are fully productive and participants feel enlightened and delighted at the end of the meeting that it was time well spent. Here are the tips to manage the meetings in a more productive manner:

·Have Agenda. Never call a meeting without agenda.

·Invite only those who can contribute to the solution of the problem.

·People should come prepared for the meeting as per the agenda otherwise they are wasting their time and other’s time also.

·Always start the meeting dot on time. In order to send a message of concern for punctuality, the meeting starting time can be 4:27 pm instead of 4:30 pm

·The person calling the meeting him/herself should be absolutely punctual and then s/he gets the authority to tick the latecomers.

·Mobile phones should be in silent mode. Laptop can be used only by the person noting the minutes of the meeting directly on the laptop.

·Sometimes the participants have to use the laptops for sharing information that is being discussed in the meetings or project their part on the projector system for all to see.

·If the meeting is related to an ongoing big issue, the minutes of the last meeting should be read, action completed/not completed should be conveyed to those attending and then proceed.

·Meetings should be as short as possible even 15 or 10 minutes or in some cases 5 minutes too. Approximate duration of the meeting should be intimated along with the agenda. So the ending time is known to all. 

·Meetings should never be extended for tea and snacks to arrive. These arrangements should me made well in advance by the support staff.

·The person chairing the meeting should guide the entire meeting as per the agenda and shouldn’t allow any individual to hijack, divert or dominate meeting by frequent and endless conversation or interruption.

·The chairperson should ensure that someone is noting the minutes of the meeting and action points are assigned to some individuals with expected date of completion of those jobs.

·As the chairperson, you can always end a meeting a bit early if all the points have been discussed.

·The formal meetings should be held only for serious issues and therefore minutes should be formally sent to all concerned not later than 24 hours after completion of the meeting.

Saying ‘Total No’ to meetings is definitely not possible. They have their own importance and should be held whenever there is a need. But meetings for the sake of just meeting people or to discuss trivial issues need to be totally discouraged. And if the meetings are organized in a total professional manner following the tips given above, the organizations will save a lot of time and energy of its people and their efficiency and effectiveness will improve, leading to Business Excellence and therefore higher productivity and profitability.

Veerendra Jaitly

jaitly.iit@gmail.com

Dreams to Destination

We all have dreams. According to me, life without dreams will be boring. And nobody can stop anyone from dreaming. It is the birth right of every human being. God has given this beautiful gift to the human beings that they can dream. Here I am not talking about the dream that we see while sleeping but the dreams that don’t let us sleep; the dreams that we see during the day; the dreams that force us to work hard to achieve something big.

Dreams can be as big as your imagination. And there is no limit to our imagination. Napoleon wrote, "Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve”. The problem with the people from middle class, lower middle class and poor people is that their dreams are too low. The constraints and limitations in their life probably don’t let them fly on the wings of dreams. But the fact is that even the poor people dream. The difference is that their dreams are limited to the next higher orbit of prosperity or capability. Their imagination can take them to that level only. An illiterate poor farmer’s son staying in a village probably dreams of just passing the matriculation examination and getting a small job in a government office. Or he may dream of very good rain in the next season and a bumper crop so that his father can get him a new bicycle. The son of a Havaldar from army just dreams of becoming a commissioned officer in the Army. There is nothing wrong in this. But the fact is that nobody stops them from dreaming much higher; much bigger.

There are stories of a very large number of people across the world who were of a very mediocre or even poor background and yet they achieved great heights. A bit of deep study will reveal that all these people had great dreams. Even if they had lower level of dreams, they kept on raising the bar every time they achieved what they wanted. There was insatiable intense hunger in their belly to achieve more and more. There is another category of people who become stagnant the moment they achieve their dream even half way. They call themselves highly satisfied people, but actually it is inertia that starts ruling their mind and they become stagnant. Their growth stops there only.

What we need is that we should have real high dreams, which many may feel as unimaginable for you. Don’t worry about other people even if they laugh at you. Convert these dreams into strong desire and decide a direction for yourself to start moving in the direction of your dream. And this direction has to be followed with full dedication, determination and discipline. Most of the time your dream may look too distant and therefore it may be a bit vague too. So breakup your dream into small deadlines, may be a large number of them. These deadlines could be called your milestones on the way to your ultimate dream. They are your short term goals. Visualize yourself achieving these goals and motivate yourself for action in that direction through auto suggestion.

These goals are short term and therefore look within reach and you can work hard to achieve them. Just remember that these goals should be SMART goals. The SMART here stands for Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Relevant and Time bound. Any goal that you set for yourself and it has these five characteristics, it is very highly likely that you shall achieve that. You keep achieving these small deadlines or goals one after the other and it will take you nearer and nearer to your ultimate cherished dream, your ultimate destination. Let us assume that even if you are not able to achieve the ultimate dream but you have achieved some milestones in that direction. You have obviously moved nearer to your destination. That itself is a great achievement of having a dream and then following it with a strong desire, with a direction and following it with dedication, determination and discipline to reach somewhere close to your destination.

In fact, you can have a set of dreams in different aspects of life. Some dreams can be related to your family, some related to financial prosperity and some may be related to your career. Once you have achieved a dream, you can always add the new ones.

You must always remember that a dream with action is Commitment and a dream with inaction is nothing but Hallucination. Build a Dream and the Dream will build you.

Appreciation: Yes, Flattery: No

Dear Friends,

I learnt the art of appreciation and its importance from my mother since my childhood. I assure you that it has done wonders for me in my college as well as 34 years of my career life in different roles. The only thing is that appreciation has to be sincere and it should come from the core of one’s heart. Otherwise, it is no more appreciation but flattery.

A sincere appreciation has no motive while flattery has a selfish motive. Appreciation is universally admired and puts the giver at a higher pedestal and the receiver also becomes your admirer while the flattery is universally condemned and the receiver may like it for a moment but shall understand the devious nature of the giver very soon. In the long run, flattery does more harm than good.

Flattery is always shallow and it is ought to fail and it usually does. Flattery will eventually get you into trouble if you pass it to someone else.

So appreciation: always and flattery: never.

We do a lot for our children. We get them expensive clothes, costly toys and give them the best of the food as nourishment for their bodies. But have you ever tried to nourish their self esteem? Most of us ignore and forget to give them kind words of appreciation that would be music for their ears for days, weeks, months and even years. The same holds true for your friends, colleagues and your employees and even your spouse. Your family life will also be much smoother if you follow this art of appreciation, the sincere appreciation. There can’t be better nourishment for the self-esteem of anyone than a word of sincere appreciation.

In our interpersonal relations we should never forget that all our associates are human beings and they are all hungry for appreciation. One of the most neglected virtues of our daily existence is appreciation. Somehow, we neglect to praise our son or daughter, whenever he or she does a good job. We take their minor achievements for granted and wait for big achievements to happen. But big achievements will come only if they are being nourished and motivated even for their baby steps in the right direction. Nothing pleases children more than this kind of parental interest and approval with a word of appreciation and a pat on their back.

Honest appreciation will get you results even from very average employees in your organization whereas criticism and ridicule is bound to fail. Under the extreme circumstances, even if you have to reprimand any employee, do it in private. Call him or her to your cabin and blast if required as one of the exceptional show of anger though you may not be actually angry at heart. Very rarely for some people, you may have to demonstrate your anger but it should be as rare as possible and that too in private. However, whenever you have to praise someone, do it in public and do it lavishly so that the words of praise for one are known to everybody in the organization and it will motivate others too. And remember that this should be a sincere appreciation and one should never stoop to flattery because that is short lived and ultimately harmful for any organization.

                                                                             

Keep Striving for Excellence

With warm wishes, 

Veerendra Jaitly

CEO: www.CcubeConsultants.com

2/101 Beverly Park, Sector-22

Dwarka, New Delhi-110077, India

What Motivates Employees?

CEOs, HR heads and Sales Heads world over have been trying to solve the puzzle as to what motivates the employees in an organization. Most of them opt the route of financial awards. Hike in basic pay, bonus and stock options could be some of the measures. They are great but numerous studies have proved that financial rewards mainly generate short-term motivational bursts of energy, which can even have some damaging consequences sometimes in the long run. Here we definitely assume that the salaries of employees are reasonably satisfactory. The economic downturn has posed a challenge to the corporate world to reduce costs including salaries of employees in good number of companies and even then the morale of the employees should remain high. During difficult times, organizations face the challenge of retaining talented people by motivating them.

Even if the financial position of a company is sound, the efforts are on to reassess the combination of financial and nonfinancial motivational incentives that will serve their companies in the short term as well as long term. Cultivating the sense of ‘Ownership Mentality’ in the minds of the employees can be one of the biggest motivators. If the management has achieved that then the employees become self starters. They don’t need any supervision. They will do everything possible that will increase the productivity and therefore profits for the company. They shall not do anything that brings loss or disgrace or cause downfall of the company. They will work as if it is their own business outfit.

Give your employees the responsibility coupled with authority and see how they perform their tasks beautifully. And this authority will be a great motivator for your managers. They will behave like leaders at their own level in their own domain. Give them the opportunity and support to beat their own targets. Throw new challenges and stretched targets to your high potential performers. Shower liberal appreciation and recognition and remember that this has to be made public throughout the organization and not within the four walls of the cabin of CEO or the concerned manager.  Sincere appreciation from immediate managers works wonders. More and more companies are realizing the importance of ‘recognition’ instead of ‘reward’.

Once you give a chance to your good performers to lead projects or task forces, this will be a more effective motivator than the routine financial incentives like cash bonuses, increased basic pay etc.. This will send a signal to all the employees that the management values them, their knowledge, skills and contribution to the organization. Employees should have the confidence that their management cares about their well-being, career growth and holistic development.

It is unfortunate that attention of senior leadership in most of the companies to motivate talent through non-financial methods is less forthcoming. There are very few who are ready to challenge the traditional managerial wisdom: ‘Money Makes all the Difference’. They still think that bonuses, salary hikes and cash rewards are the dominant incentive for most people.  The problem is that nonfinancial ways to motivate people require more time, involvement and commitment from senior managers. This lack of interaction between managers and their teams actually leads to employee dis-engagement and dis-satisfaction and reduced enthusiasm, energy and morale. The need of the hour is more engagement with the employees. ‘Breakfast with the Boss’ is one popular concept to build better bridges with your teams for better bonding.

Senior leadership can encourage the formation of several focus groups of talented managers to brainstorm ideas about how to create more value for the business and increase productivity and profitability. One-on-one meetings also between staff and leaders are highly motivational. They make people feel important and valued during difficult times.  On the other hand, monthly or quarterly town hall meetings are good from the point of view of communicating en-mass to the whole organization. The messages of changes in strategy, focus of business etc can be communicated by the top leadership very effectively to the organization. They are important but can’t replace the one-to-one focused meetings.

A great CEO is one who can motivate his people to give back more than what they are paid for. And they deserve to be paid as per the industry norms. Great CEOs come with innovative ways to engage and inspire their employees. You are a successful CEO or a manger if your talented people stick on with you even during down times. Some CEOs concentrate on increased number of training sessions during lean periods. This increases the competency of the team, motivates them and helps in keeping the flock together. As a CEO or an HR boss or a manger, if you have achieved all this, give yourself a pat on your back and if not, you need a lot of introspection and change the way your company runs. If you are able to keep your employees motivated all the time; your company has started the journey from a good company to a great company.

Defence Officers are great leaders

On 13th Aug, I had the opportunity to conduct a workshop at CDM (College of Defence Management) at Hyderabad. It is a highly reputed premier management training establishment of the Indian Armed Forces. The topic for my workshop was 'Goal Setting and Achieving Them'.
The conference hall with a capacity of about 200 was almost full. I was highly delighted to be amongst brother officers. I was remembering my days in the Indian Navy.
My presentation was applauded by one and all. The feedback during the Tea Break and then at the end was great. I had touched upon the topics like

• Purpose of Goal Setting
• Importance of written Goals
• Dreams vs Goals
• Personal and Professional Goals differ from person to person
• Benefits of Goal Setting
• Types of Goals: Short Term and Long Term
• Following up of Goals
• SMART Goals
• Why Goals fail?
• Role of Hard Work, Dedication and Discipline
• Celebrations of achievements of Goals
• Questions to consider while setting goals
• Journey to the achievement of Goals is equally important
• Six Parameters of True Success
• Setting Goals for the Six Parameters of Success.
• Seven Steps to setting Goals in Life

I covered all these points with maximum possible examples from the defence environment. I also highlighted that majority of the defence officers are doing very well in the private sector. They have all the desired qualities of very good managers and great leaders. They just need an opportunity to prove themselves when they join private sectors after they hang their uniform.

I was a bit taken aback during the highly interactive Question-Answers session, when an officers asked me that please tell us what we don't have. I paused for a moment and then replied, "According to me, our defence officers, when retire are a bit at a loss to understand about the expectations of the private sector. There is a lack of confidence in them. The Techie officers are comparatively more confident when they hang their uniform. The Infantry/Executive officers, though have a great experience of leading their men but they find it a bit tough to handle situations in the private sector initially."

I exhorted them that they have all the qualities that the private sector desperately needs. They just need to become a bit more Tech Savvy and boost their own confidence through self affirmations that they are no way less than anyone and particularly those who are undergoing an excellent training at CDM, that will lead them to an MBA as well.

Overall, it was a great experience for me. I look forward to Giving Back to my Defence Forces where I learnt so much during my 22+ years of commissioned service.

Jai Hind

And My Salute to all men and women in uniform in the service of the Nation

Veerendra K Jaitly

Team Building Offsite

Hi Friends,
Recently I conducted a 'Team Building Offsite' for an MNC at a beautiful resort on the banks of Kosi river at Jim Corbett Park (Ramnagar). It is a beautiful place. Just 5 hours drive from Delhi and also connected with train from Delhi.
The participants had a great time. One of the activity was 'Blind Folded Walk' where participants walked in pairs with one of them blind folded. So every participant was made to have Full Trust on his buddy who was guiding him. One of the outcome was that one of the participant on completion felt so much empathy for the blind people that he declared that he shall donate his eyes so that one blind person will be able to see this beautiful world after he is gone.

Then we had a nature walk, in the midst of nearby jungle. The participants volunteered to clear the complete stretch of about one Km free of all plastic bottles, plastic wrappers and tetra packs. This was a very small attempt to show our concern for the natural beauty and Mother Earth.

And then there were plenty of games and activities that kept the participants fully busy and rejuvenated them so that they can carry on with  their routine jobs with much more vigour, energy, innovation and creativity and like a team.

Here is one of the feedback received from a participant:

  Dear Mr. Jaitly,

Thanks for providing us valuable inputs during three days stay with you from 05.08.11 to 07.08.11 for our professional and personal life.

 You will be glad to know that learning of these three days have forced me to rediscover  myself and to set goals/action plans  to improve my professional and personal life.  Various games we played are helping to put them in actual use with my team for better productivity.   

 I have re-started morning yoga exercise which I long back used to have. But, this time I have committed to myself to keep it continued for ever. This is helping me to have extra energy to carry out various activities.

 Your training method was excellent as it kept us away from computers for preparing presentations etc. which normally in training sessions is done. Your method allowed us to have enough time to think about the learning we had during various games and to have intro inspections, mixed up with team members etc.

 Thus, you are the best trainer I have ever met and the program conducted by you for me was excellent. If it is to rated on the scale of 1 to 10, I rate it as 10.

Thanking You and Regards,

 CSG

Building Positive Attitude

Last week, I conducted a 'One Day Workshop on Building Positive Attitude' at HRD center of CSIR at Ghaziabad. It is an excellent place with beautiful infrastructure and great surroundings. This was my third workshop there during last 4 or 5 months.
There were about 25 senior officers and the response was very good and I really enjoyed each and every moment of my training.  The participants interacted freely and we all enjoyed the whole day. Everybody really appreciated, praised and I got a lot of clappings at the end. But I was touched when one of the participants approached me at the end and told me that his day was made and he is going to be a different person from now onwards.

I really feel very happy, if I can make a difference in the life of people and help them in taking them to 'The Next Level of Excellence' in their personal, professional and public life through these workshops.