“I woke up this morning and started organising my day in my head.
Then I looked at my calendar 😫
Was full of meetings…
Not again! 😞
When do I have time to prepare for them?
When do I have time to do my real work?”
This is how Suzy started the day.
She found herself struggling to keep up with the preparation for each meeting and often felt overwhelmed and stressed out.
She is not alone.
I was there …… many of my clients were there…..
It was though!
I didn’t have enough time to properly prepare for my meetings.
But I thought that I could wing it!
It didn’t work in the long term.
People started to be late for the meetings and be unprepared.
Many times the meetings didn’t have a clear focus, so they didn’t have clear actions at the end.
And the worst part was poor decision-making that led to missed opportunities.
I was struggling.
After complaining to my husband during dinner, he brought me a piece of paper from a training course he attended many years ago.
There were 5 questions on that paper.
Those questions changed everything!
To make it work, I had to take 10 minutes before each meeting and answer the 5 questions.
After a while I noticed the followings:
- The productivity increased and people were on the same page
- There was better decision-making because people had the necessary information
- People were engaged and participated actively in the discussion
- Lastly, the morale improved so people felt valued, respected and their time was well-utilized.
I couldn’t believe the result!
When can you use the questions?
If you are a member of a team? – YES
If you are leading the meeting? – YES
If you meet a new customer? – YES
If you want to negotiate something? – YES
If you want to convince your partner to buy that sofa? – YES
It takes just 10 minutes to prepare a meeting that is focused, clear and result oriented.
So, you don’t waste other people’s time!
If you find yourself consistently short on time to prepare for meetings, here are 5 easy steps to follow to prepare and have focused and result-oriented meetings.
- 1. What do you want from this meeting? What is your objective?
- 2. What does the other person want from this meeting? What is their objective?
- 3. What problems might come up between what you want and what they want?
- 4. What might be some solutions to those problems?
- 5. What is your minimum acceptable from this meeting?
I want to challenge you to prepare 1 meeting you have today by using these questions and see the result.
I am looking forward to reading about your experiences with these 5 questions!
Please send an email to gabi@nicolae.info and share how it went for you. I am very serious about it. I read all the replays, and I also answer them. I am curious to see how it goes for you.
If this worked for me, I am convinced that it will also work for you.
Have a productive day!
Gabi