Meeting "Mind Set"
The most dificult task is geting people to be in the right "mind set" people think of a meeting and imediately assume the worst; come in with a "negative attitude"
Nagib,
The norm for most people is they have negative thoughts 97% of the time. The best way to combat this is to have positive talk within yourself. A practice used by me was to get the school I was at to be aware of the negativity communicated in the school. Each employee would put a large rubber band on their wrist and when someone thought your comments were negative they would snap themselves.
Dr. Gary Carlson
I agree. Busy schedules often times is a contributing factor to these feelings. Having a strong agenda and staying on point can help to reduce these negative feelings for upcoming meetings.
Dennis,
Efficient and effective meetings is what most people want out of a meeting. Meeting expectations of the participants should be clear. If the expectations and objectives are clear the only thing left to do is to stay on task. This is the responsibility of the leader of the meeting.
Dr. Gary Carlson
It is challenging to set the positive tone for a meeting. Sending out an agenda well ahead of time has helped me to gain the groups participation.
eric,
Good for you, it is the leaders responsibility to set up the meeting for success. It is like being a great coach. Expectations without planning never works. Your participants will appreciate your ability.
Dr. Gary Carlson
I agree. It is sometimes hard to get people on board as to how important the meeting is.
Ronnie,
People often react to previous sensationalism for meetings. The approach to every meeting has to be with high integrity, honest and consistent. Meetings need preparation with the expectations well know to the members prior to the meeting itself. Prioritize the most important first in the meeting agenda. Then if you have to push some items back you will do this without loss for the important items. If you can rebroadcast your meeting on a webcast allow those that missed the meeting to view on a webcast.
Dr. Gary Carlson
The word meetings just leaves a bad taste in my mouth because of the abuse another supervisor and I endured over many years. We worked for a company that used meetings to "throw people under the bus",ridiculed us or said unnkind things. It got to the point where we started contributng little and we were still chastised. Most meetings should come out as a positive move forward because we are on the same team, not to be used as powertrips.
Christine,
All I can say is this is a very bad practice. Positive reinforcement is the key to success. Sometimes we are in the wrong spot at the wrong time. The key is to be true to yourself and be proud of who you are!!
Dr. Gary Carlson
Really, 97% of the time. This is hard to believe.
I agree positive feedback is key. When I first became a manager I had a really negative individual on my team. We made a game of being more positive. For every negative comment he had to come up with at least three positive comments. Before long he was focused on the positives and rarely spoke negatively.
Lisa,
From your point of view why is this hard to believe?
Dr. Gary Carlson
Lisa,
I used another method and we all had fun with it. I purchased some wide rubber bands and had everyone wear them on their wrist. When someone said something negative the other person could ask them to snap themselves. Everyone was surprised on how many negative statements were made in a day.
Dr. Gary Carlson
