My 2010 Meeting Resolutions

I was thinking the other day that every year my resolutions always revolve around the same theme: be more active, spend more time with family and friends, hone a particular skill (last year was painting walls without blue tape – much harder than you think!).This year, I have a professional resolution: I will hone my meetings skills. Here are three resolutions that will keep me on the path towards becoming a true meetings expert:

1. Be on Time

Unintentionally, once in a while, things happen. In my personal life, I strive to be early or on time, and kick myself for being minutes late to anything. This year, 1 pm means 1 pm.
You can definitely set yourself up for success here. How about scheduling meetings to end with a 5-10 minute breather so you have a few minutes to prep between marathon meeting days?

2. Collaborate More, Deliver Less

An online meeting is so much more than uploading a PowerPoint deck and walking through talking points. Yet, so many people use it strictly for that purpose. How can I use the tools available to me to truly collaborate? Using tools like whiteboard, video, recording, and polling could be my key to increasing meeting effectiveness and energizing my connections.

3. Accountability is a Big Word

When you have back to back to back meetings all day, every day, how are you supposed to actually DO? By making sure that you carve out the time to DO the stuff you say you will do. I’ve started blocking out chunks of time in my day to work on projects I’m involved in as follow-ups to the meetings I participate in, and it’s proven extremely effective.

On the flip side, as the owner of a meeting, it’s my responsibility that I follow-up with action items after a meeting to ensure that team members understand what they are responsible to carve out time to “do.”

So these are my goals: what are your 2010 personal and professional resolutions? I’d love to discuss!