Taking Action is Your Responsibility

3 Tasks That Can Save You From Bad Meetings

Lead It Like a Project

If bad meetings can occur, then good meetings are also achievable; we just need to break free from the usual routines and intentionally chart a new course.

I want to share an example of a time when I had to navigate challenges not just in one direction but in three: north, east, and west. I reported to a vice president of finance, which I mentioned earlier. We used to have team meetings involving the vice president [north] and their direct reports [east and west] (which included my peers and myself).

These meetings were often intense and not enjoyable; they were the kind of meetings that you’d dread seeing on your calendar. If you’ve been in the business world long enough, you know what a meeting looks like when it goes off the rails. I’ve experienced this in various organizations, both for-profit and nonprofit, where meetings were unproductive and frustrating. In one nonprofit situation, for example, the leader would come in and hammer the team if someone didn’t have the answer or provided a response they didn’t like. It was clear that the meetings had gone off the rails.

Regardless of whether the meetings are for-profit or nonprofit organizations, you can inspire change in those environments and work towards making the situation better—even in a toxic setting. A toxic environment manifests itself when people are disengaged, reluctant to attend meetings and feel like they can never please the person they report to. While it can be challenging, change is possible.

Returning to my experience with the vice president, I would enter these meetings with a sense of familiarity regarding the dynamics. I already knew who would miss their deadlines and who would struggle to provide satisfactory updates. There were about four or five of us at the table, along with the one we reported to. As we went around the room for status reports, it often started poorly. If the first person’s update wasn’t favorable, the tone for the rest of the meeting was set, and it would likely spiral downwards from there.

Over time, I noticed a pattern: it wasn’t just an isolated incident but a repeated cycle of bad meetings that could go on for years until someone eventually left and was replaced, only for the cycle to continue. I realized that there had to be a solution, and I recognized that these meetings didn’t have to end badly; they could be productive. If bad meetings were possible, then good meetings were possible as well if we could stop going down the same typical path and take a different course. One can not do the same thing over and over and expect the results to turn out differently.

I made it a point to pay close attention during each meeting. I began to analyze why certain individuals consistently failed to meet their expectations. Why does the meeting always have a bad report? Why does a person always fail to meet the deadlines, the goals, or the requested assignments? Why does this happen? I discovered that each team member faced unique challenges that contributed to the poor outcomes. So, I decided to do something about it.

Any person who lacks a method to capture their action items and notes will not be successful.

One rule I always followed was to bring a pen and paper to every meeting and write down every action item that my supervisor assigned to our team. “If it’s not written, it doesn’t exist.” I observed that most of the other team members attended these meetings without any writing materials; they reported their updates and returned to their desks without any follow-up. I knew from this observation that those persons were destined for failure. As the saying goes, if nothing ever changes, nothing ever changes.

Taking the initiative, I began to write down all the actionable items discussed in the meeting, organizing them by the person responsible for each item. I knew I was good at this. So this was easy for me. While most of the meeting consisted of informational updates, a few action items would emerge for each individual. After the meetings, I would approach each person and gently remind them of their assigned tasks, essentially helping them recall what our boss had requested of us. I wanted to ensure they understood their responsibilities.

Days before the next meeting, I would send out simple reminder emails to my peers about their action items. This way, when we reconvened, they had already prepared the necessary information they’d been asked for or completed their tasks. Most importantly, I took care of my own responsibilities. As a result, I avoided being the target of negative feedback in those meetings. I understood that my goal was to outperform my colleagues. In this way, I proactively addressed issues before they escalated.

Outperform Everyone in the Room

If you want to be a great leader, you need to outperform everyone in the room, which isn’t particularly difficult. It is not hard because the average person always falls short of the expectations of the one they directly report to. Most people tend to fall short of their leader’s expectations because they neglect simple tasks like:

– Writing down action items.

– Reporting back on progress.

– Following through on the requests they’ve been given instead of getting caught up in the busyness of the day.

By consistently doing these straightforward things, you can stand out as a leader.

One thing I knew for sure was that my peers didn’t enjoy those unproductive meetings, and I had solutions to help them. I kept track of all the action items so that I could send a comprehensive report to our supervisor, outlining everything we needed to follow up on after the meeting. It’s that straightforward. Sometimes, you have to take action.

“I guess anybody could do it, but nobody does. Ends up everybody complaining because nobody did what anybody could have done or should have done.” – Denzel Washington in The Equalizer 2

Taking action is your responsibility. As a leader, you always have to take action; you can’t wait for someone else to do it.

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