Nearly twenty years ago, when my children were much younger, I learned a very important leadership lesson from the National PTA President. She was giving a presentation on tips to help presidents of local PTA chapters be successful. What she said applied not only to parents hosting a PTA meeting at their child’s school but to anyone hosting any meeting for any reason. In my role today as a leader in corporate America, the rule still applies. What is that rule?
Always start your meetings on time, even if you are the only person there.
Have you ever hurried to get to a meeting on time? Perhaps you are coming from another meeting, or maybe you were in the middle of a project or reviewing a proposal. The computer dings to remind you there is a meeting on your calendar. You stop what you are doing, gather your notepad and pen, and head off to the meeting. What often happens next?
Many of us have been in meetings where everyone is on time but one or two people. What does the meeting organizer do? Quite often, he or she will wait. Two or three minutes quickly becomes five or ten. The late arrivals finally walk in the room and after some brief apologies, the meeting starts. How do you feel about this?
If you organize a meeting, you should be on time (of course) and you should start it on time. If you wait for people that aren’t there on time, the message you are sending to your other attendees is that they and their time aren’t as important as the people you are waiting for. It also removes the motivation to be on time for future meetings, because they know that you’ll wait.
However, chances are that if someone walks in on your meeting already in progress, they will remember that next time, and make a stronger effort to arrive for the scheduled start.
A coupled of other related meetings tips:
- When you do start your meeting on time, don’t stop the meeting to update someone who arrives late. It is up to them to get caught up afterwards, and to arrive on time for the next meeting.
- It is just as important to end your meeting on time as it is to start on time. Many people may have another meeting to head off to, or a project to get back to. Don’t keep them longer that you planned to. Respect the importance of their time.
What have you done to encourage on-time arrivals to meetings?
