FULL TRANSCRIPT

00:00 – Show Opening

Are you a professional who wants to become a more effective leader? Then get ready for daily tips from the coach with the experience and inspiration to help you succeed in any leadership situation. You’re listening to the Meeting Leadership Podcast with Gordon Sheppard.

00:27 – Start Here – Podcast content starts here!

Welcome to another episode of the Meeting Leadership Podcast, where we help professionals just like you build your leadership skills and learn how to run outstanding meetings. And if you are a meeting leader who values efficiency, then you’re going to get a lot out of today’s episode, because today we’re going to talk about three rules for effective stand-up meetings. Now I have to say that stand-up meetings are great for a variety of reasons, but the main thing is they have to be short. Because think about it, if folks are standing around, the knees start to buckle after about 20 minutes or so, and that’s why stand-up meetings are so great, they force you to focus and they force you to get to the point when it’s your turn to speak.

01:06 – Effective Stand-up Meetings Rule #1 – Get rid of the chairs

Let me jump right in to rule number one, get rid of the chairs. Now, just imagine what would happen if you did this for your next meeting. Your team walks into the room, there’s no chairs there. What the conversation immediately is going to turn to, why are there no chairs? And that’ll give you a chance to talk about your previous meetings and how they were not very effective, especially from a time perspective, which leads us into rule number two, set a time limit.

01:33 – Effective Stand-up Meetings Rule #2 – Set a time limit

Now think about it, if everybody in your meeting has to stand up, that meeting for sure can’t run much more than 15 to 20 minutes. So then basically at the beginning of the meeting you can say, “This is 20 minutes long.” Now, I can tell you there is a mid-size accounting firm that I’m aware of that did just this. They went from a two hour monthly meeting for their senior leaders, and they cut it down to 20 minutes. Now they get way more done, and the big thing for them is they’re able to get back to work.

01:59 – Effective Stand-up Meetings Rule #3 – Make a proclamation

The third rule to help you create effective stand-up meetings is this: Make a proclamation. As in, you’ve just experienced our first stand-up meeting. From now on, we’re going to continue to have these short meetings that are actually a really good use of all of our time. When you come to these meetings, please be prepared, get ready to make a point that’s very succinct when it’s your turn, and then everybody can get through the meeting, get what they need and get back to work. And since sitting is the new smoking anyway, stand-up meetings can be a symbol for how you’re creating a healthier workplace for your team.

02:34 – Effective Stand-up Meetings – Recap

Let me take a moment to recap the three rules for effective stand-up meetings. Number one, get rid of the chairs. Number two, set a time limit. And number three, make a proclamation. I’m going to bet that if you take action and put this workflow in place, not only will your meetings be shorter and more efficient, but you are going to inspire your entire team.

02:57 – Meeting Leadership Academy – https://meetingleadershipinc.com/academy/

I also want let you know that this episode of the Meeting Leadership Podcast is brought to you by the Meeting Leadership Academy. If you want to improve your meeting leadership efficiency with great live training and online training options, then visit meetingleadershipinc.com/academy to learn more.

03:16 – Thanks from Gord

I can’t say this often enough, but thanks. Thanks for being a listener, thanks for your comments and your feedback and your support for the show, and mainly, thanks for being an action taker, the type of person who wants to build their skills, get something quick, and go out and really put it into motion to make their meetings better, to become a stronger leader, because honestly, that’s a big part of what keeps me going and that’s a big part of why we’ll see you tomorrow on the Meeting Leadership Podcast.

03:44 – Podcast Outro

Thanks for listening to the Meeting Leadership Podcast. Be sure to subscribe for more strategies to help you become an outstanding leader, and don’t forget to rate and review so we can bring you fresh content every day. We’ll see you tomorrow, right here on the Meeting Leadership Podcast.