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!

Gordon Sheppard Speaking

Welcome to the Meeting Leadership podcast. My name is Gordon Shepherd and I just want to say thank you so much for spending your valuable time with me here today. Whether you’re on the treadmill, whether you’re driving in traffic somewhere, wherever you’re listening to this podcast, I really appreciate that you’re taking the time out to actually up your leadership game by getting the tips and the inspiration you need to do just that.

00:51 – Do People Talk Too Much In Your Meetings? – Here’s how to make a great POINT when it’s your turn to speak

Now today we’re gonna talk about this pressing issue that often happens in meetings. Did they ever last too long because someone in your meeting drones on and on and never really gets to a conclusion? Well, have no fear because today is part one of a three part series to teach you how to make a great point when it’s your turn to speak during a meeting. Can you imagine that? If everyone did this, there’d be no wasted time. Everything would feel impactful and everything would be really well thought out.

01:25 – POINT Acronym Explained – Prepare, Optimize, Invite Feedback, Name the Hurdles & Solutions, Take Action

And when I say point, I’m actually referring to the word point itself, which we can turn into a handy acronym that goes like this. Now the P in point stands for prepare your idea. The O point stands for optimize and deliver. The I in point stands for invite feedback. The N in point stands for name the hurdles and solutions. And finally the T in point is for taking action.

01:52 – FREE POINT Checklists PDF download Instructions – https://meetingleadershipinc.com/003download

And don’t worry if you can’t sort of get all that right now. You don’t need to be taking notes because there is a free download that you can get and you can get that right now by going to meetingleadershipinc.com/003download. That’s meeting leadershipinc.com/003download. Get the download and then you can really follow along with what you’re learning here today.

02:17 – Preparation – Research and allow for ‘blue sky time’

And now let’s get started. Today we’re going to talk about preparation. So when you’re preparing your idea, I think most people really understand how to get out, interact with your colleagues, gather information, maybe do some research on the internet or through whatever favorite books that you need to look through to get the information that you need. The piece in preparation that I emphasize, and I hope you’re able to take something away from this today, is that quite often we don’t really give ourselves enough what I’m going to call blue sky time or free thinking time. And the inspiration for this came to me one day when I was spending some time with the chief financial officer of a multibillion dollar company and he had a great story. He said one day he was sitting in his, he had his feet up on his desk, hands behind his head, and he was just looking outside the window.

Now you can imagine this guy makes a few bucks, right? So there’s another executive walks into his office and says, “Hey, what the heck are you doing?” And he says this, and please listen to the way that he said it. He said, “I’m thinking.” Can you imagine having that much confidence to know that for certain things that you have to bring up the next time you connect with people, you really give yourself the permission to allow for the germination, the creative time that you need to make an outstanding point in your next meeting? What a great gift.

So no matter what way you do it, maybe you go for a run. Maybe you’re the type of person who sits in the hot tub, you’d like to go have a long shower. There was actually one woman at a conference one time, she said, “You know, I love to really do my best thinking when I’m blow drying my hair.” And I was trying to imagine if she had a great point, how long would she have to blow dry her hair? And if she had to blow dry her hair for too long, how much would her electricity bill be? I hope that point really paid off for her.

No matter which way you do it, give yourself the blue sky time and allow yourself to be really, really well prepared. Now tomorrow we’re going to tackle the O and the I, and then two days from now it’ll be the N and the T in the acronym point to help you and your team learn how to make a great point during any meeting.

04:27 – Meeting Leadership Academy – https://meetingleadershipinc.com/academy

I just want to let you know that this episode of the Meeting Leadership podcast is brought to you by the Meeting Leadership Academy. Go to meetingleadershipinc.com/academy to get all the resources you need to up your game when it comes to getting the best training in meeting leadership.

04:44 – Shout Out! – Thanks to Marg Ralstin from MacEwan University

And I also want to say thank you so much by sharing some of the feedback that I get for the work that I do as a facilitator, speaker, presenter, online trainer and this kind of thing. And of course if you send in feedback to the podcast there’s a good chance I’ll read it out here, right on air.

This piece comes in from Marg Ralston at Macewan University. She says, “If you would like to engage your staff or students in an interactive session then contact Gordon Shepherd. Gordon will share valuable information and strategies to make your meetings worthwhile, productive, and engaging.” Thanks so much, Marg, and thanks to you for listening to another episode and we’ll see you tomorrow on the meeting leadership podcast.

05:27 – 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.