FULL TRANSCRIPT

00:00 – Show Opening

If you are the type of leader who understands the value of giving back, then you’re going to get a lot out of today’s episode, because today we’re going to talk about paying it forward, why experienced meeting leaders help others.

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.

00:39 – Podcast content starts here!

Gordon Sheppard:    Welcome to another episode of the Meeting Leadership Podcast. My name is Gordon Sheppard. I just want to say it’s great to have you here. It’s great that you want to be a meeting leader, and you know that meetings require more than just facilitation. This idea of understanding yourself as a leader, the idea of then getting the tools in that you need to run highly effective meetings, and the fact that you want to pull it together and connect every meeting directly to your strategy, and that you’re coming to this podcast to gather those kind of practical tips and the ways to get that done, I really honestly appreciate that you’re here.

01:11 – The impact of mentors and paying it forward

And today’s episode is special for me, because I think it’s one of those things where it’s a core belief of mine. I’ve had so many hands up throughout my career, so many ways that other people have helped me to develop to get to where I am today, so I wanted to focus today on paying it forward, why experienced meeting leaders help others. Because I think once you’ve gathered up all these things over kind of the many years that it takes, whether you’re on the path right now to get there or you’re already there, there’s an opportunity to really build capacity. Don’t just sit on those skills, just don’t sit on all those things that you’ve earned. Really kind of give them out so it can have kind of a big multiplying effect across an organization, in your community or wherever you want to apply it.

01:56 – Sharing knowledge benefits everyone

And especially when it comes to having better meetings, I think we can all agree that if there was just more of them across your organization, then you would be in much better shape. So, you’ve got the skills, you’ve got the package that you’ve put together, you’re in a position really to mentor other meeting leaders. It doesn’t matter, maybe they’ve just changed job titles within your organization. For example, they went from employee to manager, manager to director, and they’re kind of stuck in behind a title right now. They don’t know how to reach out, but maybe you could reach out to them to really give them tips and tricks that they can use to have better meetings, because they need to motivate their teams really, really quickly.

02:30 – The non-profit sector

And another area that is in desperate need of this type of approach is in the nonprofit sector. There are literally millions of nonprofits around the world that have sort of board meetings, or committee meetings, or whenever they’re getting together, and those meetings are often just terrible. So, not only is there not a lot of money in the nonprofit sector to bring in sort of higher levels of leaders and managers, what we have there is a disincentive. The meetings themselves are just lousy. So, if you can actually approach a nonprofit group in your area and say, “You know what? I’ve got some experience here. And maybe in sort of one or two meetings, could I come in, help to mentor the entire meeting itself and make it better?” That would be a great way to pay it forward.

03:16 – The pay-it-forward mentality

And when you have this pay-it-forward mentality as a leader, when you’re going and giving back and making sure that another leader can get a little bit better, it’s like dropping a pebble in the pond. The ripple effect, it gets felt by them, the people that they influence, and you know you’re going to leave things better than when you got there. 

03:37 – MLP 09: How a Meeting Mentor Can Improve Your Leadership Skills  – https://meetingleadershipinc.com/9

And if you’d like to learn even more about this type of mentorship approach for meetings, check out episode nine on the Meeting Leadership Podcast. It’s called How a Meeting Mentor Can Improve Your Leadership Skills, and you can get that episode by going to meetingleadershipinc.com/9.

03:53 – Meeting Leadership Academy – https://meetingleadershipinc.com/academy

And I also want to let you know that this episode of the Meeting Leadership Podcast is brought to you by the Meeting Leadership Academy. Now, there you’re going to find some terrific online training options that will help you immediately build your leadership skills, or maybe you can pass those ideas along to the people that you’re actually going to be mentoring, and there’s also good live training options as well. For example, the half-day effective meetings workshop, it’s been successful with professionals across industries to give them a spark, a jump, a way to go back to their organizations right away with practical things they can apply to make their meetings more productive. And you can get all of that by going to meetingleadershipinc.com/academy.

And to all you subscribers, hats off, I really appreciate that you’ve done that. And for anybody that hasn’t, please take a moment to hit the subscribe button and then maybe even leave a rating and review for the show. This we will carry forward, we’ll read it out on air, and it will actually influence the content that we create in the future. And as always, thank you so much for listening, and we’ll see you tomorrow on the Meeting Leadership Podcast.

04:59 – 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 that review so we can bring you fresh content every day. We’ll see you tomorrow right here on the Meeting Leadership Podcast.