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 – Podcast content starts here!

Welcome to another episode of the Meeting Leadership Podcast. My name is Gordon Sheppard and I want to say how much I really appreciate that you as a professional are taking the time to listen to this show. You kind of get that you want to develop your leadership skills. You also want to find kind of effective strategies to take into your next meeting to make it better. And you know that when you start to bundle those up and really become a strong meeting leader that it not only will impact your team, but it’ll have a definite effect on your entire organization and ultimately flow through to helping you to serve your community and your customers at the highest possible level. It is great to have you here.

01:06 – Bad meetings are bad for business 

And if you are a professional who really understands that bad meetings are bad for business, then today’s episode is definitely for you because it’s titled Unproductive Meetings: Five Reasons Why You Must Stop Them Immediately. And I have put this episode together to build awareness, either awareness for yourself, maybe it’s awareness for the people that you report to or for your organization in general. I hope this kind of messaging goes all up and down the food chain, but especially lands in like the ownership suite where they can really be aware of the disaster that bad meetings are causing throughout their organization.

01:43 – Reason 1 – Bad meetings cause people to hold back important information

And with that in mind, let’s jump right in to reason number one. Now bad meetings can cause people to hold back important information because they don’t feel safe. Just think about it, they want to come and express their best suggestions, but they’re in a situation where maybe there’s no agenda, maybe they don’t feel they have enough floor time to actually get their ideas out. For whatever the reason is, we know that this is a disaster, especially when it comes to innovation and creating new products and services.

02:12 – Reason 2 – People will try to avoid bad meetings

Which leads us into reason number two. Now people are going to avoid bad meetings when they can, or if they have to go, they’re not going to fully participate. And we know that that is a disaster when it comes to problem solving. 

02:25 – Reason 3 – Serious personal fights

And when you’re not actually solving problems in meetings or getting anything done, it leads to reason number three. Now there can be serious personal fights during poorly run meetings. You think about it, the facilitator doesn’t know how to facilitate so they let a conflict happen. Or maybe people are kind of trying to grind their own sort of hidden agendas in those situations.

02:48 – Reason 4 – Enough bad meetings in a row may cause you to lose key people

This is an absolute disaster and you have to find a way to stop it immediately or you get to reason number four. And that is enough bad meetings in a row, well that can cause some of your best people, well they’re going to dust off their resumes and start looking for work elsewhere. And this is also rampant in the nonprofit sector. Good people are showing up to board meetings. They get there, they’re there for one meeting, maybe two. They immediately become disengaged that the meeting’s not well run, and then suddenly they’re gone and you lose their contribution, their capacity in that situation.

03:20 – Reason 5 – You’re going to lose money

And the fifth reason why you really need to stop unproductive meetings like today is that you’re going to lose money. Plain and simple. Projects slow down, people slow down, their engagement level slows down and overall it’s just kind of a malaise that settles over your entire organization when any bad meeting occurs.

And I know that for so many professionals, when they hear those five reasons to stop unproductive meetings, they’re sort of like, they’re nodding their head in agreement. But the big thing is what do you want to do about it? Because think about it, if great team meetings throughout your organization can help you to achieve your most important goals, things like improving profitability, having happier staff, having more productive volunteers in the volunteer sector, and there’s so many other benefits, then what are you waiting for?

04:10 – Recap of 5 reasons

And now let me take a moment to recap the five reasons why you must stop unproductive meetings immediately. Number one, people are going to hold back and you have to get away from that. Number two, people are going to avoid meetings whether they’re or whether they aren’t there. Number three, there could be serious personal fights and that is just an awful thing all around. Number four, people will leave your organization if the meetings continue to be bad. And number five, you can’t lose any more profits due to bad meetings.

04:43 – MLP 090: Why Taking Action Creates Highly Effective Meetings – https://meetingleadershipinc.com/90 

And if you and your team are looking for ways to combat bad meetings, then do me a favor, take a browse through many of the episodes in the Meeting Leadership Podcast because each one is like a mini training unto itself. And I can tell you out of each episode, you’ll find one or two things you can take action on, especially episode number 90. Now it’s actually called Why Taking Action Creates Highly Effective Meetings, and you can get that episode by going to meetingleadershipinc.com/90.

05:12 – 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 great options for live training, as in one on one leadership training, or group training. And there’s also wonderful online options as well. And if you’d like to learn more about it, please visit meetingleadershipinc.com/academy.

And if you haven’t done it yet, please take a moment to hit the subscribe button and then leave a rating and review for the show. We’d love to respond to you and also use that information to create even better shows in the future. And as always, thank you so much for listening and we’ll see you tomorrow on the Meeting Leadership Podcast.

05:50 – Podcast Outro

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.