Running Effective Meetings: The Vacationer Mindset

At the senior management level, it is especially important to create meetings that work. Your meetings set the tone and direction for the entire company. If senior management isn’t taking meetings seriously, things simply don’t get done in a way that’s consistent with the mission and vision of the company.

There are several important components to running an effective meeting. One of the most important components is meeting mindset. What mindset are you bringing into your meetings?

We’ve mentioned the four potential meeting mindsets previously. Let’s take a quick moment to review those before moving forward:

• Prisoner. The Prisoner is forced to attend the meeting. They’d rather be doing “real work” instead of sitting around a table wasting time.
• Vacationer. Like the Prisoner, the vacationer believes the meeting is a waste of time. However, they relish the thought of an hour away from the daily grind, and are likely to simply tune out.
• Critic. The Critic knows what the meeting is about and has already solved the dilemma. Their job is neither to learn nor dialogue, but to demonstrate their own superior knowledge.
• Developer. The Developer wants to solve challenges. They see meetings as an opportunity to collaborate with others who may have expertise and knowledge beyond theirs in order to make good things happen.

Previously, we discussed the prisoner mindset at length. We looked at the sense of obligation to attend that’s characteristic of the Prisoner. We also looked at how to overcome the Prisoner’s preoccupations, as well as provide them with a sense of involvement and empowerment.

Today, let’s look at the Vacationer.

The Vacationer mindset

The Vacationer sees a meeting as a reprieve from work. It’s “free time” – a break from the tedium of daily tasks. Those tasks don’t need to be done right now, and they lose their urgency. The meeting is not an end in itself; rather, it is something to pass the time until lunch.

Meetings aren’t important for the Vacationer. Meetings are simply part of the built-in rhythm of their job. The Vacationer wants a paycheck, so they do what must be done to receive it, and that includes attending meetings.

(Incidentally, this view can spill over into the Vacationer’s day-to-day operations, which can stifle both productivity and creativity.)

How to change the Vacationer’s travel plans

The vacationer needs a new destination. They’re moving along on auto-pilot, but to do their job effectively they need to make some changes:

• Motivation fits in carry-on luggage. An effective employee brings motivation to their job. That means taking control of the wheel and setting their own direction. We need to know what motivates us and structure our work accordingly. As managers, we need to understand our employees’ motivations and help those employees put those motivations to work in their jobs.
• Advancement and learning don’t come automatically. These are objectives that must be met, not milestones that are reached after a certain number of years in a position.
• Daily operations should be measured in challenges overcome, not hours. Yes, employees work for a certain number of hours, and that’s how they get paid. But viewing daily operations as a series of challenges changes the way those hours are filled. Instead of marking time, the vacationer uses every possible tool – including meetings – to overcome challenges and achieve goals.

Marcus Coaching BusinessLife skill: Running effective meetings

Along with examining meeting mindsets this month’s blog posts, we’re also exploring one of Marcus Coaching’s essential BusinessLife’s skills: running effective meetings, and how that BusinessLife skill can exponentially increase the effectiveness of your meetings.

Last time, in the context of understanding the Prisoner meeting mindset, we discussed the following principle:

“Understand the purpose for each meeting. Know you’re there for a reason.”

Today, when we’re thinking about the Vacationer meeting mindset, the principle we need to keep in mind is this:

“Have the result clearly in mind.”

By doing so, the Vacationer isn’t likely to mistake the meeting for a vacation, but rather a strategic outcome-generating task that’s integral to their daily work.

Here are some ways to think about defining the results intended for a meeting:

• Is it a decision-making or planning meeting? Some meetings are designed to bypass roadblocks to progress by getting key decision-makers in one place at one time and letting them make the important decisions. It might be a meeting to set the trajectory for a company or a team for the next week, month, year or even several years.
• Is the team gathering to generate ideas? Some meetings are for brainstorming, and these meetings function best when everyone participates. Help the Vacationer realize their ideas matter, and that those ideas will have a direct impact on daily operations.
• Are you getting status updates and gathering information? Sometimes, a meeting is designed primarily to gather information and get everyone on the same page. Often, the primary beneficiary of this kind of a meeting is management, but every team member should be able to pull some relevant data from the other team members.

Managers and employees must break out of the Vacationer mindset by viewing the meeting strategically, and recognizing it as an opportunity to get things done.

Changing your point of view

Are you showing up to meetings as a Vacationer? If so, you’re actually settling for a lesser “benefit” than you could be. That meeting isn’t just a break from the daily work. It should be something that helps you in much bigger ways.

Approach your meetings with a goal of productivity. See meetings – as well as your job – as something you grow in and through, not just something you attend.

More to give than gain

Next time, we’ll take a look at the Critic. The Critic definitely doesn’t see the meeting as a vacation where they can lay back and just let the time pass. Quite the opposite: the Critic is someone who attends meetings believing that, while they have nothing to personally gain from the meeting, they instead have all sorts of great information and advice that everyone needs to hear.