Here’s one, simple tactic to dramatically change your dread of meetings.

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A few years ago, I was sitting in a 1-hour board meeting filled with other volunteers.

As our session was getting underway, I noticed many of the participants took out their laptops. Eventually, someone asked the question… What’s the WIFI password?

I was in the middle of a long conference table with a notebook, ready to dive in, when it became clear that more than half of the room was there to work on other tasks (email, etc.) and would likely only participate if their name was called.

Have you ever attended a meeting like this? 

Whether we realize it or not, meetings should be an extremely valuable use of everyone’s time. They offer a unique opportunity to collaborate in real-time with our peers.

Unfortunately, the collaboration in most meetings is mediocre at best because no one is paying attention.

Treat everyone in the room with the respect they deserve and leave all of your devices in your bag the next time you connect with others.  

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—CJ McClanahan

Speaker | Advisor | Recovering Overachiever

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