Personal Efficiency and Managing Meetings Training Course

Self-Awareness and Understanding Others

• Acknowledge that inviting others to a meeting imposes your priorities on them
• Explore the drivers behind our behavioral patterns
• Reflect on how our actions influence others: Do they consistently respond as we hope? If not, why?…

Effective Meeting Management Process

• Assess the necessity of a meeting; evaluate alternatives and determine if any are more suitable
• Follow a structured approach for scheduling, facilitating, and concluding meetings:
  • Develop a clear agenda that defines objectives, key topics, and estimated time allocations
  • Invite only essential participants, avoiding unnecessary attendees
  • Facilitate effectively by encouraging relevant contributions (while distinguishing between relevant and off-topic remarks), staying on agenda, and adhering to time limits
  • Document outcomes, ensuring action points are captured rather than just detailed minutes
  • Schedule necessary follow-up sessions

Strategic Participation in Meetings

• Evaluate whether attendance at every invited meeting is truly required
• Develop criteria for deciding to attend or decline meetings
• Identify valid reasons for declining invitations
• Explore permissible behaviors during meetings regarding participant dynamics, topic relevance, and timing

Additional Personal Productivity and Time Management Topics

• Establishing and maintaining personal and professional goals
• Prioritizing Work Tasks
  • Determining which tasks require attention
  • Ranking activities by importance and urgency
• Managing Employee-Driven Time: Are you serving your team, or is the team serving your objectives…?
• Identifying Time Thieves: What else consumes your time, and what strategies can mitigate this?
  • Email management
  • Phone calls
  • Unplanned interruptions
  • Displacement activities such as procrastination…
  • Other distractions…
• Delegating Effectively
• Practicing Assertiveness: Finding compromises and learning to say “no” strategically