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With a hearty assent to Joe Sokohl’s comment of May 10

Leadership Freak

 

Yesterday I interviewed Robert Herbold, former Chief Operating Officer of Microsoft and author of “What’s Holding You Back.” Bob’s quiet, gentlemanly tone shifted toward disdain when the topic moved to wasting time in poorly run meetings.

Frankly, it was a pleasure hearing him explain that he felt many meetings are useless religious ceremonies controlled by highly organized, meaningless ritual after meaningless ritual.

Effective structure:

I asked Bob how he ran meetings and he mentioned Bill Gates’ method of running meetings at Microsoft.

1. Have short agendas. Leave plenty of room for discussion. In general, 60% of meeting time should be left for discussion. It was surprising to me that Bob, a self-describe math geek, loves “wide open” meetings.
2. Bill G, as Bob referred to him, begins all meetings with the “low-lights.” Start with problems. Start where most people end. Bob explained that most meetings begin with the…

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Wandering in the Wilderness

There’s a natural human inclination to tell stories. Stories do lots of great things – they entertain, they illuminate, they create bonds among strangers as we share common experiences. Stories are social lubricants and educational tools. But sometimes the story gets in the way of doing what we need to do.

What to Do When Grandma’s on the Roof

An old joke:

A man left his cat with his brother while he went on vacation for a week. When he came back, he called his brother to see when he could pick the cat up. The brother hesitated, then said, “I’m so sorry, but while you were away, the cat died.”

The man was very upset and yelled, “You know, you could have broken the news to me better than that. When I called today, you could have said he was on the roof and wouldn’t come down. Then when I called the next day, you could have said that he had fallen off and the vet was working on patching him up. Then when I called the third day, you could have said he had passed away.”

The brother thought about it and apologized.

“So how’s Mom?” asked the man.

“She’s on the roof and won’t come down.”