How valuable are business meetings and will the answer come as a great surprise to anyone?
Many years ago I changed positions going from a Wall Street investment bank where I was a fixed income trader and analyst to a commercial bank where I was in charge of all fixed income trading, research and sales for its brokerage arm.
The commercial bank will remain unnamed (unless you go to my profile and look) but the difference in the corporate culture between the two was clearly evident from day one.
One of the most striking aspects of my new environs that I found both interesting and counterintuitive at the same time, was that the other employees at my level and above spent a great deal of time attempting to fill-in their calendars with meetings.
And, as this was a time when computers were not being utilized as they are today, these were literally paper calendars.
Now to be fair some of the meetings made were not only unavoidable but actually could have been necessary as well as useful. On-the-other-hand, however, just as many if not more were merely fillers of time.
Coming from traditional Wall Street where ‘pulling the proverbial trigger’ was a critical part of driving innovation as well as revenues, this focus on non-productive meetings was all somewhat foreign to me.
Now, all of these years later, an infographic that I found at the website Hubspot seems to uphold my instincts from long ago.
Instincts that said meetings certainly have a place in business but need to be laser focused and limited as much as possible to those get-togethers having the following potential:
- Solve an immediate problem,
- Increase a current revenue stream,
- Explore a new and viable revenue stream or,
- At certain levels in a corporation, maintain and tweak the strategic plan.
Infographic: The ugly truth about meetings!
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Written by Michael Haltman, President of Hallmark Abstract Service, New York.
HAS is a provider of title insurance in New York State for residential and commercial real estate transactions specializing in the areas of New York City, Long Island and Westchester.
Remember that you have the right to choose your own title company (click here to learn more)!
If you have any questions you can reach Michael by email at mhaltman@hallmarkabstractllc.com.
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