If your daily schedule is filled with 1 [one] hour-long business meetings then you're a time-waster; don't kid yourself.
What can't be said in 15 minutes on the phone or in 15-minutes across a table, cannot be adequately covered in an hour anyway. Fluffing your meetings with social niceties or verbal-sparring is habitual rather than meaningful. Here's the thing and this is important. We've become accustomed to wasting each other's time; in fact it's expected. 'Social etiquette' dictates a degree of formality that we cannot afford. Times have changed; business etiquette hasn't and that, more than anything else, is the frustration we accept as 'part of the package'.
Ever started your day with a glance at your meetings' schedule and wished you were someplace else? Yes? Why is that? It's your subliminal reaction to a dated concept that is neither functional nor productive.
The most efficient way to optimize your working-day is to insist on more effective communication. That includes better preparation and attention to detail from your staff, clientele and industry. Ditch the social drama; appreciate & respect your / my TIME; that most valuable, non-renewable commodity and get to the point. Listen well. If your replies are weak, waffled & off-point then you either haven't prepared very well or you don't really know what you're talking about. Wrapping-up a meeting with a soliloquy of what's been discussed moments before is an ignorant confirmation of your 'authority' only and an insult to the intelligence of the other attendees.
Business lunches? Social drama; nothing more. Clouding the agenda with good food & wine is political fencing and childlike. Have the good grace to conclude your 'business meeting' before you place an order; understand the social expectations and behave accordingly. Leave 'business' at the concierge's desk. Cocktail presentations - utter garbage! Can them; read more.
One last thing - a 15 minute+ presentation is forgotten before the EXIT door closes on the attendee's way out. Keep your musings short, precise and on-point. Everything else is fluffing and fluffing doesn't belong in business or your working-day.
What can't be said in 15 minutes on the phone or in 15-minutes across a table, cannot be adequately covered in an hour anyway. Fluffing your meetings with social niceties or verbal-sparring is habitual rather than meaningful. Here's the thing and this is important. We've become accustomed to wasting each other's time; in fact it's expected. 'Social etiquette' dictates a degree of formality that we cannot afford. Times have changed; business etiquette hasn't and that, more than anything else, is the frustration we accept as 'part of the package'.
Ever started your day with a glance at your meetings' schedule and wished you were someplace else? Yes? Why is that? It's your subliminal reaction to a dated concept that is neither functional nor productive.
The most efficient way to optimize your working-day is to insist on more effective communication. That includes better preparation and attention to detail from your staff, clientele and industry. Ditch the social drama; appreciate & respect your / my TIME; that most valuable, non-renewable commodity and get to the point. Listen well. If your replies are weak, waffled & off-point then you either haven't prepared very well or you don't really know what you're talking about. Wrapping-up a meeting with a soliloquy of what's been discussed moments before is an ignorant confirmation of your 'authority' only and an insult to the intelligence of the other attendees.
Business lunches? Social drama; nothing more. Clouding the agenda with good food & wine is political fencing and childlike. Have the good grace to conclude your 'business meeting' before you place an order; understand the social expectations and behave accordingly. Leave 'business' at the concierge's desk. Cocktail presentations - utter garbage! Can them; read more.
One last thing - a 15 minute+ presentation is forgotten before the EXIT door closes on the attendee's way out. Keep your musings short, precise and on-point. Everything else is fluffing and fluffing doesn't belong in business or your working-day.
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