The High Stakes of Performance in Meetings

Your colleagues experience of you is defined by their interactions with you and your work product. The emails you send, the reports you submit, the designs you deliver, and the way you make people feel when they're around you (physically and virtually) is all a part of your brand.

But the chance to create a strong emotional connection, positive or negative, is highest in a meeting. How you conduct yourself in that space, especially if you're responsible for the meeting, is a force multiplier on your status in the organization.

This is because your colleagues have the most visibility into you and your work in that moment, so when they think of you, they'll think about how you made them feel in the meetings they've had with you.

So here's a few questions to reflect on your past performance and shape your future behavior the next time you lead a meeting:

• Did I define who needs to be in the meeting?

• Did I communicate an agenda ahead of time, and send along supporting documents, if needed?

• Did I facilitate dialogue between team members sufficient to draw out the contributions of all?

• Did I shape the pace, tone, and outcomes of the meeting in line with my values?

• Were the outcomes and deliverables clear? Timebound? Assigned to the correct parties? An item on the next agenda to be followed up on?

• Did the meeting begin and end on time (or better, early?)

If you want to accelerate your career, a good place to begin is by improving your performance in meetings. What other questions would you add to this list?