Anytime I attend a meeting, I have two goals in mind:

1) Give something of value to the group

2) Take something of value away from the discussion

I enter every meeting with both objectives. In some cases it becomes more one-sided with my giving more than I take away. In others, it is the reverse. However, I want to do both if possible.

As a leader, I try to give as much as possible, whenever possible. However, it is extremely rare that I have a meeting of any kind where I myself don’t learn something. This is often my takeaway.

So, I bet you attend meetings and maybe a lot of meetings. What are your goals in attending these meetings? The bigger the group, the easier it is just to suffer through the time and the boring discussion. But what if your goal was to add value and glean value from each and every meeting? It would force you to engage much differently. You might be forced to actively listen, think and watch for that opportunity to contribute. Even if the meeting is boring, at least it wasn’t an entire waste of time.

I also bet that when it is your turn to lead a meeting, you become a better leader.

I expect this type of performance from myself. I expect this type of performance from my team members in every meeting. You should too!