Have better meetings

Some work meetings are scary, stressful, uncomfortable. I’ve sat in my fair share with clients who were demanding and aggressive, or with emotionally-inconsistent coworkers where you never knew who you were gonna get. I’ve had plenty of meetings where my expectations were high, that my clients would love my work. I’ve had others where I was groaning before the meeting even started – I knew I’d walk out of there with some shit to do.

I think the way you go into the meeting generally affects how you leave the meeting. Experience has taught me that I’m a better servicer of my clients when I actually want to be helpful to them. And not every client is going to be a peach, so if I want more consistent outcomes from these meetings, I need to take the action I can to adjust my attitude.

Maybe you can do just do this. For me, it takes a shift in mindset: from glory and selfishness and avoiding getting yelled at to contribution, service, and right-sized expectations. When I approach a difficult client meeting with the mindset that I’m there to help my clients understand, to learn, and to improve their business –  I am on their team – I start to breathe a little easier. I’m not so defensive, my nervous system isn’t on high alert. I can hear the questions without the context of all my emotions, like the lemon juice that stings old cuts on my hands.

To prep myself now, I ask myself some questions: How can I help my clients (or coworkers) with this? What do I need to understand to be more useful? How can I assure them we’re on the same team?

Folks in recovery will recognize this one: see what you can contribute to the meeting rather than what you can get out of it. A wild approach, I know. Give it a try before one of those tough ones this week and let me know how it goes.

Go get ‘em this week.