studentlinc

Will You Please Make Your Meeting Meaningful?

If it's not meaningful, I'd rather do something productive.

I've discovered that poorly-conducted meetings are common. Well-run, effective meetings are rare. Does anyone else have a problem with this?

First off...determine if you really need to have a meeting.
We've got so many other options these days - email, phone calls, IM, one-on-one's, etc.

Second off (okay...that doesn't make sense)...if we must meet, only invite the necessary people.
Translated: If I'm not really necessary, then I won't be offended if I'm not invited.

Third...let us know IN ADVANCE what the purpose of the meeting is.
I want to know what I'm going to talk about in case I need to study up on something.

Fourthly...don't run every meeting the same way.
Create the meeting to effectively meet the purpose (see point "third).

Five...create an agenda and figure out how much time the meeting will take.
The shorter the better!

Six...send all of us necessary people the agenda.
Once again, I want to be prepared and I want to know that you are prepared.

Once the meeting begins to draw to a close, let's take a moment and do a couple of things before we all get up to leave.
    - Let's summarize what we've decided.
    - Let's go over our action items, who's responsible, and what the deadlines are.

And one more thing, since you called the meeting, I don't mind if you follow up with me and everyone else to make sure we're on top of the things we agreed to do. Sometimes we all need a swift kick to the back side to get it done.

Okay, I lied above (not about the swift kick...). There's ONE more thing. I've got a super great TOOL to make you a whole lot better at planning, preparing, organizing, and running a meeting. It's called the MPOW and it's a free, downloadable, one-page PDF.

Check out the MPOW - Meeting Planner Organizing Worksheet

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT: What does a successful meeting look like to you?

SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT: What other ideas can you share that make meetings meaningful?

: : : :

Tim Milburn
Student Leadership Consultant & Speaker
www.studentlinc.net

What Sucks About Leadership?

That's the question that's been put forward by John over at The Leadership Epidemic. He wants to know and has asked a lot of people to chime in with their thoughts.

Well, John, since you asked...

I think it sucks that people are put into a position of leadership but then never do anything that even slightly resembles leadership.

Once they are elected, selected, coerced, manipulated, chosen, cajoled, forced, randomly placed, and/or inherit a leadership position, they think they're a leader. They wear the nametag, they put on the polo with the cool logo, they might even have an office - but they don't lead...well...anyone.

I'm not talking about people who arrive at a position and lead poorly. I'm thinking of those who don't lead period. Leadership can be learned. It can be improved upon. If you're bad...the hope is you will get better. If you don't try...the hope is we can get someone else in there who will.

What does a person-in-a-leadership-position-but-doesn't-lead look like?
    · Gets no one else involved
    · Focused on tasks not people
    · Doesn't raise up anyone else to do the job
    · Isn't accountable
    · Doesn't want to lead

I'm not wanting to sound overly negative (but you asked what sucks...) toward the leader-in-name-only individual. But let's be honest about the situation and move aside to get someone in there who wants to lead. Being a follower is also a respectable line of work.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT: What frustrates you about people in leadership positions that don't lead?

SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT: What do you think sucks about leadership?

: : : :

Tim Milburn
Student Leadership Consultant & Speaker
www.studentlinc.net

What Do We Need Courage For?

Picture the cowardly lion singing to his companions. They're sitting outside the door of the hallway to the great OZ. Proceed to the last line of the song...

Cowardly Lion: "What do they got that I don't got?"
Dorothy, Scarecrow, & Tin Man: (in unison) COURAGE!
Cowardly Lion: "You can say that again!"

The lion wanted courage because he understood that in order to be the King...in order to lead...it takes courage.

But what kind of courage?

I'm not going to lead a troop into an assault on another army. I'm not even looking to raise my fists toward someone else. I don't think I'll need to rush across a flaming bridge to save the people on my team.

So most of the time, I don't need physical courage.

But if we are to be effective in our leadership, we will need a courage of conviction.

This is the kind of courage that's required in...
the battle of ideas
the promotion of values
the accountability of teammates
the integrity of our work ethic
the grey areas of our day to day decisions.

It takes courage to stand up, to stand alone, and stand out because of one's convictions. Often it's the courageous person that says the thing that needs to be said.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT: What convictions do you have that require courage to remain true to them?

SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT: If you have courage of convictions, does it mean that you're right?

: : : :

Tim Milburn
Student Leadership Consultant & Speaker
www.studentlinc.net

Studentlinc In Process

If you read studentlinc from a rss reader, you may not notice anything.

But when you click into the actual studentlinc site, you'll notice that things are not as they were.

I'm in the process of a redesign. I call it a process because I'm learning some things as I go.

Start Strong: Finding The Pulse Of Your Organization

As a student leader anticipating the first days of your new position, it will be necessary to get a sense of what needs to happen.

In order to answer the question, "Where do we go from here?" you must know what "here" looks like.

You need to get the pulse of the organization.

Once you have figured out where you are now, you'll be better equipped to decide on where you're going.

This process is called assessment.

In order to assess where you organization is at, you should focus on three key areas:

a. Identify Needs
Find out what's lacking in your organization.

b. Evaluate People
Discover who people are in your organization.

c. Calculate Resources
Capitalize on what you have in your organization.

Through assessment strategies, a student leader can begin to identify key issues and situations that need to be addressed  throughout the course of the year. When you begin to combine your findings in these three key areas, you will discover your sweet spot - the area where you can make the biggest impact throughout your student leadership year.

Whenever firefighters reach the scene of a blaze, they send an assessment crew to determine the extent of the damage. This way, they know the best course of action to take in fighting the fire. As a student leader, your early assessments will help you get a clearer perspective on what needs to be tackled. Then you can more adequately prioritize your strategies.

"There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things."
- Niccolò Machiavelli, from "The Prince"

Here's some guidelines to consider when developing your assessment plan:

1. Assessment encourages input from a variety of sources.
If you're serious about assessment, you'll talk to more people then your friends. Get input from people with varying perspectives and contexts. You want to gather as much information as you can from a true cross section of your organization.

2. Assessment requires listening.
Your goal is to find out what's working and what's not working. Listen to people's stories. Give people an open environment to honestly express their concerns and their feelings.

3. Assessment must take into consideration context and perspective.
In order for your data to be reliable, it should take into consideration the context and perspective of those involved. For instance, the results from assessing freshman will have a different context then the results from assessments involving seniors or administration. Be sure to have a way of analyzing the data that enables you to distinguish these contexts.

4. Use different assessment strategies.
There are a variety of ways to gather data. Consider the following:

(1) Interview people in key positions and with a history of the organization (this could include past leaders).
(2) Hold a public forum that allows members of the community to raise issues and have discussion.
(3) Create one-on-one opportunities for people to offer their ideas.
(4) Use questionnaires with a group of people that represent a cross section of your organization. Allow the group (people mostly unfamiliar with each other) to discuss the results.
(5) Conduct a survey. Use both online and offline approaches to reach a wider audience.

5. The kind of assessment questions you ask will determine the kind of assessment data you receive.
Here are some assessment questions that you can use, especially in an interview type situation:

1. Why? (or Why not?)
2. What would make this situation (person, system, event, activity, etc) better?
3. What's broken?
4. What is your story?
5. What can I do for you? (or How can I help?)
6. Is there an option we haven't considered?
7. What do I need to know?

6. Assessment should result in a plan.
The whole reason for assessment is so you can know the best direction to move, the best strategy to engage, the best course of action to take. If all you end up with is a bunch of data that doesn't result in anything, you have wasted everyone's time.

One other thing, this data is not only useful for you, but is useful for those who will follow you in this student leadership position. Once you've collected and evaluated the data, provide a summarization of your findings that can be understood by those who come after you. Package it so that future student leaders can use it.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT: What assessment strategies would be the most effective to use in your situation? How aware are you of the pulse of your organization?

SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT: What other assessment strategies have you used? Let us know in the comments below.

: : : :

Tim Milburn
Developing Lifelong Leaders One Student At A Time
www.studentlinc.net

Event Planning Worksheet [Updated & Revised]

“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.”
- A. A. Milne

I've recently tweaked my EVENT PLANNING WORKSHEET for our student leaders.

Students often ask for a resource to help them think through an event. I recommend this one.

Use it as a checklist or brainstorming tool.

I like the idea of a one page planning tool because...

1. Events don't organize by themselves.
2. It helps you think AHEAD.
3. It keeps the information in one place.
4. It can be copied and handed out to your team.
5. It's cool looking (at least I think so!)

Plus, it's a great way to pass information on to the next person in your position.

Download the EVENT PLANNING WORKSHEET [pdf 29.5KB]