The importance of meetings...

I hate meetings.

Always have.

Used to lay on the floor with my ball cap over my head during staff meeting at the first church where I was a youth pastor.  Makes me smile thinking about it.  I must have been good at some part of the job for them to tolerate that kind of behavior.

Seriously?  You're going to lie on the ground with your ball cap over your eyes?  Really?

My rationale was--meetings made me so angry, and people can always tell how I'm feeling, it just oozes out of me, that for me to sit there seething was more offensive  than for me to do the aforementioned.

Hate 'em.

(meetings)

There's a difference though between meeting for meeting's sake and meeting 'cause your people need you to.

I've been accused of being a bad manager several times throughout my career.  I always reply in the affirmative.  "Yup, you're right.  I'm not a good manager. Guilty as charged..."  I never wanted to be a manager.  I'm an entrepreneur, a 'starter' a catalytic kind of guy.  In a war I'm the guy leading the charge out of the bunker.  Wanna' come?  We got some enemies to kill, some ground to take and a victory to make.

I'm a leader.  

That's a problem.  Why?  Well, you keep leading long enough and you'll end up with people following you.  Those people need to be managed along the way.

Crap.

I suck at management.

But I'm good at leadership so I keep ending up in this same position. 

Better learn to manage.

Here's something I'm learning.  A little communication can go a long way.  Like today, I did a conference call with our post-team on UNSCRIPTED.  Two guys in Vancouver, two in Toronto, my business partner in Welland and me at home in Burlington, all of us on skype.

Took thirty-two minutes.

Made all the difference.

Everyone feels 'heard', there's a chance to decompress and air concerns, a moment to hear each other's voices and take the emotional 'pulse' of the team.

In thirty two minutes.

I set up the first one because one of the guys on our team was freaking out last month. Communication was breaking down, jobs weren't getting done, details were slipping through the cracks.

All of it my fault 'cause I wasn't managing the process well.

But I'm a sucky manager right?

So, what to do?

Well, I took immediate action.  Called each of the guys involved that day.  Talked them down off the ledge, helped where I could, offered my assurances that I'd keep on it, reminded them to call me anytime and took the suggestion from one of 'em to book a conference call.

I booked it weekly.

A key leader suggested after the first one that we go to once every two weeks.  I took his suggestion.

Did the second one today.

And it's amazing to me how people just settle down when they feel like you're listening.  Sure, I work best with self-starters and I'd say most of our team are--which is why we've made it this far--but even self-starters need the guy running out of the bunker to keep his head on a swivel and ask, "YOU OKAY!!??" once in a while.

Point taken.

And, for you, this might also be applicable.  It's not like I've suddenly turned into a great manager.  I'm still a mushroom (re: the image above) and that means I'm never going to be a sprout or a clover or a blade of grass.  I'm a fungus, that's all I can say.  But, I'm a fungus who's learning from the other plants around him.  I'm not trying to turn myself into something I'm not.  I'm not trying to focus on my weaknesses, but am continuing to play to my strengths.

I'm just trying to be a talking fungus.

(I'ma fungin' kill that enemy though, watch...)

What's the thing you need to add to your arsenal?

Part of the problem is I'm shy.  Part of it is I'm lazy.  Part of it is I hate conflict.

Gotta' overcome all that and do what's needed.

'Cause, charge all you want, but if you don't got a platoon coming up behind you, you're going to find the enemy encampment a mighty lonely place.

T