Effective communication, especially related to meetings,increases productivity, saves time and most importantly strengthensorganizational leadership capacity. Surveys of executives show thatthey can spend up to 40% or 50% of their time in meetings.Furthermore many executives observe that up to 50% of the timepeople spend in meetings is wasted. Think of the leadershipcapacity that is lost.

How can we improve the situation? Both leadership books Cutto the Chase and The Six Fundamentals of Successfocused on many concepts related to meeting management thatincrease leadership capacity and create organizational energy andincreased alignment and results. This article describes tools thatyou can use to make the principles in these books come to life. Youhave probably observed that people who successfully “cut to thechase” think clearly, act effectively and communicate directly.

In working with countless organizations, I have seen that thoseorganizations that develop common language and common practice incommunications of all types, including meetings, phone calls, emailand so forth, increase leadership capacity, with meetings becomingmore productive and people even enjoying them.