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Meetings 101
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Photo illustration by Kelly Neis |
A productive meeting can be a wonderful thing — decisions made, questions answered, stakeholders informed. On the other hand, meetings can be long, unfocused and sometimes even completely unnecessary. While business and communication skills are important for a superintendent, getting bogged down in superfluous meetings can and should be avoided.
Steps can be taken to improve the chances of meeting productivity. Make sure there is a clear agenda and a specific goal. Whether your meeting involves a green committee, staff or golfers, attendees will get more out of it if they know what to expect going in.
Meeting organizers
• Send an agenda with the meeting invite.
Include any necessary background information, the purpose of the meeting and the desired outcome.
• Rethink the list of attendees before sending a meeting request. Only invite those necessary to meet the goal.
• Ask participants to come prepared with short lists of things they would like to contribute as well as things they need to find out about the topic. This will cut down on “talking head” meetings where everyone thinks out loud and gets off track.
• Be prepared. Start the meeting on time and end on time. Attendees will be grateful you’ve respected their time.
• Be decisive. If good but off-topic ideas come up, write them down for another meeting and move on. When an action is decided on or a plan is discussed, be prepared to volunteer for assignments or delegate tasks.
Meeting attendees
• If the agenda is not clear, ask for clarification about the primary objective.
• Set aside 10-15 minutes before the meeting to jot down thoughts and ideas you want to share or questions you want to ask. A little preparation by all participants can cut meeting times in half.
• Read any documentation that came with the meeting invitation.
• Ask direct questions if the materials aren’t clear.
Ray Buckingham, GCSAA’s senior manager of executive communications, stresses the importance of distributing materials to meeting attendees beforehand, saying, “Nothing slows down a meeting more than a handout given on-site. People need preparation time to read and digest information.” His meeting planning experience also has taught him the value of a concise agenda. “Having a clear agenda, with designated time allotments if possible, will help the meeting stay on task and productive. Also, a clearly defined statement of the anticipated outcome helps to focus the meeting,” Buckingham notes.
Set specific but realistic expectations, and with a little practice, every meeting at your facility can be productive.
The GCSAA 2006 survey “Profiling the Golf Course Superintendent” showed that 44 percent of superintendents have a bachelor’s degree, which is up from 37 percent in 1998. The average number of years spent in a superintendent’s current position is 7.9. According to a recent survey conducted by Salary.com, more than 81 percent of employers believed they are aware of most (more than 75 percent) of the tasks performed by their employees. However, only 51 percent of their employees were in agreement; 18 percent of them believed their managers are aware of less than half their tasks. The survey also found that 55 percent of employers claimed they held formal performance reviews with employees at least twice a year, though less than 30 percent of employees agreed. More than 22 percent of employees said they don’t have any performance reviews. Furthermore, at least 95 percent of managers said that employee input is included in the performance review process, but more than 21 percent of employees say they have no input. |
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