Moral: Indicate you value others’ time by not holding meetings which are mostly or entirely for your benefit.
“Go through your calendar. If you find a group meeting that is solely for your benefit, cancel it. This will signal to your team members that you value their time and that they should value it, too. If you aren’t sure about the meeting’s value, announce that you are going to miss it once and see what happens. If the meeting doesn’t take place, you have your answer” [1].
I’d only suggest two alterations (dare I say, improvements) to this insight:
- This holds true more, I think, for managers than individual contributors.
- This holds true more, I think, when the team in question is stocked with talented team members with expertise and/or initiative and common sense. But, if you hire right (like Netflix seems to), this wisdom should prove golden.
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- Bill Tolany. “3 quick questions to help leaders get out of the way,” SmartBlog on Leadership. March 27, 2012.
- Reed Hastings. “Netflix Culture: Freedom & Responsibility.” August 1, 2009. (PDF)