by Jim Cathcart, Founder of 101 Leaders Institute

One of the universal attitudes in society today is that
most meetings are a waste of time and
there is no such thing as “a good meeting.”
It doesn’t have to be that way. After all a “meeting” is
simply a gathering with others for a specific purpose,
kind of like a ball game or a party but with more
interaction and less physical.

1. Start and end ON TIME! It is not polite to wait for everyone to arrive before starting, in fact that is impolite. It disrespects the courtesy that others have shown by arriving on time. Kill the concept of being “fashionably late” and get people used to having 2 oclock meetings actually begin at, or very near, 2 oclock. And when the end time has arrived, even if the meeting didn’t achieve its goals, offer people the opportunity to adjourn as they expected to, then reconvene when practical. Meetings that run overtime are evidence that the leader isn’t skilled at running meetings.
2. Stay ON TOPIC! A meeting should have a purpose or it shouldn’t be held. Let people know why you are meeting and what you hope to achieve. They will help you achieve it if they know what it is and why it matters. During the meeting politely acknowledge any off-topic comments and defer them to a separate meeting or time. Other items may be important but this meeting needs to achieve its own purpose first.
3. Start with an attention getter. You don’t have to fire a cannon to get started but you do have to break the attention barrier appropriately. A good starter for most meetings is to loudly announce “Welcome Everyone! Let’s get started.” Then proceed as if you already had their attention. Those who are talking will stop if you continue to begin the meeting. If you wait for them to become quiet then you will put a chill on the entire group. Just start the meeting and let the group quiet each other.
4. Don’t position anything as “before we start.” If you are making housekeeping announcements, you have started. This IS part of the meeting, so get on with it. Also, do not start with a call for open comments or questions. You are the meeting’s leader so LEAD! The group is waiting for you to show them direction and guide the discussion.
5. Eliminate distractions early. If a noise can be diminished by closing a door or a glare eliminated by drawing the curtains, do so right away. People won’t hear your ideas if they are distracted by visuals or sounds or temperature problems. If others are talking and won’t shut up, ask them politely to continue their discussion outside the room.
6. When introducing someone to address the group, tell them: why this speaker is addressing this group at this time on this topic. Don’t just read their resume’ and expect people to be impressed. Also, stay in place at the speaker stand until the next speaker takes over. Don’t vacate the stage while they are walking forward.
7. When someone is finished addressing the group, thank them and step up to the lecturn or sound the gavel for the next topic. Waiting for them to stop on their own can often lead to long awkward moments and sometimes ruin your meeting. Take the cue that the time has expired and just say, “thank you Ellen, we have run out of time. Let’s continue that dialogue offline after the meeting.” Audiences despise meeting chairs who don’t have the courage to do what is right. Instead of being courteous to the presenter try being more courteous to the entire audience when someone runs over time.
8. Don’t try to cover every topic regardless of time frame. As the meeting unfolds, judge the best use of the remaining time and cover the important items during the meeting, leaving lesser topics for later. If your meetings are always overtime, either schedule longer meetings or learn to run meetings efficiently.
9. Lighten Up! Have fun in the meeting. Don’t sacrifice progress for fun, but enjoy the process. If a senior or valued attendee comes into the room during the meeting, pause and welcome them. Keep it real, don’t pretend that people don’t notice.
10. Respect each other’s time and topic. Keep the meeting on issue and allow each person their moment in the spotlight. Hear them out, keep them timely, and then move on. Most meetings run astray over mixing too many topics into one discussion. Print your agenda and hold people to it.
11. Let people know how it went. Send a summary or recap to the attendees. Remind them of decisions that were taken, commitments made, goals agreed to and other outcomes. Document the effect of the meeting so all can see what they achieved.

Copyright 2006 Jim Cathcart, Lake Sherwood, CA, USA

Developing Leadership for Today’s Challenges and Tomorrow’s Opportunities.
Summit for Non Profit & Charitable Leadership

Scheduled for September 8, 2006 at the beautiful Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California. This program is geared primarily to volunteer leaders and citizens, plus those who manage volunteers.
Topics covered will include:
How to grow your influence and increase your ability to achieve results
How to build an influential and committed board of directors
How to increase the net revenues from your events
How to continually grow the support of your community
How to conduct meetings that others will want to attend
How to motivate volunteers

To request an invitation, send information stating your leadership role(s), mailing address and email to: jim@cathcart.com

101 Leaders™
Improving the Quality of Life Along the “LA-Ventura” Corridor
From Calabasas to Ventura, Highway 27 to Highway 33: the world famous Highway 101 winds through a dozen thriving communities. This “LA-Ventura” area, along the inner slopes of the Santa Monica Mountains, has one of the highest quality of life ratings in California and one of the lowest crime rates in the nation.
This area is also blessed with an excellent educational infrastructure and contains universities, colleges and other providers who can develop current leaders and cultivate future ones.
In 2003 speaker and author Jim Cathcart founded The 101 Leaders Institute to identify, encourage, develop and learn from the people in the Corridor who are making a difference through personal leadership.

Concept: Effective leaders are talented at leading themselves as well as leading others. They possess the ability to successfully lead meetings, deliver presentations, communicate persuasively, think strategically, organize effectively, and motivate powerfully. However, personal leadership skills are often lacking in many who hold leadership positions. This endangers organizations and individuals. Education and training are needed as is recognition. By publicly celebrating the highly effective leaders across many disciplines those leaders will be encouraged to make further contributions and others will be inspired to follow their examples, thereby increasing the number of people who are making contributions in their various fields.

Process: By forming an ongoing alliance among the various providers of leadership education and publicly celebrating the joy and rewards of personal leadership more people will be motivated to step forward, access the learning and make personal contributions for the betterment of this region.

Strategy: Focus on the cultivation of personal leadership skills. To differentiate ourselves from other efforts to acknowledge community leaders and teach civic or corporate skills, 101 Leaders will emphasize the development and use of skills that transcend categories; communication, critical thinking, innovation, decision making, public speaking, leading meetings, organizing and managing projects, motivating yourself and others, selling your ideas, and managing resources and revenues. Actual application will be built into the training structures wherever practical. Emphasis will be placed on increasing ability rather than on knowledge alone.

The Summit: A key component of the 101 Leaders Institute is the Annual Leadership Summit. This event will be a combination of meetings, training, celebrations and expositions held at an upscale venue here in the 101 corridor. Inspiring speakers, panels, workshops and demonstrations will be provided for all who wish to cultivate more and better leaders.
Throughout the year 101 Leaders will be acknowledged publicly and privately in a variety of ways.
1. The 101 Leaders Yearbook, a perfect bound magazine-format book that lists the leaders and their profiles. This book will contain a comprehensive listing of all within the corridor who have been acknowledged and honored during the previous year. It will be distributed throughout the corridor. Within this publication will be leadership lessons and profiles of the educational resources in the region.
2. 101 Leadership Training, this series of seminars, workshops, roundtables, speeches and learning resources will be structured by professional trainers and educators to provide specific skill development and inspiration to all who aspire to become future 101 Leaders. Training will be offered throughout the year and will include the resources of Colleges and Universities in the Corridor as well as using the leaders themselves as adjunct faculty.
3. Local Awards events, in each community its local leader recipients will be acknowledged by their friends and neighbors through existing community events. These will be supported and encouraged by 101 Leaders.
4. The 101 Leaders Press Fest, in conjunction with the Leadership Summit a press-junket event will be held to allow all media to have access to the alliance members and leaders. Specialty media as well as general interest publications will be welcomed. The goal is to position this area as a hot-bed of leadership talent and the resources for its development.
5. The Annual 101 Leaders Gala, this awards ceremony will be held in concert with the Leadership Summit beginning in 2007. Honorees, their coworkers, employers, friends, families and interested others will gather to hear world class keynote speakers and to see all the recipients receive their Awards. Honorees will fit the 101 Leaders profile and be acknowledged for personal growth and achievement in a variety of categories.
6. Sponsorships, Advertising, Internships and Special Projects will be offered to allow everyone to benefit from the 101 Leaders initiatives.
7. 101 Leaders.com, this website will become a knowledge base of the people and the things they do to attain 101 status. This Learning Center will be linked to all the resources available to aspiring and existing 101 Leaders. It will also be our digital press office with information on all aspects of the institute and the recipients. Alumni of 101 Leaders will have their own portion of the website for continuing communication and growth. Members of the 101 Leaders Alliance will also have their own website at 101 Leaders.org for continuing communication and coordination.

101 Leaders™ – Improving the Quality of Life Along the 101 Corridor
Jim Cathcart, Chairman & Founder
101 Leaders Institute
Executive Office
2324 Crombie Court
Lake Sherwood, CA 91361
Phone: 805-777-3477
Fax: 805-371-9887
Website:http://www.cathcart.com
Email: jim@cathcart.com

© Copyright 2006 Cathcart Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved.