How to get the Boss come to your (important) meeting

319 2023-08-09

don Boss KanBan Inthiscase andtheboss

We all will have to launch important meetings from time to time. Most of them are considered very important to us and some times even to a lot of people. Such as Kickoff a project, review a product, some important check-points of things on-going...

The importance of this kind of meeting is to make sure that we are doing the right things, by gathering the approval of the sponsors of the project. We may need his/her vision of the product, having feedback on strategies, some trade-off decisions to be made from him/her.

The absence of sponsors in an important meeting is usually sending 2 bad signals:

This project is not important for the sponsors, they are just keeping "give it a shot" in their mind, the project could be closed anytime if other things come up to priority. But this is not the worst scenario, if we are showing the progress, the project can be saved, and draw enough attention step by step.
This project may be going in the wrong direction. As we are lacking the approval of the direction or feedback from the sponsors, the project could be a messed up at any time. When the day is coming, don't be surprised that your boss is saying, "OMG! why are you doing this, it's not making any sense. A waste of time, restart all over and you have 3 days left." In this case, it is very very bad.

To make the presence of the sponsors in our meeting is not often an easy thing. Evidently, the sponsors are on the higher level of the hierarchy. Which means, they will have lot more meetings to attaint to, and time is precious, the calendar will be overbooked.

Ok, what we can do?

Usually, the boss will be as friendly as he could be, by showing you that his calendar is REALLY full.

Baseline, if you still wish to stay in this company, don't push rudely.

-"Hey, Boss, we are not going to do anything until you join our meeting!"

-"Boss, if you are not coming, I'm not taking any responsibility if things went wrong."

-"Boss! You are not making decisions, you are wasting my time!"

Anyway, the menacing way of saying it should be avoided.

In this context, first of all, we should keep us be a happy person, assuming that the boss' willing is good.

Step 1: Invitation.

To start with an invitation will be unavoidable, try all: Face to face invitation, Call, Email and Outlook calendar or other calendar invitations. We are not expecting that the boss just shows-up only because you send an email, keep buzzing(but gently).

Step 2: negotiation.

If the boss is negotiating for the schedule, that's a good sigh, try to adapt to it.

If the schedule negotiation is not coming well, the boss is turning off the invitation. In this case, we can only make a way through his spare time, the interval between two meetings, cafe break, the time he works through the open space...

Step 3: preparation.

One thing to prepare is the visual context. Make everything visually presentable: KanBan, Graph, Post-its etc. To get the boss dive into the context as easily as he can.
The second thing to prepare is the options, we may have our opinion in mind, just want to get the approval, you may need some other options (visibly bad options) to compare with, make the decision not too hard. Don't ask for too much thinking during the short of time. (In 80% cases, if you can't make the call in 30 seconds, the boss can not make the decision easily either.) But let the boss have one decision to make if the circumstance allows, name the project/product and let him tell us the futurespective of it.
The last thing is not an obvious one, most people don't think about it. "Get help from other managers". I suppose you are not the only one who cares about the project, wishes to push forward. If it's the internal project, there will be another team or department uses it, or benefits from it; if it's the product facing to the public, there will be the marketing and sales team want you to make it happen. Anyway, you can find the managers who support you apart from the big boss. Take them with you! If you are having the support from a manager which is very close to the boss, and he/she is on your side, things could be much easier.

(A big reminder, this guy who is supporting you should be level-1 of the boss, and he is getting along very well with the boss recently.)

Step 4: Presentation.

The presentation could be intense, the boss may take time to recall the context of your subject, he will definitely interrupt your presentation on any moment, and of course, tap on his watch and remind you to cut it short, he has to take off in minutes.

Keep it cool, already having the boss listen to the presentation is a 50% success, we don't want to ruin it, or leave him a bad impression.

Choose a nice place to make it happen:

Usually, in everyone's head, this should happen in a meeting room, with a big screen or a projector behind the presenter... But please face reality, in the boss' mind, if what you are saying is worthing this meeting room and such a big projector, he will not be hard to invite.

We are talking about the cases having trouble inviting the boss to come to our meeting, the ideal place will be in front of his office door, or a corner in the open space, anyway, could be casual and not far from his office, some snacks and cafes will always be welcome. This will be easier to draw him from his chair.

Set up de context using his/her term:

Don't come up your speech with the fancy words never used before. The boss should have known about your subject, but maybe from other people, or some time ago. As you have worked on the subject, lots of terms may change, context will be much different from the version he learned days ago. In this case, start from the terms he/she might be still using, get him/her into the context smoothly.

Don't forget about your supporters, other managers who are supporting you in this meeting, they probably have discussed with the boss about the subject (a big chance they have talked about this recently), let them join you to put the context ready.

Get what we want from the meeting:

Assuming we have properly done the preparations as mentioned above. Including all the graphic, whiteboard, KanBan, canvas, cobweb which are helping to make our decision. And the demo is well prepared and tested again and again before the boss comes to the meeting. We have clear thought in our mind and tons of work have been done in advance.

While we are doing our speech in front of the boss. Guess what's in his mind, NOT your work! NOT your project! NOT your pretty graph!

One voice will keep shouting in his mind：

"What does this guy want from me....? He should be asking me for money. Budget, Time, Team? If I say YES to anything, I will fall into some kind of trap, he will take something from me, and there will be a risk."

A lot of bosses will stop the presenter and ask, what do you want from me? In this case, the goal of a meeting is not very clear.

Make the Goal of the meeting clear and loud before everything, and emphasize that it is not going to cost your extra money, we just need your knowledge, expertise, creativity, a little imagination and 15 mins of your precious time, that's all! This sounds easier.

People are different, bosses have their style of managing, some may like to ask details of your work, verify if it makes sense, others may like to go straight forward to the conclusion, some make a decision quickly (he is doing great and in a nice situation), some need tons of proofs (he is in a hard time if he is acting like this).

Try to extract as much as you can in this limited time, if some decisions are not happening, try to get the most important things done, which requires you be aware of what are the important things.

Close the meeting

None of us wants a meeting taking too much time, you should be the one who calls the end (don't force the boss to close it). A good closure of a meeting is more important than you think.

The moment should be right after the to-do list is done, and the boss has his opinion fully expressed, it's totally fine to leave something not-so-important behind.

"Any other ideas or comments? And you know where to find me in case something comes up in mind. A recap will be sent." - at this moment, you nailed it.

A recapitulative email will be sent formally, as the proof of the commitment.

The meeting should be ended with some kind of relaxing joke, a holiday plan, or a professional way, a nice picture as we imagine the product could be. As the boss walks back to his office, some relaxing talk will be nice (only in the case he is not hurrying to another meeting or conf-call ).

In the end, meetings mostly have 2 different types of objectives:

Some meeting is to share the work you have done, try to get feedback. You may have an analyze conclusion to present, a product demo, a strategy or a roadmap to put in place. In this case, what your need is the feedback, more like an approval. This is you giving information and asking for feedback. Don't be upset by the feedback if it's not what you are expecting, the goal of the meeting is to adapt to the boss' vision.
Some meeting is to get the information from the boss, you may need the boss to clarify his point of view, his strategy, his demands. Make sure what you need is understood by the boss, and also make sure that the boss focuses on the subject that matters you. This is you extracting information from the boss, active-listen is the key. The information should not be organized in his mind beforehand, your job is to help him extract this information and organise it effectively.

If the boss can not contribute to the meeting, then DO NOT invite him/her, the principle is to use as less resource as possible, and the boss' time is a resource.

As a conclusion, every boss has his needs, consider his/her needs and his/her opinions, but focus on the things you wish to get done, always get well prepared.

原文链接： http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=Mzg2NDY3Njk2OQ==&mid=2247483824&idx=1&sn=bfb74d6e40f821794b0047f36825f1de&chksm=ce64fcb6f91375a088d47d0b035630008f119e47c52f586776d484f618e54aa5797d1166ce54#rd