The Private Meeting Folder System

Welcome to our seventh installment of Lessons in Leadership. We continue to focus on time management and basic tactics you can use to control your time. You must be organized if you want to be an effective leader. Everything is about the tug-of-war between your vision for your team and the non-stop whirlwind of issues that are always trying to blow you off course.

In a previous post, we discussed the importance of time management and an organized structure of standard meetings as a part of the Four Formal Methods of Communications. The weekly private one-on-one meeting is one of the most significant. You want this time with your co-worker to be effective. So, you need to prepare.

In the Eisenhower Time Management Grid, the most productive activities are those that fall in the Important / Not Urgent quadrant. Important / Urgent is hair on fire time. Urgent / Not Important is people wanting your time for their agenda and Not Important / Not Urgent should always be avoided.

Throughout the week, things come up that need your attention. You must decide what to do. The ineffective leader allows the issue to derail their schedule. They jump from their desk and go address the issue leaving their important agenda sitting on their desk. They allowed this interruption to disrupt their original plans. They allowed the whirlwind to blow them off course.

In most circumstances, you can put these issues aside for the time being and bring them up in one of your meetings. You make a note of the issue and then place it in your meeting folders. When it comes time for the meeting, you reach for your meeting folder and there you'll find all the notes of issues that came up the week before.

You should have a different meeting folder for all the meetings on your schedule. Keep the meeting folders in the nearest file drawer, preferably the one in your desk so you don't have to reach far to place the note.

There should be a meeting folder for your group transactional meeting. You should have a separate folder for each of your direct reports. Make a file folder for every meeting on your agenda. When something pops up unannounced, make a note and put it in the meeting folder.

The meeting folder is the place to put reminders, ideas, issues and any other item that needs some attention. When it's time for the meeting, open the meeting folder and there are all your notes that need to be discussed.

To improve the organization's communications in both directions, teach your co-workers how to create their own meeting folders and encourage them to make notes and save them for the meetings. Teach them to push against the whirlwind and stay on their course. This will cut down on people interrupting each other when issues pop up allowing everyone to be more focused on the Important / Not Urgent time that fosters a professional and productive work atmosphere.

It may take some getting used to at first. But take the first step and organize yourself with meeting folders. You be the example of organization and time management.

You must remember that it's not important for you to do the work of ten people. Your job is to get ten people to do the work.

Let me know if I can help.

Talk to you soon.