Over the course of my career, I have been blessed with amazing mentors and strong business leaders who have given great advice and have been a great example for me. In this article, I want to share some of the great ideas and tips I learned from these leaders.
1) Never go anywhere without a notebook, pen and a calculator. A manager that I worked with once told me a story from early in his career. He was a young accountant and was working with a CFO and delivering a report to him. When he went to meet with the CFO, he just went with the report. The CFO quizzed him on some of the calculations and because he didn't have a calculator he struggled to replicate the math and without a pen and paper, he couldn't take notes and follow up properly with the CFO. This story has stuck with me and I always follow this advice.
2) Be punctual to meetings - in business time is money and everyone's time is valuable. When you don't show up on time to meetings, you are not being respectful of other's time. If you can't make a meeting ask to reschedule. Things come up and sometimes you are going to run late. If you are running late, let the meeting organizer know at least 5 minutes before the start of the meeting. Sometimes there are meetings that you may feel are a waste of your time, however I'd recommend that you go to the meeting and see what you can learn from it. As you increase your domain knowledge within a business, the more valuable you become. If there are recurring meetings to which you are invited and don't understand your role, have a conversation with the organizer prior to the meeting and try to understand what your presence at the meeting is aimed at achieving. You must be tactful and not come off as disinterested in the meeting.
3) Come to meetings prepared or come prepared to participate. If you organize a meeting or are expected to present info at meeting, make sure you come prepared with a clear agenda and materials to review with the participants. Handouts for participants helps to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Make sure you stop periodically to ensure everyone is following along, and leave an appropriate amount of time for questions &answers. If your meeting has a call to action or deliverable that you need back, make sure it is very clear to the participants what is expected of them and by when. If you are a participant in a meeting, review the subject of the meeting the day before the meeting and go to the meeting with an open mind and ready to participate. If you can research the subject and how it relates to your department.
4) Print your Daily Calendar out first thing in the morning and look at the next days calendar before leaving the office. If you use email calendars in your office, printing your calendar for the day will help you to ensure you are on time for meetings. Reviewing the next day's calendar will help you to think about how the meeting is relevant to your department and do any research work you need to ahead of time.
These are a few tips I learned from mentors and managers around me and as we come to Thanksgiving this year, I feel very grateful to have been surrounded by many strong leaders throughout my career. Please leave a comment if you like the posting or if you have other tips you can share that would help others.