Tips to Get the Most out of Your Time MAKE YOUR MEETINGS MATTER
ALLOW EXCEPTIONS There’s no surer way to make an attendee anxious than pulling them away from an important task. Nobody should skip out on a meeting simply because they don’t want to go. If, however, their time could be more wisely spent, you shouldn’t force them to attend. Prioritize who needs to be at the meeting and whose time could be better used elsewhere. START WITH BIG IDEAS A meeting should be a forum for hashing out concerns and tackling big-picture concepts. If you’re listing off a slew of granular changes, those aren’t the ingredients for a productive meeting. Information like that can be disseminated in other forms. As you discuss a larger concern, details relating to it will arise during your discussion. Ask yourself if the meeting has a larger topic that merits discussion. ENGAGE YOUR PARTICIPANTS A meeting should be just that. If you’re not expecting collaboration, don’t call it a meeting. Tell your staff you’re giving a presentation and they’ll come ready to take notes. But if you want to actually have a meeting, every participant should come ready and willing to engage with the ideas on the table. What’s your favorite part of the job? Working for Dave is awesome. He’s one of those people who truly cares. He’s constantly updating and improving what we do. I don’t do the same thing every day, which makes my job fun. I love it. What’s it like working with your family? We all get along great. To enjoy your job, you have to enjoy the company you work for and the people you work with, so it’s wonderful to have that. My wife is the co-plant manager, my daughter runs the wash-and-fold, and her husband is the night driver and cleaner. They all do a bit of everything. Here, I’m their boss, but at home, it’s a little different. What do you like to do outside of work? I play with my grandkids. I have six of them, and three live here. Right now, my granddaughter loves making kindness rocks — you find a rock, paint a kind message on it, and leave it for others to find. So, we’ll go out and look for rocks, find just the right ones, and paint them. We walk around quite a bit on the weekends. Even when it was just 11 degrees in December, we were still walking outside and collecting rocks.
Ask yourself, “What are the biggest time wasters in my office?” If your workplace is like most, it’s a safe guess that social media and meetings are on your list. Maybe there’s a way you can eliminate social media from your office or, at least, curtail its use. However, meetings are an essential part of effective workplace communication. The question, then, isn’t how to get rid of meetings, but rather how to make them more efficient. With that in mind, here are a few tips for getting the most out of your meetings.
HAVE A GAME PLAN If you don’t have a reason for a meeting, don’t have a meeting. Weekly meetings can be a great way to catch your staff up on the latest news and issues at the office, but there’s no need to make them the same length of time every week. You should never feel like you need to fill a certain number of minutes. Instead, get to the heart of what you’re talking about, allow the staff to ask questions, and then get back to work.
Z’s Secrets for Happiness, On and Off the Job
Dave Zimmerman, or “Z” as he’s known to most of us, is our go-to man. When you need something done, you go to Z because you know he’ll be there for you. Z is our general manager, and he’s been with the company for almost a decade. He was here when we were getting our first equipment in place, he was here when we pressed our first shirts, and he was here as we installed four new shirt presses last month. We sat down with Dave to ask him a few questions and learn his secrets to happiness.
What’s it like to watch a company grow from the very beginning? I’ve loved seeing the change and being a major part of it. Dave [Coyle] asks for something to get done, and I want to make it happen. I truly enjoy finding ways to make things happen. It gives me the freedom to problem-solve. It’s been great.
2 • In The Bag Cleaners • inthebagcleaners.com • (316) 267-3407
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