Watch the Pontificator!Learn Management Articles on management-info.biz. Watch the Pontificator! article will help answer your questions on Management Articles.We at management-info.biz specialize in Management Articles. Management Articles at management-info.biz provides the most up to date news and articles. If you have questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
At the offices of one of my clients there was a fellow who I'll call 'Moe.' Moe was your typical pontificator. At any time we saw Moe he was standing outside of someone's cubicle or sitting on someone's office, coffee cup in hand, waxing poetic about the latest dumb decision management made, the idiots that run his division, or last night's baseball game. Moe had an opinion on everything and was very free about letting you know every detail of his opinion. There was no such thing as a five-minute conversation with Moe. Unless you excused yourself for whatever reason you were there for at least fifteen minutes listening to his philosophy. The problem was that Moe was friends with the person managing our contract so we had to put up with him.
Moe was particularly problematic during meetings. He diverted agendas, disrupted meeting topics, and wasted tremendous amounts of time. Despite all this, Moe was a long-time company employee and understood his job well. But he was still a big pain in the hindquarters.
It's likely that that you've worked with a person like Moe. You can do your best to avoid him, but there he is, ready to give you an earful about something. So how do you handle the Moes of the world during meetings? How do you keep things on track? How do you avoid frustrating everyone else in the meeting when the pontificator revs up his engine?
The first thing you can do about the pontificator at your meeting is to take a good hard look at whether the pontificator absolutely needs to be at the meeting. Will the pontificator contribute valuable content and perspective that will add value to the meeting? If not avoid having the pontificator at the meeting in the first place.
If the pontificator needs to be there, try to talk with him beforehand and solicit his help in keeping the meeting moving forward. Spend a few minutes reviewing the agenda and get him oriented to the meeting topic. If he has opinions or viewpoints that he wants to air, get him to do it with you beforehand and try to incorporate some of his viewpoint into the topic. If he sees that he has been heard and if some of his thinking is baked into your agenda, the pontificator is more likely to be a good soldier and not hijack your meeting.
If you've taken this step and the pontificator still feels the need to take control of your meeting, your next mission is to preserve the purpose of the meeting, keep things focused on the agenda, and avoid wasting any of the other attendee's time. It is vitally important that you monitor what your pontificator is saying and keep them focused on the agenda item. If he continues to drift off topic onto his own agenda item ask to have the item taken offline. If it continues then it is completely within bounds to cut the person off and bring things back to your agenda. Whatever you do, don't lose control of the agenda. Your credibility is at stake with other meeting attendees; losing control of the agenda means a loss of credibility, which you'll now need to work to regain.
Pontificators don't have to spell doom and gloom to your meetings. If you can ensure that they truly need to be involved in the meeting, get them on your side, and control them when they veer off path, you can still get things done when they are involved. |
More Articles:1. Develop Your Managers and Keep Your Staff By Lorraine Pirihi Following on from the last edition of The Organised Times where we spoke about developing the people in your business, this week we're focussing on the importance of the continual development of your managers.Leadership comes from the top down. Poor management skills is the cause of most employee dissatisfaction and results in their poor performance.The following article by Nathan Chanesman from My Profile is worthwhile reading:Poor management skills lead to poor employee performanceIt's dishe… 2. The Value of Values One of the toughest jobs a leader has to perform is to act as guardian of an organisation's values. An organisation's values are the things that are really important to it. In the early days of an enterprise, the values are sometimes the only thing that keeps the business going. When other factors make the chances of survival doubtful, such as funds, markets, and technology, it is the set of beliefs held by the original founders which pull the business through. The beliefs of the organization a… 3. Quick Quiz: Helping Others with Leadership Skill Development Oftentimes a quiz can be an effective learning device. For that reason consider the following questions and see what you learn. Hopefully a few questions will inspire you in the direction of improved management and leadership skill development. The answers are at the bottom of the column, but please resist the temptation to peak until you have given some serious thought about your answers. 1. How many hours of TV do fathers between the ages of 25-34 watch each week? a. 10 hours b. 15 hours … 4. Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: A New Manager's Tale By Josh Greenberg This article relates to the Manager/Supervisor competency, commonly evaluated in employee satisfaction surveys. This competency evaluates an employee's feelings regarding their direct manager or supervisor. The manager/supervisor competency covers topics like clarity of goals, manager support, coaching and feedback, and regular reviews of performance. The old adage that "people leave their managers, not organizations" is often true. Of all the workplace stressors, a bad immediate manager is on… |
||||
