We all have too many meetings, and I am not a fan of adding to our jam-packed calendars. However, there is one weekly meeting you should never reschedule. This is the most important meeting of your week, not only ensuring you achieve your short- and long-term goals, but also helping those around you and your business do the same.
This meeting is called the Weekly Meeting With Self (WMWS). The WMWS is a dedicated 30-minute session each week that I allocate to reviewing where I am and planning for the week ahead. I strongly encourage all my team members to do the same.
You might think that most of us already do this, but how formal is your meeting with yourself, and are you addressing the relevant matters?
Initially, when I shared this concept with my team, most agreed they were already doing it. However, what they were referring to was updating their task list for the week ahead. This is just getting organized. A WMWS is much more strategic, focusing on ensuring that amidst all the little tasks, we also prioritize those not urgent but important tasks, as Stephen Covey has taught us. It's about the items that make a significant difference in our success but tend to be put off until we are less busy—which, by the way, never happens!
Here are some of the items I have included in my WMWS at various times in my career:
- Which non-active client am I going to visit?
- Which current client am I going to call for feedback on our performance?
- Which prospective or past client am I going to connect with?
- What networking activity am I going to do?
- What internal training will I provide to my staff?
- Which employee will I attend a client meeting with to provide feedback?
- Which employee will I highlight as a star for doing something great?
- What training/personal development/coaching am I going to do for myself?
- What amazing person am I going to catch up with this week?
- Do I have an elephant in the room I need to deal with?
What makes the difference between succeeding and not in your work and/or life? Are you prioritizing those things? I constantly see many of us running around flat-out doing tasks that don’t make the difference between winning and losing. This is where the WMWS becomes an incredibly important strategic success tool!
If you would like me to share my WMWS agenda with you, drop me a line, and I would be more than happy to share it.
