Unveiling the True Value of Meetings: Elevating Your Reputation and Influence

10 Nov 2023 · 2 min

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2:09

TJ Walker argues that while meetings are often dismissed as wastes of time, they are important opportunities to shape your professional reputation and influence. He advises active, purposeful participation—speaking up with useful, interesting, and memorable contributions such as insightful questions, brief summaries of work, or forward-looking ideas—while avoiding speaking just for its own sake.

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Meetings are a total waste of time. You've heard that, you probably felt that, but is it necessarily true? Meetings are where you define your image, your reputation, your brand within your organization. If all you ever do is sit back and listen or nod or agree with people, your reputation is not going to add up to much. Every single meeting you attend is an opportunity for you to improve your reputation, extend your reputation, or worsen your reputation, or worst of all, make no impact at all. Remain anonymous. Every meeting you're in is an opportunity for you to add something, to share an insight. Now, you can't do that without speaking. It doesn't mean you have to stand up and command attention and give a big PowerPoint for 30 minutes. Sometimes one insightful question is enough to burnish your reputation for years. Sometimes just giving a quick, pithy 30 second summary of the most important thing you're working on will solidify your reputation as someone really competent. And sometimes introducing an idea about a future trend that you want to hop on right now will cement your reputation as being a leader. So please don't make the mistake of saying, ah, not another meeting. What a waste of time. It is a waste of time if all you do is sit back passively and do nothing and let other people do the talking. Now I'm not suggesting you go on and on and on just for the sound of your own voice because you've fallen in love with it. Everything you say needs to be looked at through the prism of Is this really useful to other people in the room? Is this interesting for other people in the room? Is this going to be memorable for other people in the room? If the answer is yes to those questions, then you need to speak.