Effective Meetings

I found this article about conducting an effective meeting. In my business career I've been to more than my share of meetings that were a complete waste of time. Here's a couple of excerpts from the article and a link.

"Every meeting has a start time and an end time. That means it starts on time and ends on time."

"Every meeting is run by someone who is responsible for every aspect of the meeting including agenda, attendance, punctuality, and documentation."

"Key decisions that are reached during the meeting regarding strategies, plans or objectives should be published by whoever ran the meeting within one day. That also goes for follow-up or action required and an owner for each item."

Here's the link to the complete article. (There's also Five rules of engagement for effective meetings.)

Three Characteristics of Every Successful Leader

Here's a link to a video by Dr. Henry Cloud about Three Characteristics of Every Successful Leader. It'll cost you 6 minutes and 36 seconds to get his insights or you can buy his book titled: "Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality"

click here for the video

Thought Provoking Questions

I've been reading a few books and have a couple of thoughts I wanted to share:

From the book Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality

"What is it like to be on the other side of me?"
1. Are people more trusting after working with us?
2. Are people more fulfilled?
3. Have they grown?
4. Do they feel better about themselves and working with others?
5. Did they learn from me and feel lifted up and encouraged?
6. Were they stretched and inspired to become more than they were?
7. Did our relationship cause them to produce more?
8. Are they wounded?
9. Less trusting?
10. Are they feeling put down, cheated or manipulated?
11. Disappointed, let down, or lied to?
12. Are they angry and waiting for the chance to get even?
13. Do they feel inferior, like a loser, or ashamed because of how you interacted with them?
14. Would they want to do it again?

Share your thoughts!

Food Inflation

Here's a link that compares food prices in 2007 to 2008. Interesting stuff for all of you out there who care. :)

BTW, lemons have had the largest % increase...buy tangerines instead they've had the largest % decrease.

For the complete list click here.

GREED

I've been reading some news articles that I thought I should share. These articles illustrate what happens when we get greedy and can't delay satisfaction.

Soon our nation will be entirely owned by foreign investors, banks and government included.

Link #1

Link #2

(The government will have to borrow the money from a foreign lender to fund the proposal found on Link #2)

I think someone just needs to let the house of cards tumble so we can eventually get out of this mess!

Let me know your thoughts!