Pete’s Blog

How to Make Meetings Fail

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

Why do so many meetings fail? The intention was never to bore people to tears, or to demoralize a team, or to waste time and money.  But it happens, and quite often.

Recently I read a blog post from Seth Godin – I really like the message and want to share it with you:

“Let’s go around the room”
If you say that in a meeting, you’ve failed. You’ve abdicated responsibility and just multiplied the time wasted by the number of people in the room.

When we go around the room, everyone in the room spends the entire time before their turn thinking about what to say, and working to say something fairly unmemorable. And of course, this endless litany of ‘saying’ leads to little in the way of listening or response or interaction or action of any kind.

The worst example I ever saw of this was when Barry Diller did it in a meeting with 220 attendees. More than two hours later, everyone in the room was bleeding from their ears in boredom.

Leaders of meetings can do better. Call on people. Shape the conversation. Do your homework in advance and figure out who has something to say, and work hard to create interactions. Either that or just send a memo and cancel the whole thing. It’s easier and probably more effective.

You’ve been in those “Let’s go around the room” meetings, so have I.  Creating innovative, meaningful meetings isn’t easy. But then neither is creating a successful practice or business. Before you schedule a meeting, whether with 5 people or 500, invest in planning the agenda, developing the subject matter and building an environment that is will . You will get the ROI you want – your team will leave energized and engaged.

Everyone’s Skills Need Work

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

I am often asked how I keep my skills as a trainer/presenter/speaker honed. Improvisational skills are a big factor in my courses, how to use the tools that make improvisational comedy work, like the “Yes, and…” that I help my course participants learn.

To further develop my improv skills I decided to take a workshop on improv writing. It is a challenge to create short, effective screenplays, and it is great!  Thought I’d share one with you: Pete and Mr. IRS Agent.

 

Introverts CAN Network!

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

It can be easy to hide behind the “I’m and introvert” excuse when it comes to networking. But that doesn’t help you develop your skills or your business. While it may feel uncomfortable to mix and mingle at social and business meetings, there are steps each of us can take to make networking feel less risky. A good article I read gives six networking secrets:

1.  Introduce Yourself – Make the first move. Say hello and initiate conversation. Chances are there are other shy people there, and you just may be helping one of them get engaged.

2. Choose an Easy Title – No matter what title is on your business card, start out telling people what you really do. Instead of “Vice Coordinator in Charge of Client Experience,” it’s probably easier to introduce yourself as being in “customer service.” And more people can recognize your job or position.

3.  Listen and Repeat – Repeating the concept of a conversation, not verbatim, helps to keep you in the moment.

4. Stay Off Your Phone – While this should be obvious, it is one of the biggest problems for introverted networkers. Instead of hiding in the corner, they hide in their phone – searching, digging, checking the weather. Anything to avoid meeting someone!

5.  Don’t Fear Silence – Lulls in conversation happen, not a big deal. If the lull turns into ackward silence, jump in and save the day with a comment germaine to the event or your industry. If the conversation is really over, say how glad  you  are to have met and move on.

6.  Show Up – It is more than half the battle! Like many other things, improving your networking skills takes practice.

Need more help? Check out my Building a Stronger Professional Network course.

Keep Talented Staff From Leaving Your Firm

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

This month Ernst & Young announced they would hire 6500 experienced professionals in the coming year and recruit another 9000 students, and they aren’t the only firm in the accounting world that is adding jobs. Where will all these talented, experienced professionals come from? They will be recruited from firms who are not paying attention to staff retention. They are being enticed to change jobs by their peers and college friends who receive bonuses for bringing in candidates.

You want to keep your experienced employees and not lose them to larger firms touting big dollars.  Develop a retention plan that shows them support, respect, trust, and appreciation. Get involved in real conversations, ask questions, garner input, and listen to them. Listen to better understand their views, NOT listen just to respond. Focus on their needs and development, and be able to adapt to ongoing change.

In other words, use the principles of improvisation to retain, engage, motivate and inspire your employees and see your ROI increase almost overnight.  It is far more difficult to convince an engaged, motivated employee to even consider leaving their job.

Try it. You have everything to gain, and a lot to lose if you don’t.

The Art of Accounting

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

Your firm’s fee structure should make sense to everyone at the firm. That’s the easy part. Much more difficult is having it make sense to your clients. If you have received feedback that your fees are too high the problem may not be the fees. More likely, your clients cannot see, feel, hear or touch the added value you bring to them. The problem is communication.

I read an article online, Art of Accounting: I Lost a Client to an Accounting Firm with Cheaper Fees, that addresses that very problem. In that case, the firm partner realized that client perceptions didn’t match up with the added value the firm offered all clients. Fees were, he thought, fairly structured. The reality was he and his team were not very good at effectively communicating the value to their clients.

If you have lost clients because they perceive your fees are too high, don’t immediately restructure fees, but do take action.

The ability to communicate your firm’s value in a manner that the client can understand, completely understand, is the key to retaining clients.  If your associates are using too many accounting acronyms and jargon, along with empty words, then they are not communicating (read my blog post about Buzzwords).

Effective communication is about making a connection with another person and building long-term, sustainable relationships.