Tag Archives: confident speaking

Meetings: Make Commitments not Appointments

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here are a few ideas to help you get more control over your calendar. Reading time: 4:17

I seemed to be running from one meeting to another. And often I was running late. Finally my New York team started joking with each other that “he’s on Chicago time.” I would rationalize my tardiness with something like: “I have too much responsibility to parcel my time out to the precise minute. Besides I can be a few minutes late. The important aspects of the meeting usually don’t start until a few minutes into the meeting anyway.”

But that was before I met our new company president. I always was on time for her meetings. One day the president seemed to be in a philosophical mood. She looked at her calendar for the day and said more to herself than to me:

” Leaders are never too busy to lead.

  1. They invest time. They don’t spend it.
  2. They make commitments not appointments.
  3. They fulfill their promises rather than fill full their calendars.”

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