“I hate meetings,” said Megan. Her tone was sharp. “They waste so much time and nothing ever gets done. Sometimes, I think my team uses meetings just to catch up on their sleep.”

I nodded. Many people do not see meetings as an important management skill. “Megan, when you work at your desk, do you get one hour’s productivity for every hour you work?”

Megan bit her lip. She was thinking this was a trick question. “I hope so,” she finally replied.

“So, if you work diligently each day for eight hours, you should get eight hours of productivity?”

“Yes,” said Megan.

“Great. Now, here is the problem. To be a successful Manager, each day, in eight hours, you need to produce somewhere between 25-80 hours of productivity.” Megan’s eyes became wide and she sat back in her chair.

“Megan, you have to leverage your time. You cannot afford to get a one-to-one ratio for your time. You have to multiply your efforts. And meetings are one of your most powerful ways to get that leverage.” -TF