Immediate Action Momentum

Domain: Execution - Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

How many times have you seen action items disappear into the ether following a meeting?

Maybe they were your action items or maybe they were actions by others. Regardless, it happens all too frequently.

Leaders frequently find themselves hopping between meetings, accumulating a growing list of deliverables. They then either add them to an ever-growing to-do-list or forget about them until the next check-in.

Knocking-out the quick touch items immediately following a meeting is a really great way of maintaining momentum and establishing a brand of accountability.

Here are a few tips for doing that…

Create time

The first step is to intentionally protect time following your meetings to complete these quick action items. Ideally, you preserve this time after every meeting, even before knowing which deliverables you'll be responsible for. You can do this a number of ways…

If you don't have a subsequent meeting that immediately follows, simply block-off time to execute these deliverables.

If you do have back-to-back meetings, let one of the facilitators know that you'll either be leaving early or joining late. Many leaders balk at this idea because they feel the need to attend anything they're invited to. That's not how I recommend you handle your meetings and I would encourage you to check out my articles on saying no to meetings if you want to explore that. You can apply those same principles to joining late or leaving early.

Finally, if you have influence over meeting scheduling, consider instituting a 75% meeting policy. This approach shortens current meeting times by approximately 75% which gives everyone a buffer to work with.

Quick wins

Not all action items are created equal. Some will take far more time to complete than others.

What we're talking about here are the quick-hit items that you can do in 5-10 minutes. They might be small standalone tasks or the first step of a bigger deliverable. Things like sending a quick email, updating status on a project tracking system, scheduling a meeting, approving a request, etc.

Larger tasks will likely need to be weighed and scheduled among your competing priorities at a later date.

Stay focused

Don't make the common mistake of using this 5-10 minutes as free time to "catch-up" on emails. You've protected this time for a reason, so stick to the plan of completing these action items. This seems like an obvious point, but I've seen so many professionals burn this protected time on low-value tasks.

Be obvious

One of the hidden benefits of this approach is that it doesn't just make you more effective, but it contributes to a culture of effectiveness. When your team and peers start seeing how quickly you begin executing deliverables following meetings, they'll take notice. This builds your brand and also encourages others to keep focused on projects they share with you.

To capitalize on these benefits, don't shy away from calling-out what you are doing. A simple line in your email like "Attached is the report I just promised in our meeting. See page 2 for the specifics we discussed" send the message that you have a bias for action and follow-through on your commitments.

Thank you for reading. My hope is always that you've found something helpful and easy to implement. If you have feedback, suggestions or questions, please reply to this email.

If you are interested in exploring one-on-one coaching to transform your leadership, email me at [email protected] and we’ll coordinate a free, one-hour discovery session.

This week’s action items:

1. Pick an upcoming meeting where you are likely to have deliverables.

2. Protect time immediately following the meeting, even if you have another meeting immediately after.

3. Be intentional about using this time to knock-out a couple of your quick-hit deliverables.

4. Communicate that you are delivering those tasks as promised as you are doing it.