I was on a conference call today that lasted an hour and 45 minutes. It was chaotic, unorganized and really unproductive. This was mostly due to the fact that we had a coworker who couldn’t stop YELLING. I was pretty taken aback because I hadn’t worked with this person much prior to this meeting… Heard some rumors but gave them the benefit of the doubt since I hadn’t experienced any of it firsthand. Whelp, saw all that I needed to see this morning and needless to say, I didn’t care for any of it. Couldn’t help but think about that meeting the rest of the day. Here’s what I learned.

1. Don’t yell. Especially when you’re not going to offer any solutions. You’re just ranting at this point… in front of a bunch of people who have better things to do than listen to you.
2. Stop repeating things and dragging out the meeting. People are listening and notice that you’re saying the exact same thing someone else did. Just louder.
3. Conference calls should not last more than an hour. Long, overdone conference calls lack focus. You either have too complicated an agenda, or none at all.
4. Pinpoint the issue at hand and keep the conversation on track. When people offer suggestions, don’t steer them in different directions. You’ll get nowhere.
5. Don’t be a dead end. There will always be solutions. Stop dwelling on what won’t work, the capabilities you don’t have, how impossible it is to please the client. This attitude is exhausting. Focus on what you do have and how to convey the benefits to the client in a way that they’ll understand.
6. An Analytics person is not a strategist. You’re lucky if your Analytics resource is kind enough to provide you with recommendations to your campaigns, but their main job is to look at data and find trends. Maybe YOU should be proactive and look at those Analytics findings and offer some strategic recommendations of your own.
7. Be respectful to your team. Especially when they’re trying to help your account and are looking to you for guidance and constructive feedback.
8. Take action. More walk and less talk – if they client is asking for more collaboration, schedule a meeting with them. Don’t schedule another internal meeting just to talk about how you’re going to approach the client on wanting to schedule a meeting with them. Just do it. Start. Get it done.

Tomorrow will be more fun. XO.