How do you avoid meetings?
I hate meetings. It literally ruins my day.
The main reason I became an IH is to work without being dependent on schedule.
Unfortunately, many of my product's users are customer success managers in bigger companies or corporations, and they always want to "Jump on a quick call."
I know that 95% of the time their questions can be answered via Email or a Loom video easily.
No need to mention that all the answers are in the docs. They don't bother checking them.
How do you refuse? I'm afraid that they see it as an insult when I say I don't do meetings.
Been doing this extensively with my team members and have been taking way less no. of meetings than before.
Thanks that sounds like a good approach!
I don't show up. LOL.
Seriously though I think the key is to be blunt and ask 'does this really require a call/meeting'?
Start classifying questions and discussions that required a meeting and communicate that as you say 'yes' to these meetings.
Maybe setup a calendar with really limited times, or hire a personal assistant to attend and take notes.
Thanks, someone advised me to do one day for meetings, that sounds like a good option.
if you have a clear schedule you can have office hours where you are always available for calls. But honestly, I think the better approach is to challenge the meeting to happen in the first place
Luckily I work at small startups, so i don't have to do meetings often.
But I think upto one meeting a day is ok for me, to align everything with the team.
Since you are talking about customer meetings, I would really recommend to rethink your mindset towards those meetings. It doesn't matter if an answer is available in any other way. Those people try to build up trust towards you and your solution. It's important for them since they decide to spend money with you and it could backfire on them if you are fraud. Try to understand their point of view.
So try to find a way to enjoy those meetings. Give them a personal touch. If it's impossible for you, try to find somebody that could do it for you.
Meetings are the worst. I also think they ruin my day. When I'm in virtual meetings I start daydreaming because it's unnatural to look at a person's face through the screen.
Virtual culture, for this reason, is impossible to cultivate. Any business that is virtual isn't going to facilitate a company culture to the level of an in-person company. When people aren't meeting in person, they are able to work well together, but the personal relationships suffer.
I don't know my co-workers well, and to be honest, it doesn't bother me. I accept that the people I work with are friendly with me, but we're not friends necessarily.
Back in the day people used to meet their spouse at work, and they'd also be pals with their co-workers. That world is gone. Instead we live in a lonely world, where it's generally difficult to make physical connections with new people.
Set clear rules. 1, 2, 3.
what's the purpose?
is decision to be made?
... you make up whatever suits you. but keep the rules simple to understand and practice.