Start on Time

Start on Time; Flow Smoothly; Finish on Time

Over half of the invincible executives with whom I discussed the issue said that they always start a meeting on time. "It is unfair to the other people attending if you force them to wait for the stragglers," according to O'Neill. Doug Bain of Boeing echoes a similar sentiment: starting on time shows respect for those who arrived on time. Starting on time also lets people know that you value strict adherence to schedules, which is an important quality in any business context, and it tells people that you expect precision in their conduct. President Bush, for example, is so insistent that meetings start on time that almost everyone else invited arrives early to his meetings—sometimes a half hour early. Lieutenant General John Sams noted that the people who tended to do best in the air force were those who showed up early for their flight briefings.

When meetings start on time, the whole organization seems better run, more efficient, and more synergistic. Moreover, once stragglers feel the embarrassment of walking in late to a meeting in progress even one time, they will not be late again. That further increases the efficiency of the organization.

Next, you cannot interrupt the time-flow of a meeting. That means that cell phones and pagers should be off, and you should tell your secretary, assistant, or coworkers not to interrupt you during the meeting. When the ringing of a cell phone interrupts a meeting, the owner of that phone is effectively saying that he or she has something to do that is so much more important than the meeting that it is worth interrupting everyone at the meeting so that he or she can attend to the higher priority. That is arrogant, selfish—and a career killer. Once again, President Bush is the model—he detests cell phones going off in the middle of a meeting and gives people the "evil eye" when it happens. He also never forgets it, I am told. You need to keep your phone off and you need to insist that those working for you keep theirs off as well.

Finally, many top executives set time limits on meetings. They will open meetings with a line like, "I have an appointment outside the office in one hour, so this meeting has to be over in forty-five minutes." It is amazing how much self-aggrandizing baloney you can avoid in a meeting if everyone knows it has to end soon. The meeting naturally develops a fast, constructive pace that allows the business at hand to be completed, but culls out all the digressions and self-important comments that tend to dominate more meandering meetings. In fact, Bill Shaw of Marriott even allocates a specific amount of time to individual subjects that a meeting is supposed to cover.