When a client approached me to ask if I would deliver basic  training in Effective Meetings and Time Management my initial reaction was very much: "I don't do that sort of training any more". Reflecting on recent coaching discussions, I realised that not many people do and that the results are evident.

"I am in back to back meetings all day; I don't even know why I am invited half the time; How can you keep a meeting focussed with the distraction of phones and email?" are complaints I frequently hear from all levels of the organisation.

At the risk of sounding my age, I remember how my training as a new manager was designed to cover the basics. Learning how to give presentations, write reports, plan and chair meetings and manage my time effectively were the bedrock upon which my future career as a manager was built.

Investigating my client’s requirements further,  I realised that the training they were requesting was not for new managers but for senior people – people who were experts in their field, who could create vision and strategy –  who were failing to set clear outcomes and ground rules for their meetings, held meetings without an agenda and were thus contributing to the reactive and unfocused culture that was developing within the company.

NLP as a model of excellence in communication has a lot to say about the way we run and conduct ourselves in meetings. So yes, I do do that sort of training. Is it time, I wonder, to go forward to basics?

With thanks to this week's guest writer, Brilliant Minds Associate Partner, Denise Potts