Hey Leader!

This issue is a collection of curated content from this week that would be helpful for you and your leadership!

Any of it you like? Email me back and let me know which one you found the most valuable!

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Threads - Have Better Meetings

Meetings can be a major time suck without a clear purpose, objective, desired outcome, and a facilitator to guide the conversation.

This infographic by Justin Mecham provides an excellent overview of what to do (and what not to do) when managing meetings.

If you can run an effective meeting, your team will adore you!

Here are two tactics I’ve used that have significantly improved my meeting management skills:

1. Clarity Through Meeting Invites

A simple way to help invitees understand the purpose of a meeting is by including a PPO structure in the meeting invite.

PPO stands for:

• Purpose: What is this meeting about? What is the objective?

• Process: What is the agenda to help us achieve that objective?

• Outcome: What is the desired result we aim to achieve by the end of the meeting?

Having this structure creates clarity and keeps everyone on track, ensuring that the meeting achieves its intended goal within the allotted time.

Bonus: This approach also helps you prepare ahead of time, ensuring you have all necessary documents or questions ready to engage attendees effectively.

2. Schedule Less Time

This tactic comes from my experience as a Healthcare IT Supervisor.

In my organization, we often need to bring key stakeholders together to make decisions about strategy and project direction. However, these stakeholders are frequently needed in multiple meetings, which sometimes meant traveling across campus (in pre-pandemic times) to arrive on time.

To address this, we set an expectation that:

• 30-minute meetings should be scheduled for 25 minutes

• 1-hour meetings should be scheduled for 50 minutes

This adjustment allows everyone some buffer time to transition between meetings or regroup.

Even while working remotely, I’ve continued to adopt this practice and sometimes aim for even shorter timeframes (e.g., 15 minutes or 45 minutes) as a way to challenge my facilitation skills.

The result?

Shorter meetings force me to get to the point, maintain efficiency, and respect everyone’s time.

What are some of your most successful meeting tactics?

LinkedIn - Preparing for 2025

If y’all remember 12/23’s Leader’s Lens Perspective Shift issue, we discussed heavy the concept of resiliency and rest.

The very next day, this post by Benjamin Bargetzi appeared on my LinkedIn feed, and I knew I had to share it with y’all!

Benjamin outlines an excellent framework to help us reset and prepare our minds for the year ahead.

As you work through his framework—or any similar approach to your year-end reflection and planning—try doing it in a location that’s different from your usual workspace.

Here are a few ideas:

• Completely step away by renting a house for a day or two.

• Shift to a new setting for an hour or two, like your backyard, a coffee shop, or even a different room in your house (yes, even a kid’s bedroom can work!).

Why?

A change in scenery can help you shift your mindset, allowing for deeper reflection and more creative thinking. Personally, stepping out of my usual environment has always helped me gain fresh perspective.

What is your process for reflecting on the past year and preparing for the next?

Podcast - Oprah Winfrey and Authentic Leadership

During my MBA course, I’ve read Bill George book, True North: Discover your Authentic Leadership, during my Transformational Leadership class.

This was a great book for me to reflect on my experiences how I can use it to define the type of leader I want to be in the “real world.”

So it’s cool to hear how Oprah’s leadership was analyzed thorough the True North Framework.

In a recent episode of HBR on Leadership, Harvard Business School executive fellow Bill George explored the incredible leadership journey of Oprah Winfrey, offering insights that organizational leaders can apply to their own lives.

Here are three insights I found that would be valuable for us in our organizational leadership:

Vulnerability as Strength

Oprah has always been willing to share her struggles to foster trust and connection with her audience.

In organizations, leaders who model vulnerability encourage open communication, strengthen team relationships, and create cultures of psychological safety.

Turning Challenges into Growth

Oprah transformed her personal crucibles into opportunities for learning and impact.

Leaders can reflect on their own challenges and use those experiences to inspire and guide their teams.

Leading with Purpose

By aligning her work with her values—such as her passion for education and literacy—Oprah built a legacy that resonates far beyond her industry.

Similarly, leaders who anchor their decisions in a clear sense of purpose are better equipped to foster loyalty and drive meaningful results.

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As Bill George notes, great leaders don’t pretend to be perfect; they embrace their humanity and lead with authenticity. 

Oprah’s journey serves as a powerful reminder that by being true to yourself, you can inspire others and drive lasting change.

You can be a culture change for your organization and the lives of those you lead.

What personal experiences have shaped your leadership style, and how can you embrace them to lead more authentically?

Ray’s Reminders - The review and the preview

In this final section, wanted to provide you with some reminders for you:

1. Thank you to those who have filled out the survey letting me know more about your leadership journey! I am excited to dive into the results over the next couple of weeks to provide you with resources and content that will support your leadership! If you haven’t filled it out yet, do so by clicking the link here!

2. In the 12/20 Leader’s Lens Round Up issue, I introduced an idea of doing a 90-day leadership challenge, with a journal, community group , and weekly email check-ins. The goal would be to help us kick off Q1 of 2025 with clarity, solid leadership habits, and tactics to help us build a strong workplace culture. This idea is growing legs and I love it! If you are interested in this resource, simply head to that issue and vote below what aspect of the challenge interests you!

3. The next issue on Monday will be a focus on conducting a leadership review of 2024 and preview of 2025. This is an excellent practice to get your mind right on your goals, disciplines, and perspectives within your leadership. We will break it down in that issue but for today want you to reflect on 2 questions:

• What has been the most memorable leadership activity you’ve performed this past year?

• What do you hope to accomplish through your leadership this next year?

I would love to hear your response! Reply back with your answers!

Thanks for reading! I’ll see you in the next issue!

Ray