Rarely is “having meetings” a core business purpose. Yet meetings are a fact of life in almost all workplaces.

How many times have you been in a meeting and thought about better ways you could be spending your time?

Sometimes there is no substitute for the one-on-one interaction that takes place in a meeting room. But in many cases, there are plenty of suitable alternatives, and people resent meetings that waste their time.

One survey of 182 senior managers found that nearly two-thirds said meetings kept them from completing actual work. An astonishing 71% said meetings were “unproductive and inefficient.” Perhaps that’s because so few businesses train leaders in when to use meetings and how to run them effectively.

Make no mistake: running a productive meeting is an important element of good leadership. Here are the things that outstanding leaders to do ensure meetings don’t waste the most valuable commodity of all, which is time.

They Make Sure Each Meeting Is Necessary

Great leaders make sure that when they hold a meeting, the meeting is absolutely necessary. They answer questions like, “Could this be handled by email?” with an emphatic “No.” If every leader took a few minutes to make sure every meeting was actually necessary, professionals would waste a lot less time.

They Invite Only People Who Need to Be There

The right number of meeting participants depends heavily on the type of meeting. The true leader knows everyone’s roles and responsibilities well enough to determine exactly who needs to be at a given meeting and why they need to be there.

They Have a Clear Agenda for Each and Every Meeting

The agenda-free data dump is almost always a waste of time. A successful and productive meeting is called and planned based on a clear agenda and a clear time estimate. Participants know what the agenda is and why they are being asked to participate.

They Use Techniques That Ensure Participation

Meetings need participants, not spectators.

Meetings don’t need spectators. They need participants. Excellent meeting leadership ensures that attendees participate. They may employ simple techniques like conversational turn-taking, or designate time for people to work individually and in increasingly larger groups. But they make sure everyone who has taken the time to attend the meeting participates and benefits in some way.

They Start on Time and Stay on Track

One of the easiest ways for a meeting leader to alienate attendees is to start late or ramble on about irrelevant topics (last night’s baseball scores, for example) rather than getting on with the purpose of the meeting. Likewise, they use their agenda to ensure they stay on track and don’t wander off on tangents. They diplomatically keep participants from straying off-track too.

They Don’t Use the In-Person Meeting as Default Mode

Finally, strong leaders don’t need to use meetings as the “default setting” for handling business. They are well-versed in all communication methods available to them and use them appropriately. Direct phone calls, conference calls, emails, and even group chats can take care of many issues so that when people are invited to a real meeting, they know it’s an important use of their time.

Leadership coaching teaches (or should teach) leaders the immense value of people’s time (including their own). Unnecessary or ill-planned meetings waste time – time that cannot be recovered. Sometimes there is no substitute for being in the same room and exchanging information with people face to face, and in these cases, meetings can be the best use of time.

When leaders take the time to really think about what they want to accomplish and the best ways to go about doing it, they often realize that their best bet is something other than a traditional meeting. When they have the communication skills and time management skills all strong leaders should have, they can lead their teams to impressive accomplishments without the need to herd everyone together without a really good reason.

Leadership is, of course, about much more than meetings. Fundamentally, it is about empowering teams to reach goals by ensuring everyone has the tools and support they need to put their skills to the best use. If you want to explore all the key dimensions of Intelligent Leadership, I encourage you to check out my books, including my latest book The Intelligent Leader.

Leadership development programs are sadly not as prevalent in business as they should be. As a result, leaders may rise to their leadership positions without sufficient preparation for what their roles require.

High-quality leadership development programs can ensure a smoother transition into leadership roles.

Leadership coaching may be enlisted to help fill some of these gaps. Leadership coaching emphasizes action and accountability and provides leaders with a safe yet stimulating environment in which to hone skills for improving communication, increasing confidence, managing change, and resolving conflicts.

Researchers have identified five critical components of popular coaching models, as well as conditions under which coaching is most effective. Here are the five critical components and why they matter so much.

1. The Coach-Client Relationship

Without a strong coach-client relationship based on mutual respect and mutual pursuit of goals, there is little point in coaching at all. Not all coach-client teams will be able to build strong rapport, and that’s no reflection on either party. Some personalities simply work better together than others. When choosing a coach, it is absolutely essential to determine upfront how well the coach and client communicate and how easy it is for them to work together.

2. Problem Identification and Goal Setting

Most coaching clients (and their organizational leaders) have some idea of which skills the client needs to work on most. Even so, the best coaches use multiple, proven assessment tools to verify this and to identify the client’s strengths and weaknesses. This process helps both coach and client develop the most effective ways to bridge skills gaps and to further improve strengths. Articulating which issues the client will work on with their coach, setting goals, and determining how to measure goal achievement keep the coaching relationship on track to produce the best results.

3. Problem-Solving

The right problem-solving technique for one coaching client may be completely different from that of another coaching client. That’s why the assessment of strengths and skill gaps is so important. Working with the client to map out how to get from where they are now to where they want to be is a highly individual process, and the leadership coach is uniquely positioned to help create that “roadmap.” It’s far from a one-size-fits-all process but must be tailored to the individual in the context of their work setting.

Choosing the right problem-solving techniques can keep a leader from becoming “stuck” on issues they’re working on.

4. Transformational Processes

This is where the rubber meets the road. Just as the skilled pitching coach knows the specific elements a particular pitcher needs to work on, the skilled leadership coach can help the client define specific actions that need to be developed and practiced until they become second nature. For one client this may be communication. For another, it may be delegation. The transformational processes used in leadership coaching are uniquely customized to the client and their particular needs. Without proven transformational processes, client improvement may be short-lived.

5. Outcome Definition and Measurement

How can, for example, a leader with sub-par delegation skills know when they have learned how to effectively delegate with the help of a leadership coach? Before working on those skills, the coach should work with the client to define what success looks like. Maybe “success” means fewer last-minute phone calls about who is responsible for what. Or maybe it means the leader has more free time due to letting go and effectively empowering team members rather than trying to do everything themselves. The only way to know if a coaching client has succeeded is to define what success means.

Of course, just because a coaching plan contains those five attributes doesn’t mean it will get optimum results. Many factors affect positive coaching outcomes. For example, organizational support for leadership coaching is essential for the best outcomes.

Organizations and individuals within them who are interested in coaching should understand which elements are necessary to a strong and successful coaching relationship. The more invested the individual and their organization are, the more likely they are to get the results they want. To learn more about this topic, I invite you to check out information about my leadership coaching services. 

One of the ultimate outcomes of exceptional leadership development is a highly effective senior leadership team.

Outstanding senior leaders don’t just happen without strong leadership development plans.

With a great leader at the helm, it’s easy to put off thinking about their successor for another day, but this can be dangerous. Every CEO’s (or other C-level executive’s) tenure comes to an end eventually. Being prepared for that time can make the difference between a smooth leadership transition that keeps the company on the road to success, and a painful transition that can result in damage to morale and difficulty retaining strong employees.

Having a leadership succession plan is absolutely essential. While you can’t plan for every contingency, you can plan for many of them, and you should do so well before a beloved leader retires. Here are five key elements of a leadership succession plan.

1. Transparency

Succession planning is a sensitive issue, and balancing transparency with confidentiality is mandatory. Define upfront who needs to know what, and when they need to know it. Work with top leadership to agree on which types of information can be shared, and which should be considered confidential.

Keeping everything secret can backfire, however. When people know only that succession planning is going on behind the scenes, gossip and intrigue often follow. Key people may be tempted to quit and work elsewhere. People being considered for future leadership roles should know their status, and leadership succession planning should not be a completely closed-door process.

2. Fairness

Locking someone in as a successor solely because it is “their turn” can sour colleague relationships. At the same time, if someone appears to expect to be promoted to a leadership position when they are not, it’s only fair to let them know (in confidence, of course). You can work with these people to help them develop other paths toward greater responsibility and job satisfaction.

The person or persons you want to eventually take over top leadership roles should be people who have earned it through excellence, and not because they fit some preconceived notion of what leadership “looks like.” Promoting people the way you’ve always done, solely because you’ve always done it that way is a sure path to stagnation.

3. Consideration for Culture

Future leaders must understand and be committed to the organizational culture.

The importance of corporate culture cannot be overstated. Think about potential candidates for future top leadership roles. Do these people embody qualities you prize most in your organizational culture? Do they show promise for helping culture to continue to evolve in the direction you want? Do they understand how important organizational culture is?

Leaders who do what they’re supposed to while being tone-deaf to corporate culture will eventually run into problems, including higher employee turnover and lower morale. These can be difficult problems to overcome.

4. Training and Coaching

Identifying leaders and then assuming they’ll somehow rise to expectations and train themselves is absurd. If your company doesn’t have the type of leadership development programs necessary to prepare people for top leadership positions, then you need to develop these programs as soon as possible.

Likewise, providing coaching for potential future leaders can be a valuable investment. Traditional, one-on-one, in-person leadership coaching is usually reserved for people who are already in top positions because this type of leadership coaching can be expensive. But there are other options, like managers as coaches, mentorships, and online coaching that may be worth exploring.

5. Contingency Planning

You must have a backup plan. Even the best-planned leadership successions don’t always work out. If you have pinned all your hopes on a particular person and then something happens so that the transition doesn’t work out, you’re faced with starting over.

Don’t just identify one person for succession to a top leadership position. Offer leadership development opportunities to multiple promising leaders and continue preparing them. Consider cross-training future leaders so that if one promotion doesn’t work out, you’re not left scrambling. In other words, don’t put all your leadership eggs into one basket, because things don’t always happen as expected.

People tend not to like thinking about leadership succession. It involves more emotion than most business activities, and it can be fraught with politics. But leaving everything to chance can be disastrous. Identifying potential leaders early, offering leadership development opportunities, and ensuring that more than one person is ready to take over after the departure of a top leader can help ensure smoother leadership transitions and less disruption as your organization enters a new era.

If you’re interested in learning more about leadership, coaching, and organizational culture, I invite you to check out my books.

People tend to imagine “leaders” as people who put themselves out there, who have large networks, and who crave the spotlight and attention. Extroverts, in other words.

Extroversion isn’t a prerequisite for leadership.

But extroversion is not a requirement for being an outstanding leader. Former Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow is an example of an honored and influential leader who is an introvert, as is Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple. Mia Hamm may have been celebrated for her wins on the soccer pitch, but since retirement, she has done extensive work quietly drawing attention to the national bone marrow registry. Warren Buffett once enrolled in a Dale Carnegie seminar because he didn’t feel like he had a “business persona,” but introversion certainly didn’t stop him from succeeding.

The fact is, introverts can be and are exceptionally good leaders.

Introverts Bring Many Strengths to the Table

Introverts tend to be natural observers and analysts as well as good listeners. They’re often focused and persistent, and when they speak, they do so deliberately and with purpose. Introverts may not have the wide-ranging networks of extroverts, but they tend to have fewer, stronger relationships. In industries that require deep analysis and problem-solving, introverts can be well-suited to leadership roles.

The main difference between introverts and extroverts is where they draw their energy. Extroverts tend to recharge from being around people and interacting, while introverts recharge through solitude. Neither is better than the other, and each has certain advantages and disadvantages.

Skills That Many Introverts Should Deliberately Practice

There may have been a time when an introverted leader could shut themselves away and work undisturbed, but those days are over. We live in an always-connected world, and in a world where communication and collaboration are more important than ever to business success. To thrive in this environment, introverts may need to work deliberately on certain qualities.

Deliberate planning and preparation can help introverts be more comfortable in meetings, presentations, and other business interactions.

Many introverts have to deliberately push themselves out of their comfort zone until it becomes second nature. They often do better in meetings when they devise a game plan in advance and prepare carefully rather than just “winging it.” And in today’s business world, introverts must take charge and help shape others’ perceptions of them, lest an inaccurate or incomplete picture develop of them.

Bottom Line: The Right Leader Is Right for the Organization

The right leader for a team, department, or organization may be an introvert or an extrovert. What matters is their skills and abilities, and their “fit” with the organizational culture. Whether they require socializing or solitude to recharge and regroup rarely matters as long as they have sufficient leadership development training.

Perhaps we think of leaders as being extroverts because extroverted leaders enjoy the spotlight, so we naturally become more familiar with them. But rest assured that there are plenty of world-class leaders who would classify themselves as introverts. They may not have fame, but they have the skills and passion to get the job done with excellence.

One of the keys to preparing promising introverts for leadership positions is providing them with high-quality leadership development programs. Another is often leadership coaching. Leadership coaching can be a powerful experience for the introverted leader because it offers a strong one-to-one connection as well as a view of how others perceive them.

My job as a leadership coach when working with introverts is not to somehow turn them into extroverts so they can command more attention. Rather, it is to help them understand their strengths, identify skills gaps, and execute a plan to both improve strengths and bridge gaps. None of those processes requires that a participant be extroverted.

Terms like introvert and extrovert may be applied to leaders, but neither has any bearing on how capable they are of doing the job. Any leadership coach will tell you that it is a combination of inborn qualities, acquired skills, passion, and drive for excellence that lead to great leadership. If you’re interested in learning more about what it takes to develop true leadership excellence, I encourage you to check out my books, including my latest one, The Intelligent Leader.

The value of leadership coaching is well-known.

Coaching empowers better leadership.

According to a Brandon Hall Group Training Benchmarking Survey, coaching is the most effective learning modality in business, yet it is used less than all other forms. (The instructor-led classroom, which is the second most effective learning modality, is used most.)

Most people think of leadership coaches as specialists who are brought in from the outside and assigned to work with promising leaders. But coaches may be company employees, and some companies train their managers as coaches. Each of these approaches to coaching has its advantages and disadvantages. But one thing has been established with certainty: coaching is remarkably effective. Here’s what businesses should know about external, internal, and manager coaches.

External Coaches

Executive coaches for CEOs and other C-level executives are often hired from outside. This makes sense because, at the top echelons of leadership, there may simply not be someone within the organization qualified to take on the executive coaching role.

Leadership coaches hired from outside are chosen based on their expertise and track record. Some executive coaches specialize in particular industries, and some businesses value those extra qualifications. Rarely will a company go wrong hiring an external coach, though they can be expensive.

Internal Coaches

Internal coaches are employees within organizations who work as coaches to various levels of leaders. They may become an internal coach after having served as a manager or other type of leader first. With internal coaches, there is less worry about scheduling problems, and there is less of a need to set hard starting and ending dates for the coaching relationship.

When companies have their own internal coaches, they can act quickly when the need for coaching is identified, and they don’t have to come up with the (often unbudgeted) funds that would be required for an external coach. But with internal coaches, you take what you get. If the internal coach and the coachee don’t have good rapport, the results can be disappointing.

Managers as Coaches

Sometimes managers can become outstanding coaches to their teams.

Training managers in coaching has become more popular as the value of coaching has been repeatedly demonstrated. Coaches trained as managers can help their teams think more creatively and hone their own problem-solving skills. Teams led by good coach-managers are empowered to excel more than are teams led by traditional, top-down managers. With manager-coaches, human capital is already in place, and companies don’t have to hire anyone or establish new positions.

But not all managers want to be coaches. Some may think they’re doing a fine job and see no reason to change. For manager-coaching to work well, every manager must undergo high-quality training. Furthermore, the company must track results and seek improvement in an iterative process. It’s not easy! When done well, and with a strong manager and leadership buy-in, it can be effective, however.

The following table summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of these three types of coaching.

Few would dispute the value of leadership coaching. World-class leaders like Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt have embraced coaching and extolled the value of it. When businesses find ways to use coaching consistently and based on high-quality training and buy-in, they can get amazing results. How they go about it will depend on company culture, budget, and many other factors.

Ultimately, coaches empower leadership, and if you want to learn more about leadership, I encourage you to check out my books, including my latest book The Intelligent Leader.

Agility and innovation are two words you see all the time in relation to business.

Today’s leaders must be ready and willing to recognize opportunities for innovation.

Because we live in an era of rapid change, succeeding in business requires a willingness to adapt – sometimes quickly. And while one quality of Intelligent Leadership is a commitment to see things through even when the going gets tough, an equally important quality is recognizing when it’s time to change or correct course.

Correcting course isn’t easy, because change isn’t easy. But when you recognize the need to change course and act on it appropriately, you’re far less likely to find yourself having to rise from the ashes of a status quo that’s collapsed under its own weight. In my book The Intelligent Leader, I discuss four components of the psychology of adjustment. Here’s a brief introduction to them.

Attending to Your Hunger for Opportunities to Improve

Opportunities for improvement abound. Knowing where the best opportunities for improvement lie requires understanding what’s going on in the larger context of your industry, the economy, and society. When you can see which direction your industry (or demand for it) is headed, you can more easily identify opportunities for change and improvement. Knowing the “why” of change is a great motivator for the “how” of change.

Gathering the Actual Facts of the Situation

Sometimes the actual facts differ from what we think the facts are. A product we gave little thought to may take off, while one we backed with enthusiasm tanks in the marketplace. To know when and how to pivot, we have to know the real facts of the situation. We need to know the actual sales figures, not just what we think they are. We need to know what clients actually want, rather than what we imagine they want.

The road to successful change is paved with facts, not conjecture.

Following Through on Your Willingness to Change

Willingness to change is great, but it doesn’t mean much unless you actually affect the change. Genuine course correction may require difficult decisions. People’s roles may need to be reassigned, or a pet project may have to be put on the back burner. Making the changes to correct course doesn’t mean you have failed, especially if you have learned from past actions. Following through on change is perhaps the hardest step, but ultimately, it’s the one that delivers actual improvement.

Improving Your Skill at Operating Outside Your Comfort Zone

All of these steps require operating effectively outside your comfort zone. Correcting course by definition takes you in a new direction and requires you to adjust habits and think differently. While your comfort zone will enlarge, it will never encompass every scenario, and change will always require that you accept a certain amount of risk. But if you think of yourself and your organization as a perpetual work in progress, you can get better at operating outside the margins of comfort.

Learning to read the conditions accurately and change course on your way to where you’re going is a fundamental skill of leadership development. In The Intelligent Leader, I include it as one of the seven key dimensions of Intelligent Leadership. Correcting course doesn’t always mean you were on the wrong track because the “track” has ways of changing underneath you. It means you’re willing to recognize the need for change and put in the hard work of change to make yourself, your organization, and the world better.

It’s not easy being a leader in today’s fast-paced world. We’re simultaneously expected to show commitment and follow-through as well as agility and innovation. They’re not mutually exclusive but knowing when and why to stick to the course and when to pivot takes experience, skill, and a willingness to sometimes confront uncomfortable facts. Master the art of correcting course while maintaining stability and you’re well on your way to becoming a great leader.

Are you interested in learning more about Intelligent Leadership? I invite you to check out my books, including my latest book The Intelligent Leader.

Stanford Graduate School of Business instructor Nir Eyal believes that being indistractable is the most important business skill for the 21^st century.

The ability to focus in a world of distractions is an increasingly coveted skill.

People who allow their attention to be controlled by other people and other things are ill-equipped to lead in a world where creativity, problem-solving, and innovation are mandatory. In fact, some business experts are beginning to talk about attention quotient (AQ) as being just as important as IQ in success at work.

Being able to remain “present” and focused when surrounded by distractions keeps you from wasting your intellect and skills. This is not to say you should dispense with all your tech tools and lock yourself in a windowless room to work. But you have to learn how to manage distractions (and their many sources) rather than letting them manage you.

I cover this topic in-depth in my new book The Intelligent Leader, and I firmly believe that presence and focus are essential skills that should be emphasized in leadership development programs.

Why Focus Matters So Much

Focus matters because, as a leader, the more present you are and the more vigilant you are about your responsibilities, the fewer mistakes you’ll make. You’ll also make better decisions because you’re basing them not on fragments of incomplete information that bombard you from all sides, but from carefully chosen, high-quality sources of information and insight.

Moving slowly right now often means moving more quickly later on. Here’s an analogy. When you pour a concrete foundation for a house, you have to wait until the curing process is at least 50% completed before you can begin building on it. If you don’t wait for the foundation to cure, the building process will be plagued by problems. Wait now, and you can move faster later.

Fighting the Distraction Tsunami

But how can you stay focused and present when distractions bombard us everywhere and all the time? It takes commitment and practice. At first, you may have to take deliberate steps, like setting a timer for a period in which you won’t check your phone or email. With practice, it gets easier to set aside distractions, knowing you will ultimately accomplish more.

Taking deliberate steps for blocking out distractions helps you improve focus skills.

Multitasking is a major enemy of cognitive control, but you can unlearn your tendency to multitask. Likewise, open offices can be the enemy of environmental control, but designated “focus rooms” and accessories like noise-blocking headphones can help you take some of that environmental control back. In short, you have to identify your distractions, develop a plan to contain them, and practice that plan diligently.

The Courage of Doing Nothing

Taoism incorporates the concept of wuwei, or “non-doing,” which sounds like it goes completely against the reality of the 21^st century. The concept of “action without action” is a paradox, but strategic non-action actually makes a lot of sense. There are times when we need to stop trying to force action because stillness helps preserve us for times when action is needed.

As I discuss in my new book The Intelligent Leader, Bill Gates carves out time every year to fully disconnect from the world, except for books and innovation proposals. These weeks of “non-doing” have ended up being remarkably productive in the long run for Microsoft. Clearing your mind allows new ideas to take hold and flourish. It takes courage to “do nothing” in a world that is always on and always connected, but like courage in other situations, it pays off long term.

Our focus and attention face demands unlike any faced by previous generations. Technology has done amazing and wonderful things, but it has not supplanted the necessity of prioritizing, simplifying, and distilling our efforts to where they will do the most good.

We’ve all heard the aphorism, “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” Today, technology is our “hammer,” and while it can solve many important problems, everything is not a metaphorical nail. Being an Intelligent Leader requires that we know which tools to use when and that we are skilled in using the most important tool of all: our mind. I hope you will check out my new book The Intelligent Leader, which is available starting October 15.