Successful meeting professionals possess an uncommonly diverse blend of skills: Beyond the nuts and bolts of, for example, knowing how to write a request for proposal, create a floor plan, and work with AV providers, top planners need strong communication and negotiation skills, a knowledge of adult-education principles, problem-solving experience, and, perhaps more than anything else, exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail.
That ability to stay organized and productive—adhering to deadlines, tracking the big picture as well as the minutia, multitasking—can be a badge of honor for an accomplished planner. But it can also be a trap to someone less able, according to this June 14 article in Forbes, which offers this seemingly contradictory headline: “Productivity, the Ultimate Procrastination Tool.”
Aimed at people who equate being busy with being productive but who fail to make progress on their critical work, the author offers up four mistakes these managers tend to make.
• Excessive planning and organization: Spending too much time creating overly detailed schedules and to-do lists can delay getting things done.
• Constantly seeking optimization: Planning processes are critical, but if managers excessively revise processes and get dragged down by minor details, the end goal can get overlooked.
• Too many meetings: How many meetings do planners need to attend to plan a meeting? For many businesses, managers’ schedules are overloaded with internal meetings, leaving less time for focused work.
• Fixating on time management: “Obsessing over optimizing our schedules, exploring new productivity apps, or experimenting with intricate time-management systems can become a sophisticated form of procrastination, taking us away from the tasks that truly matter,” the article states.
