Meeting and Burnout

I hear from a lot of CEOs and CAOs complaining of being burned out by “death by meeting.” To which I respond/reply: “why are you having the meeting in the first place?” Leaders must be VERY strategic about time utilization and organizational (personal) management. Some meetings can be an email and some emails need to be a meeting. Be smart about this seemingly simple function. But be controlling about it, too. Be very guarded with your all-important time. And if you do have a meeting, do not presume it needs to be the calendar-entry-standardized block of time (whatever that happens to be). E.g., It needn’t be an hour. Maybe it needs to be slightly (but not much more) longer. Often/usually, it needs to be a little less. Have an agenda for all meetings. Do not auto-regularize meetings that needn’t be. Again, be controlling and vigilant about your meeting times. If they burn you out, look at your practices and tendencies. Are you yourself complicit due to lack of attention, intention, and failing to establish guardrails?