Guidance to Business Leaders: Making Time
It was time for the annual off-site business review meeting. As usual, all the business leaders and department heads were convening at a hotel across town for two solid days of meetings. Executives from corporate would be there, so even the guys who never wore a tie to work had one on. Everyone had spent the last few weeks gathering information from their teams and putting together their presentations. The agenda was updated at least a dozen times. The executive assistant in charge of compiling all the different PowerPoint files into a single slide deck truly deserved a vacation at this point.
I enjoyed hearing from our executive leaders discussing the company mission and objectives, far more than I enjoyed the rubbery chicken and wilted salad at lunch. We made it through dinner the first night where the food was much better but the service was painfully slow. Day two began and I patiently listened as each of my peers presented their department’s accomplishments over the past year and their objectives for the new year. I wasn’t nervous about my presentation because I’ve done this many times in my career as a technology leader and I knew exactly what was going to happen.
My report on the Information Technology department was scheduled for 3:30 in the afternoon. Dead last, but for the “Wrap-up and Next Steps” segment. But, the day started off behind schedule when Sales leadership took an extra 45 minutes beyond what they were allotted. During the operations update, a lively debate about productivity tracking took us further off track. It was decided to move the HR report to the afternoon. During lunch, someone started a discussion with the company President, and they decided to bring their impromptu discussion topic to the broader group after lunch, sliding the agenda even further.
At 3:15, after a break that was scheduled for 10 minutes but lasted 15, the marketing department finally began their presentation. There were still two more departments scheduled to present before IT. Before Marketing even finished, a few of the senior executives excused themselves, as they had planes to catch. Most of the sales executives had already left earlier in the day. Marketing finished their “30 minute” presentation at 4 pm, and promptly left the building. The remaining three departments were all asked to shorten their 30 minute presentations to 10 minutes. The other two each took 20 minutes.
If you’re following along and doing the math, it’s now 4:40 pm, more than half the attendees have left the room, the meeting should have ended 10 minutes ago, and I was asked to shorten my 30 minute presentation to 5 minutes. But like I said before, this is exactly what I expected. And I know that every IT leader who is reading this can relate. It’s so common that it’s become a cliché. Every IT leader I’ve spoken with has been there. I know a few who still struggle with this on a regular basis. Fortunately, it’s been many years now since I’ve been through this, but the impressions remain fresh in my mind.
Business leaders, you can’t imagine how demoralizing it is to have to walk up to that podium and deliver the 5-minute version of the 30-minute presentation you’ve spent weeks preparing, standing in front of a group of people who have already mentally checked out and clearly do not care what you have to say. When this happens, the message is received loud and clear that IT is not a valued function within the organization and no one really needs to hear what we have to say.
I’ve heard business leaders apologize profusely time and time again when it happens, and I believe some of them genuinely mean it. But, very few take the proactive steps to prevent it.
Stop putting IT last on the agenda. Yes, somebody has to go last. But, the very least you can and should do is rotate the order regularly, especially for monthly or quarterly meetings. For annual meetings of this type, add a few topics or activities to the end of the meeting, after the last department presentation. It could be something less critical that can get condensed if needed, or something so important that it will motivate you and everyone else to stay on track.
Stick to the agenda. If you can’t facilitate the meeting and be the time keeper, then delegate others to do so, and give them the authority to cut off presenters who run over their allotted time.
Finally, make sure you and your executive team remain in the room and attentive during the IT presentation. Ask engaging follow-up questions, if appropriate, and take the time to acknowledge and recognize the hard work that has been done. Every one of your leaders and functional areas deserves this, but it is probably the IT department that has been denied the opportunity for years.
Quarterly Business Reviews, Monthly Business Updates, Weekly Leadership Meetings—each company does it a little differently. Whatever your format and cadence, make sure that you give your IT leader equal time and representation at these meetings. Your leaders prepare for these meetings ahead of time, and that preparation often involves their staff, which means the rest of the IT department knows when the IT leader is heading into a leadership team meeting, even if it’s a weekly occurrence. More importantly, they also know when it ends. Every department is aware of when their leader comes out of an executive meeting and they are watching him or her to see how it went.
How does your IT leader feel when he or she walks out of your leadership team meetings? Do they feel supported, appreciated and motivated? Or, do they feel undervalued and ignored? What will they say to their employee who asks them how it went? Will they talk about what a great team they are part of and share the new insights they learned? Or will they roll their eyes and say, “Same old story, different day.”
The culture and attitude of a department is greatly influenced by its leader and how they feel about their role within the company. If you want your technology team to be engaged and effective, you must make sure they feel as supported and valued as other functions within the company. We talk a lot about giving IT a “seat at the table,” but you have to do more than just let them into the room and put them in a chair. Once you’ve made space for them at the executive table, you need to also make time for IT in the executive agendas.