However, there are times when one needs someone else to conduct a meeting. The more emotion that is connected to a meeting, more complex issues, more it behooves you to consider using a facilitator. A wise facilitator creates a setting that makes it "safe" for people to speak their truth. A facilitator creates a process around whatever is desired outcome of meeting and can hold people to task.

When I have been brought in to facilitate, I make it a practice of interviewing participants beforehand and creating a composite of various "common threads" of concern. In this fashion, no one person is singled out and meeting can get down to important elements. Likewise, as an external facilitator, I have no political agenda or job security hanging in balance. Thus, it frees me to focus totally on helping participants reach their outcome. Time is most precious commodity we have. Time-wasting meetings constitute greatest theft of all. Conduct them well and judiciously and you'll hear people say, "We've got to START meeting like this!".

© 2000 by Eileen McDargh. All rights reserved. Reprints must include byline, contact information and copyright.

The challenge: what makes for satisfaction? The answer: opportunity for career development through education, meaningful work and appreciation, 360 degrees of communiation, consistent performance expectations and consistent accountability, and work/life balance.

Pay is easier and quicker. Creating a culture for satisfaction takes time, prompts internal analysis, and leaves long-term positive results on bottom line. Don’t tie pay increases to only rank and power. Work at getting away from notion that you have to move up to make more. Remember that front line people hold customers in their hands. Shouldn’t they be among most well-trained and well-paid people on your staff? Reward people for what they know and do, not how long they’ve been on job or how many people they supervise.

© 2000 by Eileen McDargh. All rights reserved. Reprints must include byline, contact information and copyright.