A study by a team of scholars from London School of Economics and Harvard Business School analyzed the day-to-day schedules of more than 500 CEOs from around the world and found executives spent roughly 18 hours of a 55-hour workweek in meetings (33%). The more direct reports a CEO had, the more (and longer) internal meetings they had.
Given all the constraints on a leader’s time, it is understandable how some meetings get rescheduled in favor of higher priority, more important time commitments. However, the one meeting leaders should not reschedule is a performance review or succession-planning meeting with their direct report. Direct reports see their performance review or succession-planning meeting as a significant, event often fretting over the meeting for weeks. Many direct reports lose sleep the night before and are distracted and ineffective at work before the meeting, even when it is a meeting they anticipate will be extremely positive. Unfortunately, some leaders see this important/not urgent meeting as movable, not realizing the disappointment it causes their direct report.
When planning these crucial meetings, leaders should choose times and days of the week they are less likely to have to reschedule. Monday mornings and Friday afternoons often work best, unless the meeting is not expected to be well received; if the employee is expected to be disappointed or angry following the performance review, always leave time in the day/week for positive personal interaction. They need to understand the meeting was about business and doesn’t reflect your personal feelings towards them.
Empowered leaders don’t reschedule performance review or succession planning meetings and have a more successful organization.
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