It’s Not the Meeting; It’s Me!

At a recent peer discussion group I facilitated, the meeting recorder, Stevana, was a young woman from a temp agency. Throughout the meeting I noticed that she consistently sent out positive energy. Every time I looked at her she either had a small smile on her face or she was intently engaged in listening to the dialogue. She was present, engaged and happy to be there. Even though she was silent throughout, her energy was helpfully present in the room.

On this same weekend, I attended another meeting where there was a lot of silent negative energy being sent – and it was coming from my chair. You see, I hate meetings that I think are unnecessary, and I believe many are actually unnecessary. However, I make them worse because I keep thinking how much I hate meetings.

Flying home, I pondered the impact of Stevana’s energy in the meeting versus my impact. My version came up a little short. I didn’t follow one of my basic rules – setting my intention before I entered the meeting. What was the intentional energy I wanted to bring in and maintain? Stevana helped her meeting; I drained a little positive energy from mine.

This is not a blog about the efficacy of meetings or how to run more effective meetings. There is a whole industry of experts that can help with that (which is some indication of how meetings can be expensive time wasters). This is about is the power of intentional attitude and thoughts and their impact on whether a meeting is successful or not. If you send out negative thoughts, there is a measurable, ineffective energy created – whether or not you ever say a word or display the negativity on your face.

Next month I will be attending another required attendance meeting (I know, most of you do this several times a day). In order not to be an energy drain, I will set the following intention: My intention is to be fully present and engaged throughout the meeting. While I may think the information is redundant, I realize that one person’s redundancy is another’s new information. Plus, with my hearing difficulty, I most likely missed hearing the information the past 4 times it was shared. This meeting is also another team bonding opportunity. Bottom line, I will have a positive attitude that enhances the value received by others and me.

You have the energetic power of thought to impact every conversation and team meeting. You can attend with a smile on your face and blackness in your thoughts, thereby being an energy vortex in the corner sucking out all the aliveness. Or, you can be a contributor of effective aliveness by sending an outpouring of positive energy to everyone in the room. All will benefit; most of all you.