Meeting, prepare for it , Why?

This post is out of recent experience I had in a meeting with my collages.

We were to go for a meeting with the customer on the subject of the recent issue reported in the service that my company is responsible for. So I asked shall we sit down and discuss how and what were are planing to present to the customer.

"you got all facts right "
"Yes ! I have all information required for this discussion"
" so , that's OK , just present it as we have nothing to hide."
" do you not think that you should know what I am planning to present"
" don't worry "

then we met the customer, I started presenting to the customer the facts and numbers , logs etc. Customer was impressed with what we have done to address the issue and managed escalations. There by proving that we have done all we can in the set boundaries.

All going well , and just before we were to shake hands , my collage mentioned to me that we should change person X from the team as he is not competent enough to be part of this team. With this comment, customer picked the point as I mentioned that the same person was attending the calls when the issue occurred.

From this point onward we were at receiving end then it took lot of convincing efforts to give confidence to the customer that there is nothing wrong with that particular employee but we are looking for better experienced person to replace him . This comment by my colleague was merely a suggestions to improve the team skills.

After this meeting , the customer requested for a change in the team which was unwarranted and consequential effect on the person was unrecoverable.

So, I questioned my colleague "what made you make such suggestion in front of the customer" .

"I thought we should have demonstrated that we are taking some corrective actions out this "

"but it was not required , as customer had accepted in positive sense what we have presented."
..
..

We took a hit for not being in the sync and the cost was too high for my company.

Preparing for a meeting or a teleconference should be considered as a necessary activity to avoid embarrassing situations which might jeopardise your credibility and the organisation's reputation.

Call and then email why?

I just came off the phone call with him and i saw an email from him confirming what we discussed.

This is weired isn't it.

Does he not believe me? this was the obvious question came to me. But few days later in one of the tele conference call, Dave was asking about Joe's commitment made on the last monthly call. That conversation made me realise that written confirmation is required just to ensure that what A means is same as B's understanding.

After few such incidences, I realised the importance of the email confirmation just because it makes easy to

trace back the conversation,
record decisions,
note issues and risks and
also the bouquets I have received in return of the good work.

It just takes few more minutes after the call to put it in the email and send out as record of the conversation to bring more clarity among the stakeholders of the program/project. Yes! Do not forget to offer an opportunity to others to provide their review comments as it brings in their participation . After all it should be dialog and not a monologue.

This has made my life easy as I do not have to remember anything particularly when virtual teams were involved.

Honestly this relieves brain from unwanted tasks.

Who i am?

At the start of the professional career, I never thought of anything but only one aim I was chasing is to make my own place in the organisation. I looked around and there were plenty of examples of "leaders" and "experts" and this did not confused me , I chose to be an expert which was very easy and effortless . Don't laugh , it is really very easy to become an expert than the leader. See how

1. Do not document any thing you know
2. Spend as much as time after hours to know more on the systems.
3. Given a choice do not bother justifying your decision because you are sue that solution will work.
4. Beware of the problem or issue but wait till people come to you there by you retain your say.
5. Create your grapevine with customer so that customer is on your side and provides you as many as recommendations.
6. Plan your holidays with your superiors only and leave your contact details with him.

these are just high level action points.

And to become a leader

1. Be a team player
2. Share your knowledge and encourage other to share
3. Appreciate other's contribution
4. Provide learning opportunities
5. Understand colleagues as person and be a mentor if required

and many more difficult tasks.

I did gain lot of importance and even phone call at a hill station when I was on holiday with my family, felt lot important and evil joy that people are dependant on me.

Then the organisation decided to move on to the newer technology and methodology. By the time I realised , I have seen the symptoms of the obsolesce. I could see that I have to do it all over again.

Lesson learned is that the Leader lives longer than the expert and now I am a leader, still learning lot from others which I enjoy most.