Effective communication, especially related to meetings, increases productivity, saves time and most importantly strengthens organizational leadership capacity. Surveys of executives show that they can spend up to 40% or 50% of their time in meetings. Furthermore many executives observe that up to 50% of the time people spend in meetings is wasted. Think of the leadership capacity that is lost.

How can we improve the situation? Both leadership books Cut to the Chase and The Six Fundamentals of Success focused on many concepts related to meeting management that increase leadership capacity and create organizational energy and increased alignment and results. This article describes tools that you can use to make the principles in these books come to life. You have probably observed that people who successfully "cut to the chase" think clearly, act effectively and communicate directly.

In working with countless organizations, I have seen that those organizations that develop common language and common practice in communications of all types, including meetings, phone calls, email and so forth, increase leadership capacity, with meetings becoming more productive and people even enjoying them.