Management Tactic #12: Run Your Meetings Like a Narcissist

I tried something a little different at today’s staff meeting that I’d recommend for some–but not all–meetings. I think it probably works best for meetings when you’re looking back over a set amount of time–a month, a quarter, or, in our case, a semester.

Before the meeting, I asked everyone to come prepared to share one area of growth that they’ve experienced over the last few months, and how it improved our overall ministry.

I essentially asked everyone to compliment themselves in front of their coworkers.

This had three positive impacts:

  1. People got to feel good about themselves by sharing their successes. I don’t think this happens nearly enough in businesses and organizations. Too often, failures are the focus of individual or group discussions. Successes are expected and rarely acknowledged.
  2. It’s key that people picked their own compliments. I could have asked everyone to select a name out of a hat and compliment each other, but people’s individual, somewhat “secret” successes would continue to have gone overlooked. As a result of what I asked everyone to share, the sharing was intimate and personal and brought us closer together.
  3. People got to inspire each other to improve our mission and ministry. Oftentimes, when people work on growing and improving themselves, they grow and improve their organization at the same time. That’s the type of success worth sharing and emulating.

Have you tried something like this in a meeting or discussion at work? I’d be curious to see how it went.

Also see: #2: Run Your Meetings Like Obama

0 thoughts on “Management Tactic #12: Run Your Meetings Like a Narcissist”

  1. I do something slightly cheesier (but similar) at Teach For America’s summer institute. When I sense that corps member morale is particularly low, I ask them, in small groups, to each share something that went well that day or week in their classrooms; everyone else in chorus then replies, “_____, you’re awesome!” It helps every person feel noticed and celebrated, and allows them to brag without bragging.

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  2. I like that–basing this tactic on a perceived decrease in moral. Does the chorus seem genuine? If someone walked into my office every day and said, “Jamey, you’re awesome!”, after a while I’d start to suspect that they weren’t sincere. Maybe it works better with younger people? People not all that far removed from summer camps and college workshops?

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