Unsplash photo by Drew Beamer.
What if you already have a place at the table? What if the real issue is that you need to grow into a new seat—one where you help your organization use meetings and events to achieve strategic goals rather than being viewed as the expert on production and logistics? What if you could influence your organization’s leaders at a higher level by changing your behavior and performance?
The Seats at the Table
We’ll address the exceptions in a moment, but let’s start with a premise: The idea of a single table where a small, consistent group makes all the decisions is largely a myth.
In reality, membership and roles at “the table” often rotate based on a combination of factors including positional requirements, talent, expertise and the importance of the project or issue being addressed. Certain people appear more often because of their position within the organization, and others appear infrequently for the same reason.
Within this framework there are seats for deciders, influencers, contributors and doers. You might be a decider or influencer in one situation and a doer in another. Every seat is crucial to the organization’s success. There are certain issues or projects where your participation makes no sense. Likewise, you should play some role for meetings and events.
Movement up the hierarchy from doer to contributor, influencer or decider is based on two factors—your position within the organization and your ability to function at a higher level. It is usually easier to be viewed as more than a doer if your title contains director, vice president or some other word that denotes experience—but that isn’t a guarantee. Changing your seat at the table ultimately depends on increasing your strategic thinking and communication competencies.
What Executives Want from Meetings
We live in an experience economy. By 2020, according to a report from Walker Information, the customer experience will be more important than a company’s product or service in making a buying decision. IBM Analytics found that employees with higher levels of positive experiences at work perform better and are more productive. It is no wonder that improving the attendee experience is one of the leading industry trends.
Here’s the challenge: An experience that doesn’t contribute to or advance a strategic purpose isn’t a meeting. It’s a party.
There’s nothing wrong with a great party, but creating a wonderful experience is a doer role. Contributors, influencers and deciders take the extra step to connect the experience to the broader strategic purpose.
From a strategic perspective, executives look at meetings to help them with at least one of the following objectives. The most effective meetings do all four.
- Celebrate success.
- Solve a problem or fix what’s broken.
- Prepare and engage for the future.
- Create meaning and connection.
The great news is that each of these four objectives can be reinforced and expanded by an amazing experience. Your task is to help executives connect the dots between the experience you want to provide and their goals for the business and meeting.
Communicating Your Strategic Value
Once you have identified the connection, the next—and often most difficult—challenge is communicating it in a way that demonstrates your strategic perspective and value. Here are three tips to be more effective.
- Show that you understand their goals. Logistics and details are important, but don’t lead with that. Ask questions—or even better, do your homework in advance—to discover the objectives your C-level executive wants to achieve. You can even ask them about which of the four broad objectives listed above is of the most interest.
- Provide honest recommendations and clear decision points supported by data. Tie your recommendations to the goals identified. Give the executive your two best options that satisfy their needs and be able to support your rationale with data about why this will be important for your attendees and the organization. For instance, research done by O.C. Tanner found that companies showing regular, sincere appreciation experience a 170 percent increase in engagement, a 294 percent increase in innovation and a 221 percent increase in results. That’s a compelling reason to add celebration to your meeting agenda.
- Adapt your approach to their rhythm and tolerance for change. It is up to you to adapt to their style rather than the other way around. Some organizations and executives are open to try almost anything. Others want to maintain tradition. Be willing to take small steps with those who are less open to risk. Every small success creates the trust you need to continue advancing your influence and contribution. Also, realize that there will be a time when you should switch from selling your new idea to implementing what your executive wants. It can be frustrating, but doing so is the sign of someone who understands how decisions are made.
Go First
So what happens if you are in one of those organizations where all of the decisions are made by the same people and you are perpetually relegated to the role of doer?
The answer is to go first. Demonstrate that you have the capacity to be a strategic contributor and influencer. Over time, your persistent competence could change how you are viewed by the executives you want to influence. It can also create the relationship where you can credibly request a larger role.
People and organizations change for their reasons, not yours. The contributors, influencers and deciders at the decision-making table embrace that knowledge to work on themselves first.
Doing a great job in the role you currently occupy is the minimum. Proactively changing how you think and communicating strategically is one of the most empowering choices you can make in your career. It sets you up to be seen as worthy of a different seat at the table.
