Preface: Same person with a different question; same person with a different mindset; same person with a different and [now achieved] effective business meeting(s).

Achieving Elite Entrepreneurial Business Meeting Traction (Segment III)

“Elite” entrepreneurial business meetings are achievable not on the premise of the business worlds definition of a [business] groups superior [meeting] successes or abilities, but on the timeless principle that [you and] your business meetings are “elite” compared to one key standard — what your business meeting was yesterday.

Yes, there is only one business you should want superior meetings to, and that is your own. Every minute you spend wishing you had someone else’s business meetings, is a minute spent entirely wasted towards developing and improving your own. Secondly, if you had that “other” [business] meeting, it would likely be like your own less superior meeting, because you’d be there with that mindset.

So, does the mindset of business meeting participants determine the keystone effectiveness of the business meeting? Maybe? If say a coffee and donuts influence as well as green-visor the characteristics of a business meetings mindset, then the answer could be a resounding Yes.

A large-scale study was conducted to investigate the mindsets of business leaders when they were at their most effective and delivering their best results. In-depth structured interviews were conducted with 667 executives over a ten-year period. Eight distinct mindset themes were identified, one of the most common being a “Purposeful” theme, exhibited by 82% of the leaders. A closer examination revealed two major subcategories of the Purposeful theme:

1. Impact on the World
2. God/Spirituality

The Purposeful mindset theme points to a contextual frame that is important to leaders, and seems to imbue them with a level of personal power and sense of mission that translates into high levels of accomplishment.

The link on leveraginggenius.com to the research report unfortunately says ……. The resource you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.

Continuing further now with the keystone question of does the mindset of business meeting participants determine the business meetings effectiveness, continues to highlight this fact with the following excerpt as interesting research from https://gelinasjames.com/mindsets-shape-meetings/

“Thanks to the groundbreaking work of Carol Dweck we now understand a simple idea: having a fixed mindset or a growth mindset shapes how we interact with others.

Individuals with a growth mindset believe their talents can be developed with dedication and hard work. Their focus is on learning. Those with a fixed mindset believe their talents are carved in stone and cannot change. Because of this, meetings called to solve problems or make decisions with others can be a trial for folks with fixed mindsets and a learning-fest for those with growth mindsets.

The mindsets are easy to spot. Those with a fixed mindset focus on being smart and right. If they are extraverts, they tend to talk with great confidence about THE right answer. They avoid taking risks or engaging in exploratory conversations without preconceived right answers because they fear their perceived inadequacies might get exposed. However, if those with a fixed mindset are introverts, they might stonewall, stay silent, and wait until the end to step in with their version of “This is the way it is.”

Those with growth mindsets focus on learning and finding effective solutions. They listen more, ask questions of genuine curiosity, and are open to the possibility that their perspective might be ill-informed or just wrong. And, according to Carol Dweck, people with a growth mindset achieve more because they focus on learning and less on looking smart.

As the calendar pages turn, the right mindset for business meetings(s) that too often is fabricated with a proverbial coffee and donut is most effectively achieved with simply more effective and inquisitive questions per research.

We’ll wrap-up with some advice from https://executiveeducation.wharton.upenn.edu/thought-leadership/wharton-at-work/2012/08/shifting-mindsets/

When you’re heading to a business meeting, participating in a business meeting, or departing a business meeting — are you asking questions like this?

1. Who is to blame?
2. Why can’t they perform?
3. How can I [or the business] prove I’m right?
4. Why aren’t we winning?
5. What could we lose?
6. Why bother?

Sipping coffee and holding a donut will improve the above mindset created from those questions, yet there exist a different [and more effective] approach to the business meeting simply with the right questions; and that will ultimately lead to a more effective [and elite] business meeting.

1. What are my [or the businesses] goals?
2. What am I responsible for [in this business]?
3. What are the facts and what am I assuming wrong?
4. How can I help?
5. What do our customers want?
6. What steps can we take to improve the situation?
7. What’s possible [for this business]?

That friends, is an accountants perspective on the difference between the superior business meeting(s) you wish for, and business meeting(s) you have; both for you and the participants.

Same person with a different question; same person with a different mindset; same person with a different and effective business meeting(s) [now achieved!]