I recently had to deliver some tough feedback to someone about a meeting that he had led. We have spoken in the past about the importance of good meeting management. Unfortunately, on this particular day, it was as if all previous conversations had not occurred.

You could see it in their tired, frustrated faces. The audience, or should I say, the meeting participants, were not engaged in what had become a prolonged meeting.

It should have taken 30 minutes. It went on for 90.

His leadership took a hit that day because his meeting stunk. But it didn't have to. The mechanics of running good meetings are simple enough but my friend didn't understand that meetings are directly linked to leadership. To put up with a bad one, on your watch, is the equivalent to a leadership bank withdrawal. Run too many the wrong way and the people around you start to think that you just don't know how to lead.

As Patrick Lencioni says, "Bad meetings almost always lead to bad decisions, which is the best recipe for mediocrity."

So what's the easiest way to avoid mediocrity this week? Run a meeting well. Run it on time. Run the darn thing as if it were the symbol of your leadership.

Because when it's on your watch, it is.

*photo by mydigitalslr