There are not enough official opportunities in corporate life to practice and show off leadership abilities because there are not enough project lead, manager, or coordinator positions to go around. Assigning the meeting scribe position is probably not the most thought-out strategy to foster future managers, but in my opinion, it is a valuable opportunity to hone leadership abilities.
Meeting scribes, nominally speaking, keep track of attendees, minutes, decisions, and task assignments. If you are stuck in the 1960s, meeting scribes are also known as meeting note-takers or even secretaries.
Assume you are a manager or someone in charge of running certain meetings. Perhaps you have been giving Karl, for example, the task of taking notes in order to distract him from his intrusive opinions by having him type. Alternatively, Betty might have offered to help because she wants to feel helpful and types incredibly quickly.
And then there is Kate, your recent hire. Although shy and reserved, Kate exudes intelligence, perspicacity, and capability. You see room for management. It may occur to you: I do not want her to transcribe the meetings. I want to gently prod her to come out of her shell because she tends to withdraw behind her transcription work.
Yes, however I believe you may use this note-taking position to assess and train her leadership skills.
Apart from my eighteen years of business experience, which included technical lead and management duties, I had a concurrent career of twenty-one years in the Army Reserve, which included four deployments overseas, primarily in leadership roles. In the Army, every soldier’s action—no matter how small—is continuously assessed for leadership potential. This got me thinking about how you may teach and assess someone you are developing for management using this undervalued function. Let us look at different methods you can use.
Getting to Know Scribe Strategies
The strategies listed below are presented in chronological order, starting with the simpler ones and progressively getting more complex. Nevertheless, you can apply some or all of them simultaneously, to a single person, or alternately throughout your organization.
These strategies should be used at regular meetings, especially when stakeholders from various functional specialties are present. Moreover, these strategies work better in a “process meeting” than in a “task-oriented” one. I refer to a regular “sync meeting,” team meeting, project status meeting, etc. as a “process meeting.” Basically, it is different from, instance, a meeting led by a subject matter expert to look at a complex technical issue, in that the meeting is presided over by you, the person in control.
Let us talk more about Kate in order to provide a more specific example. You perceive Kate as a potential manager. All that has to happen is to test her abilities and assist others in seeing it. See what we can accomplish for her.
Make notes, then go over them with a partner later.
Throughout the first few meetings, have Kate take notes. Should you have switched to employing AI to transcribe your meetings, ask her to go over and amend the notes that the AI generated.
Afterwards, go over them in private with her and give her basic coaching on the key points. Pose open-ended inquiries to her, such as, “How was the meeting?” Which person in the room had the greatest influence, and why? At the office holiday party, who would get wasted first, and why? etc.
As you provide her with coaching notes, you will observe her understanding of meeting dynamics, political processes, and how the organization’s decisions and policies are reflected in its meetings.
Create the schedule and invite the attendees to the meeting.
Ask Kate to create a couple meeting agendas. Check to see if she knows who should be there, what should be discussed, and how the schedule should be structured. As needed, provide coaching.
Putting several pieces of information together, setting priorities, and creating a strategy while using sound judgment are all crucial leadership abilities. Creating an agenda for a meeting is similar to doing a little planning.The following is a partial list of the items she has to think about:
- Recognizing the meeting’s objective
- Recognizing everyone’s involvement in the meeting, including the subject matter experts and important decision makers.
- Setting discussion topics and time efficiency as priorities
- coordinating schedules
- Personal rivalries
Taking care of everything is excellent observational data for you and terrific practice for her.
You will call the meeting to order and adjourn it.
Although it is your meeting and you are in command, what would happen if Kate opened it? “Hi to all of you! Once more, welcome to our weekly sync! This is the schedule for this week.
Ask her to go over the agenda, the action items from last week, and all of the duties that were allocated during the meeting before concluding. When you think she is ready, ask her to take the lead in directing the meeting’s action items by offering suggestions for tasks or making it clear who is responsible for what.
Very clearly defer to Kate if someone looks in your direction (or whatever the equivalent is in a video chat) to indicate the status of an action item.
You will begin to sense Kate’s leadership presence over time. Moreover, a crucial aspect of managing is delegating responsibilities and monitoring performance. For all of this, you will be able to assess her efficacy and provide the necessary coaching.
The attendees in the meeting get used to Kate being in command, which is a wonderful bonus of this strategy. If you give her a leadership role later on, this positions her for success.
Just run the whole darn meeting, please.
Let Kate handle everything now that she is more at ease in her position and that others are more at ease with her: call meetings to order and adjourn them, oversee the agenda, keep everyone on schedule, and keep track of chores that need to be completed afterward. You can evaluate her capacity to influence her peers, settle disputes, and handle challenging interpersonal interactions in addition to the advantages listed above. If you are mentoring her well at this point, you have reduced yourself to a supporting role in the meeting and are merely there for moral support.
Let us actually reorganize every meeting.
Let Kate make the decisions about who should attend and which meetings to hold. Let everyone know that you trust her judgment and that she is arranging them on your behalf.
This aids in the practice of excellent judgment and helps her consider a billion aspects.
Alright, Now This Is not Quite a “Meeting Scribe” Situation!
Indeed, it is true that you are guilty. She is not truly a “scribe” at this point. More akin to a “chief of staff,” your lieutenant, your right-hand man—er, woman—or whatever title you give to someone in your company who performs leadership duties without being in control.
This can be a clever and enjoyable method to ease someone into a leadership position. It could be that Kate lacks self-confidence, that the stakeholders or the team are dubious of her, or both. In a subtle way, this is how Kate can assert herself and build confidence in her colleagues.
Women in Meeting Scribe Positions
Especially if you are a man, take care not to convey that you are giving a woman “secretarial” responsibilities. Yes, at first, these are secretarial tasks, but you may also inform her in advance that you intend to groom her for leadership roles in the future so she will not be left wondering if you are acting out Mad Men scenarios. Alternatively, you may start her off with some of the more difficult activities. The master level is obviously encouraging her to make this her idea and driving force.
Last Words
It is crucial to remember that these strategies are low-risk approaches to gaining leadership experience. Long-term effects are unlikely to result from a botched agenda or inviting the incorrect people, and if you are vigilant, problems may be quickly identified and resolved.
Getting together It is common to view scribes as secretaries who serve everyone else in the room. Only if you treat them in this manner will this occur. Others will follow if you treat them as your “assistant manager.”
