Paul Axtell
paulaxtell.com With more than thirty years of experience helping organizations and individuals be more effective, Paul Axtell has honed his insights in executive offices and training programs for everyone from office staff and line workers to managers and team leaders.
A large focus of his work is how to run effective and productive meetings—to turn them from something people dread into useful, productive sessions with trackable results. Paul is the author of two multi-award-winning books, Meetings Matter: 8 Powerful Strategies for Remarkable Conversations and Ten Powerful Things to Say to Your Kids: Creating the Relationship You Want with the Most Important People in Your Life. He can be reached at paulaxtell.com and via email at paulaxtell at mac.com.
Paul's Webinars
Q&A Webinar with Paul
May 19, 2016
Templates
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A Process for Accessing the Wisdom of Your Group How to Seek Group Input Seeking input from colleagues is different from the typical approach to group problem solving. Problem solving is a back-and-forth conversation. Seeking input from colleagues is a reflective exercise built around observing your colleagues discuss a problem or idea. At the heart of this meeting agenda template design is the freedom to just listen—to not defend, or... |
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A Protocol for Clearing Questions and Handling Complaints How to Handle Complaints and Questions Surfacing and working through questions and complaints is key to growing and sustaining a great organization (or personal relationship). While clearing questions and dealing with complaints are two separate processes, this meeting agenda template covers both since often a discussion will surface each equally. Any supervisor, manager, or leader that wants... |
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New Leader Introduction: Designing the Relationship with Your Group How to Run a New Leader Introduction Meeting Establishing a relationship with your new group or team is simple, common sense, and straight forward. In many organizations, it’s a missing piece in the puzzle called working together. The facilitator's guide for this meeting agenda template walks you through: Getting to know each person in a way that allows for safety, permission, and candor... |
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One-on-One: 30-60-90 Meeting How to Run a One-on-One Meeting This meeting agenda template is one of two one-on-ones designed by Paul Axtell. One-on-one sessions can truly be a back-and-forth, give-and-take discussion that leads to transparency, clarity, and progress. The best one-on-one meetings are led by the employee rather than the manager. The 30-60-90 meeting provides clarity about the future and the focus over the... |
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One-on-One: Standard Checking-In Meeting How to Run a One-on-One Meeting This meeting agenda template is one of two one-on-ones designed by Paul Axtell. One-on-one sessions can truly be a back-and-forth, give-and-take discussion that leads to transparency, clarity, and progress. The best one-on-one meetings are led by the employee rather than the manager. The "Standard Checking-In" approach works well for weekly or bi-weekly check-in... |
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Reaching Alignment with Your Team How to Run a Team Alignment Meeting Leaders seek alignment when defining goals, making decisions, or formulating strategic plans. When it’s important to have everyone in the group on board with the outcome, working through this series of deliberate and thoughtful questions can help achieve group alignment. This meeting agenda template provides a deliberate and thoughtful way to reveal what... |
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Strategic Plan Refresher How to Refresh Your Strategic Plan All strategic plans become outdated quickly, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to start over. This relatively short meeting agenda template will help your team identify important changes in your circumstances and knowledge that you can use to refresh your strategy and keep it relevant. |
Contributed Blog Posts
| Date | Article Title | Publisher |
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02/03/2017 |
How To Refresh Your Strategic Plan in 4 Hours or Less | Lucid Meetings Blog |
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04/13/2016 |
Accessing the Wisdom of Your Group | Lucid Meetings Blog |
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01/26/2016 |
A Protocol for Clearing Questions and Handling Complaints | Lucid Meetings Blog |
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07/14/2015 |
5 Ways to Improve Employee Engagement in Meetings …and Why it Matters | Lucid Meetings Blog |
Recent Published Articles
| Date | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| 04/03/2017 | Great Managers Lead Meetings For 3 Different Outcomes | Forbes |
| 12/23/2016 | Just Because You’re in Charge Doesn’t Mean You Should Run Every Meeting | HBR |
| 12/08/2016 | 6 Reasons to Get Better at Leading Meetings | HBR |
| 05/16/2016 | When Your Boss Is Terrible at Leading Meetings | HBR |
| 11/26/2015 | Two Things to Do After Every Meeting | HBR |
| 01/20/2015 | Before Your Next Meeting, Apply These 7 Tips to Your Agenda | Success |
| 01/18/2015 | Boring Meetings? Try These Simple Steps to Go From Dull to Dazzling | Forbes |