Dave Barry Quotes

Meetings are usually terrible, but they shouldn't be.

The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding meetings.

Meetings get a bad rap, and deservedly so - most are disorganized and distracted. But they can be a critical tool for getting your team on the same page.

Management is getting people together to figure out how to transform inputs into outputs. In the process of figuring out the process of how people work together, you've got to figure out who's got what responsibilities, and how do they work together.

In France, we have a mania for meetings that start very early and finish very late. It wastes time and creates rigidity in schedules. Everyone knows I hate long meetings.

Meetings should be like salt - a spice sprinkled carefully to enhance a dish, not poured recklessly over every forkful. Too much salt destroys a dish. Too many meetings destroy morale and motivation.

People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything.

When leaders know how to lead great meetings, there's less time wasted and less frustration. We have more energy to do the work that matters, realize our full potential, and do great things.

Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.

Leadership means forming a team and working toward common objectives that are tied to time, metrics, and resources.

Meetings are indispensable when you don't want to do anything.

My definition of an executive's job is brief and to the point. It is simply this: Getting things done through other people.

We need to have fewer meetings, not more—as we have to have time to put into effect some of the things we decide in these meetings.

I'm trying to keep my days very efficient, and I keep my set really tight. Every single corner is active, and everybody gets to thrive in the job that they do. I don't waste people's time.

Leadership is inspiring people. Management is keeping the trains running on time.

I don't really like to work with a large team and assistants, because then I lose so much time explaining things, which I don't like.

I used to spend my time more on process than strategy. Now, I prioritize my time around strategy, people, and process.

Talking things over has its place in an organization [but] so-called conferences are being grossly overdone. One executive stops at the desk of another to tell him, perhaps, about the wonderful score he made at golf on Saturday afternoon. This chin-chin immediately becomes a conference, and neither the office boy nor the telephone operator must disturb either gentleman. More idle gossip is indulged in at many business conferences these days than an old wives' sewing circle would be guilty of.

I think there needs to be a meeting to set an agenda for more meetings about meetings.

A committee of three gets things done if two dont show up.

Meetings are by definition a concession to deficient organization. For one either meets or one works.

Ninety-five per cent of my time is virtually wasted.

What we spend our time on is probably the most important decision we make.

Of all the things I've done, the most vital is coordinating those who work with me and aiming their efforts at a certain goal.

As all entrepreneurs know, you live and die by your ability to prioritize. You must focus on the most important, mission-critical tasks each day and night, and then share, delegate, delay or skip the rest.