The beginning of a presentation is the most difficult time. The speaker is nervous about presenting to a group. The audience is nervous that the presenter will be boring or even painful to endure. The first few moments will decide if the audience is going to stay engaged or tune out.

So it’s no surprise that people often start with a joke in an effort to lighten the mood and release the tension.

The problem is that being funny in a situation like that is really hard. Even professional comedians take a few moments to get warmed up.

Skip the Stand-up, and Start Your Presentation by Talking About the Audience

Telling a story is a great way to start. Just make sure the story is about something the audience cares about—like themselves or people just like them.

Asking the audience a question is another good way to start. As long as it’s relevant to the audience, and not a meaningless question like “Who wants to be more successful?”

Whatever you do, don’t start a presentation by talking about yourself.
– The Startup Daily

Someone must be watching the clock at every meeting or people will eat up all of the available time talking about less important details. Participants need regular reminders that they have a limited amount of time if you want them to stay focused on the highest priority items.

Assign Someone to the Role of Meeting Timekeeper

The timekeeper’s job is to give verbal reminders of how much time remains. For a one hour meeting, try one announcement 20 minutes in, another when there are 15 minutes left, and a final reminder 5 minutes before the end of the meeting.

If you called the meeting, then it’s your job to assign someone to act as timekeeper. If someone else called the meeting, then you can volunteer to take on the role of timekeeper and significantly increase your chances of getting out on time.
– The Startup Daily

Most people spend too much time in meetings and not enough time doing their work. One way to get meetings under control is to put some boundaries around when they can be held.

Designate One Day a Week as a No Meeting Day

Protect this day from distractions. Fridays work best because they allow people to finish the week on a productive note. Monday’s are also a good choice because they allow people to begin the week with a full day of productivity.

If you are in a position to do so, consider making this the official policy of your company. Otherwise, you can protect your meeting-free work day by blocking it out in your calendar with a recurring all-day event.
– The Startup Daily

Meetings should not be boring. A meeting is a group of people coming together to have an interactive discussion about a topic that is relevant to their lives. With these ingredients, meetings have no business being boring.

The reason most meetings are so boring is because many people have developed the habit of immediately eliminating conflict wherever it appears.

To Keep Meetings Interesting, Provoke Conflict

As storytellers have known for thousands of years, conflict is the essence of drama, and the key to an engaging story. If you have no conflict, you will have no engagement.

The leader of a meeting must seek out disagreements and uncover dissent. There will be uncomfortable moments. But resolving these issues in the open is what makes a meeting productive and interesting. Suppressing conflict only leads to disengagement and frustration.

One of the most powerful ways to set the stage for an engaging meeting is to start with a hook. Highlight a competitive threat or illustrate a danger in the first ten minutes.

The only thing more painful than confronting an uncomfortable topic is pretending it doesn’t exist.
– The Startup Daily

The Only Two Reasons to Hold A Meeting

Meetings Are Not the Right Platform for Making Decisions

Final decisions are not made by a groups, they are made by individuals. Ultimately the individual must be held accountable for those decisions and responsible for the outcomes.

Although meetings are a great place to debate decisions and coordinate the details of execution, the decisions themselves should always be made by individuals.

The Startup Daily

Most people schedule meetings to start and end on the hour. But the reality is that people are often running late from the last meeting, or they don’t leave their desk or gather their materials for the meeting until the top of the hour. The result is that most meetings begin 5 to 15 minutes late anyway.

Schedule Meetings to Start on the 00:15 of the Hour

People will appreciate that you are being respectful of their time. You will also stand out for holding meetings that start and end on time.

Most one hour meetings can be handled in 45 minutes if they begin when they are scheduled.

If you really need a full hour and you want to make sure people don’t rush off prematurely then end your meeting on the 00:15 as well. Most people schedule meetings back-to-back when they end on the hour. But schedule the meeting to end on the 00:15 and they are likely to schedule their next meeting to begin on the 00:30.
– The Startup Daily

Your culture defines your brand. Get the culture right, and everything else will fall into place. Wait too long to pay attention to your culture and it will become much harder to correct down the road.

Only Hire People Who Share Your Company’s Values

This means you have to be clear about what your company’s values are, and find a way to evaluate candidates against them.

If you are going to hire based on alignement with values, you should also be prepared to fire those who don’t live up to them.
– The Startup Daily

Following up with a job candidate’s references is essential. But these references are often hesitant to give negative feedback about an employee, especially to a stranger. The reference is put in the awkward position of having to balance loyalty with integrity.

When Speaking to a Candidate’s References, Always Ask “Is There Anyone Else I Should Speak With?”

If there is anything the reference feels you really should know about the candidate, this gives them a face-saving opportunity to get you in touch with someone who is not constrained from telling you the whole story.
– The Startup Daily

Placing advertisements on job sites or engaging with recruiters are good ways to see a lot of resumes. But these are rarely the best ways to find top-notch employees. A Players rarely make it into these talent pools.

When it comes it comes to sourcing talented A Players, put your faith in the old adage “It takes one to know one.”

Ask the A Players in Your Network “Who Are the Most Talented People You Know that I Should Hire?”

Tapping into the network of existing A Players is the single most effective way to find more A Players.

Maintaining a pipeline of potential A Player candidates is so valuable that many successful founders ask this question every time they meet someone, regardless of whether they are currently hiring or not.
– The Startup Daily

The best job candidate is not necessarily the one with the cleanest and most well-rounded resume. A work history with no gaps or setbacks can indicate a candidate with a habit of playing it safe.

Look for Candidates Who Have Both Failures and Successes

Exceptional talent doesn’t always look exceptional on paper. A willingness to stretch and take risks will inevitably result in some failures and false starts mixed among the achievements. A history of setbacks show that a candidate is not afraid to take risks, and has likely learned some valuable lessons along the way.

A jagged resume containing both successes and failures can be indicative of an underrated superstar.
– The Startup Daily