Meeting Horse

The Meeting Horse, or as many people might say, the work horse is the person in your meetings that jumps at the opportunity to spearhead a work assignment and works tirelessly to complete everything they can to contribute to the organization.  They may or may not speak up too much in meetings but you can rest assured that they are processing everything and have an excellent perspective on the reality of the given situation.

 

The Meeting Horse is an outstanding meeting animal. This particular animal will go above and beyond to take on assignments. Although this is a great animal to have because of their outstanding work ethic, it could lead to problems.

When the Meeting Horse Roams Free

Where the Meeting Horse is constantly looking to achieve you will see this animal soaking up all the assignments possible. These types of animals typically enjoy taking on many assignments as they tend to be more competitive in the work environment. A few issues that could potentially arise from this meeting animal are:

Meeting Horse Gets Spread Too Thin

This will diminish the quality of work that the Horse does. If you don’t have time to do the assignment right the first time, when will you have time to fix the assignment?

Diminish Team Moral

If the Meeting Horse is stealing all of the assignments, other attendees may become lackadaisical because they know the Horse will take the assignments anyway. It could also lead to other attendees feeling like they are not being productive or not needed.

Impatience, Not Following Best Practices

While the work Horse puts themselves in a position where they have more than an average workload, it could lead them to cut corners on assignments. Cutting corners will reduce the quality in completed assignments and overall create more problems in the future.

Managing The Meeting Horse

So now that we have established some of the issues that comes with the work Horse, how should we deal with this go-getter animal?

Identify

First and foremost, it is important to identify the behavior that may lead to problems down the road. Calling out this behavior as soon as possible will prevent it from becoming a bigger issue in the future.

Enforce Breaks

As we know the work Horse tends to be a workaholic. Enforcing breaks and vacation time for this meeting animal will help destress them. A good way to do this is enforce these breaks for all attendees so the work Horse isn’t singled out. Everybody needs a break!

Opportunities To Stand Out

The work Horse loves the feeling of completing assignments. Giving the work Horse the chance to stand out will help positively reinforce the work Horse.

Team Player

The work Horse may typically prefer to work alone, completing their assignments solo. To help the work Horse get more involved with the team, have them pair up with another attendee. This will show the work Horse that other attendees also have good ideas, and the paired attendee will also appreciate being heard.

 

The Meeting Horse is a valuable addition to our meetings, as is any meeting animal in this series. It is important we don’t diminish the work Horses abilities but instead help redirect their focus for the benefit of the team and make sure they take a breather!