When I was young, I have always wanted to be a backstage worker. I never liked working too much with stuffs that had to do something with talking.. discussions, etc. But as I have already climbed the career ladder, I had to enhance myself to be able to undertake on such tasks.
As an IT Head, my duty is to deal with people, much as I had to deal with numbers, codes and networks. Yes.. it meant going to meetings and arranging discussions with people that are within the Team, or partners/clients of the company. In truth, I didn't really had to be in my current position to be involved in these things. I can still recall when I was young, I had to do tests, interviews with my direct users. The only difference now, is that I am already speaking with people who are more or less involved with the business logic of things.. no longer just plain tech stuffs.
Some of these meetings' agenda doesn't interest me. Most of the time, it just don't penetrate my well woven thoughts of code and programming. My sharp looks in the meeting table are never of attentiveness but more of the enthusiasm and urge that I get from imagining code and programming. Nodding every so often is a great escape goat. Of course, there are times that I am directly involved in the meeting. These are times that there are queries on the feasibility of some ideas posed by different teams. Here, I am directly pressured to be 100% attentive. A shake or nod of the head can mean a lot.. so there are times I have to explain.
Explain.. yeah. The hardest part. Its hard to gauge the technical capability of a person just by looking at them. You only get to the gauging part once they throw their best question at you.. then that's the point where the real conversation will begin.
I am a goal-oriented person. Sometimes, an overly obsessive compulsive freak. In the natural, social world, that's a freaky attitude.. but at work, its more valued especially in the snappy world of IT. I can only be thankful that I belong to the byteworld.
I value meetings, though I hate them so much. I believe that if people give more effort and essence for every minute spent in the meeting room, and value for every point discussed, and that each meeting will be properly concluded, then there wouldn't be any more time to be wasted in another meeting that might be of the same agenda. Makes sense right? If the attendees would agree on the items to be discussed, resolutions, and priorities, then no time will ever be wasted. And, after which, each meeting will be a boost to the duties and responsibilities of all the attendees.
Sigh.. I hope I'm making sense. And where is the secretary again??