Fun Ways to Use the Meeting Scribe Role for Leadership Development
Concrete tactics to develop future managers
In corporate life, formal opportunities to practice and demonstrate leadership skills are rare, as there are only so many project lead, manager, or coordinator roles to go around. I suspect most people don’t think of developing future managers when assigning the meeting scribe role, but I think it’s an underrated way to develop leadership skills.
Nominally, meeting scribes record who was there, what was said, and publish what was decided and a list of task assignments. Meeting scribes are also known as meeting note-takers or even secretaries if you’re stuck in the 1960’s.
Let’s say you’re the manager or someone who presides over some meetings. Maybe you’ve been assigning, say, Karl to take notes because you want to keep him occupied with typing to suppress his overbearing opinions. Or perhaps Betty volunteered to do it because she wants to feel useful and types super fast.
And then there’s your new hire, Kate. Kate is shy and reserved but seems intelligent, perceptive, and capable. You see management potential. You might think: I don’t want her to be the meeting scribe. She’ll retreat behind her transcription duties, and I want to tease her out of her shell.
Ah, but I think you can leverage this note-taking role to train and evaluate her leadership abilities.
In addition to my 18 years of corporate experience, including technical lead and management roles, I spent 21 years in a parallel career in the Army Reserve, including four overseas deployments, mostly in leadership positions. In the Army, we constantly evaluate leadership potential in every soldier’s actions, even the small ones. This led me to think of ways to use this underappreciated role to train and evaluate someone you’re grooming for management. Let’s explore some techniques you can apply.
Meeting Scribe Tactics
Below are tactics in chronological progression, starting with the easier stuff and then layering on more difficulty. That said, you can do some or all of them at once; apply them to one person, or rotate them among your team.
I recommend using these tactics in recurring meetings, especially with stakeholders from different functional specialties present. Furthermore, a “process meeting” is a better place to implement these tactics than a “task-oriented” meeting. By “process meeting,” I mean a recurring “sync meeting,” project status meeting, team meeting, etc. Basically, one where the person in charge (you) presides versus, say, a meeting where a subject matter expert leads the meeting to investigate a deep technical issue.
To give a more concrete example, let’s continue talking about Kate. You see a future manager in Kate. It’s just a matter of helping others see it and testing what she’s capable of. Let’s see what we can do for her.
Take notes and review them later together
Have Kate take notes for the first few meetings. If you transitioned to using AI to summarize your meetings, have her review and manually update the AI-generated notes.
Later, review them with her in private and generally coach her on which parts are important. Ask her open-ended questions: What did you think of the meeting? Who was the most important influencer in the room, and why? Who would first get drunk at the office holiday party, and why? Etc.
Give her coaching notes, and over time, you’ll see how she understands the dynamics of meetings, how the politics work, and how the organization’s policies and will are expressed through its meetings.
Construct the agenda and select the meeting participants
Have Kate construct the agenda for a few meetings. See if she understands who needs to be there, what’s important to talk about, and how the agenda should be ordered. Coach as necessary.
An essential leadership skill is pulling together multiple factors, prioritizing tasks, and constructing a plan while exercising good judgment throughout. Constructing a meeting agenda is like a mini-planning exercise. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of things she has to consider:
- Understanding the purpose of the meeting
- Understanding each person’s role in the meeting, including key decision-makers, subject matter experts, etc.
- Prioritizing discussion topics and time efficiency
- Juggling schedules
- Interpersonal rivalries
Handling all this is good practice for her and great observational data for you.
Open and close the meeting on your behalf
Sure, you’re in charge, and it’s your meeting, but what if Kate opens it? “Hello everyone! Welcome again to our weekly sync! Here’s our agenda this week.”
Have her review the agenda and last week’s action items and then, at the end, review all tasks assigned during the meeting. When you feel she’s ready, ask her to proactively manage the action items throughout the meeting by suggesting task assignments or clarifying who’s doing what.
If someone gives status for an action item by looking in your direction (or whatever the equivalent is in a video call), very obviously defer to Kate.
Over time, you’ll get a sense of Kate’s leadership presence. Furthermore, assigning tasks and holding people accountable for those tasks is a vital part of being a manager. You’ll be able to evaluate her effectiveness for all of this and coach appropriately.
A nice perk of this tactic is that the meeting participants acclimate to Kate being in charge. This sets her up for success if you assign her to lead something later.
Heck, just run the entire damn meeting
Now that Kate is more comfortable in her role, and others are more comfortable with Kate, let her do it all: convene and end the meetings, run the agenda, manage the time, keep people on track, and track post-meeting tasks. In addition to the above benefits, you can assess her ability to influence her peers, resolve conflicts, and navigate complex interpersonal exchanges. At this point, if you’re coaching her well, you’ve made yourself an optional meeting participant; you’re just moral support.
Actually, let’s overhaul all the meetings
Let Kate decide which meetings to hold and who should attend them. Make it clear to everyone that she’s scheduling them on your behalf and that you believe in her judgment.
This helps her think through a gazillion factors and practice sound judgment.
Hey, Wait, “Meeting Scribe” Doesn’t Really Describe This Anymore!
Yeah, true, guilty. At this point, she isn’t really a “scribe.” More like a “chief of staff” or your lieutenant, or right-hand man, er, woman, or whatever you call someone in your organization who is not actually in charge but does leadership stuff on your behalf.
This can be a fun, sneaky way to gradually ease someone into a leadership role. Maybe the team or stakeholders are skeptical of Kate, or perhaps she lacks confidence in herself, or both. This is a low-key way for Kate to come into her own and for her coworkers to gain confidence in her.
Women as Meeting Scribes
Be careful not to give the impression that you’re assigning a woman “secretarial” duties, especially if you’re a man. I mean, yes, in the beginning, they are, in fact, secretarial duties, but you could let her know up front that you want to prepare her future leadership roles so she isn’t left wondering if you’re trying to reenact scenes from Mad Men. Another option is to empower her with some of the more advanced tasks from the beginning. Obviously, the master level is coaching her so that it becomes her idea and her motivation to do this.
Final Thoughts
It’s important to note that these tactics are low-stakes ways to develop leadership skills. Messing up an agenda or inviting the wrong people is unlikely to have a meaningful impact in the long run, and anyway, if you’re watchful, you can easily spot issues and fix them.
Meeting Scribes are often seen as secretaries subservient to everyone else in the room. This will only happen if you treat them like this. Treat them like your “assistant manager,” and others will follow.
Finally, as a bonus, you’ll have fewer meetings to run!
