This is why Jeff Bezos always talks last in meetings

More than half (58%) of employees block off time in their calendars to protect themselves from meetings, according to new workplace research from Owl Labs.

Negativity about meetings is nothing new, and employee gripes often include the fact that they have to do so many meetings, they have no time left for their actual work. Workers also dislike pointless meetings that literally could have been an email, meetings that take up too much time, and meetings that are open-ended with no clear agenda or action points.

These are all legitimate reasons to want to avoid that meeting overload, and in some ways hybrid work has made things more complicated. While you can dial in from home if you’re not in the office, this technology layer adds its own issues. 

In addition to the sometimes time-wasting aspects of meetings, workers have to contend with tech problems, along with a new slew of meeting best practices.

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The research has also found that new pain points for workers include missing parts of conversations, either auditory or visually. Nearly three quarters report having lost time and have started meetings late due to technical difficulties, 70% struggle to see everyone’s faces, and another 70% have issues hearing everyone. 

And of course, time-honoured meeting problems are still very much in evidence, including the cumbersome problem of the HiPPO. Aka the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion, a HiPPO has the ability to stymie every meeting they attend, and railroad others into deferring to them, purely because they are the person in the meeting with the highest pay grade.

However, being the most senior or best paid in a team meeting doesn’t necessarily mean that your opinion is the correct one, or one that will guarantee the best outcome. In fact, a 2016 study at the Rotterdam School of Management identified that projects led by junior managers had a higher success rate.

Leaders go last

That’s because when the HiPPO is out of the room (virtual or otherwise), employees are happier to push back, will challenge assumptions, and will give honest feedback. In teams with senior managers, junior colleagues are wary of voicing their opinions.

One tech leader who is highly aware of this issue is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. In a recent interview on the Lex Fridman podcast, Bezos had some interesting things to say about how he approaches meetings.

“In every meeting I attend, I always speak last,” he said. 

“I know, from experience, if I speak first, even very strong-willed, highly intelligent, high-judgment participants in that meeting will wonder, ‘If Jeff thinks that? I came into this meeting thinking one thing, but maybe I’m not right.’”

Bezos understands the power he wields, and has advice for other senior leaders.

“If you’re the most senior person in the room, go last. Let everyone else go first. Ideally, have the most junior person go first—try to go in order of seniority—so that you can hear everyone’s opinion in an unfiltered way. Someone you really respect says something? It makes you change your mind a little.”

As a leadership tactic, this is a smart and self-aware one. Listening first matters, and by speaking last, managers can encourage everyone to proffer their opinions and suggestions. Additionally, diversity of thought is good because it tends to lead to better outcomes.

Some workers may not see this as it is intended. Speaking last can be viewed as a cynical tactic that is purely designed to get the last word in. Once the most senior person says what they think, or expresses what they want to happen, regardless of who has spoken before, the agenda may very well be set in favour of the outcome they’d prefer.

However, the fact that a senior employee is self-aware enough to wait to speak indicates that they are willing to listen. This all on its own is of benefit, with data showing that managers who received training in active listening saw a 30% improvement in employee satisfaction, and that active listening increases collaboration and productivity by 25%.

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Author

Kirstie McDermott, Senior Content Manager, Amply at Jobbio.