if buddha went to bschool he might say: give the meeting / take the meeting.
this one is a lesson in managing up and down. the idea is that you can really empower people by giving them the meeting. a former boss of mine used to practice this. every now and then, i'd walk into a meeting, pause, look at him (waiting for him to kick it off) and he would say “this is your meeting. go ahead.” at first it was a little intimidating, but the truth is that it forced ownership, proactiveness and was incredibly empowering. i think managers want to see you come to them with solutions, not problems, and this is an extension of that. if the meeting is about something you’re working on you should walk in with a plan, with answers, ready to shape the conversation. asking for the meeting and taking the reigns by managing the discussion and the use of time is an important exercise. if buddha went to bschool he might say: you gotta own it and you gotta let others own it as well.
image from this beautiful series by max wanger, via designlovefest