How do you manage meaningful meetings?
As I wrote in my last post, meaningful meetings have a clear objective. While it should be obvious, and it may be to you, not everyone is aware of the key issues you want them to bring to your meeting. Both you and the participants must be adequately prepared for the meeting.
A clear agenda is needed, and it must be distributed to participants with enough time to allow them to be ready for the planned discussion. Agenda items can’t be unfamiliar to attenders. As Amy Gallo suggests in a Harvard Business Review article, your people need to be familiar with the topics to understand what’s being discussed. If this isn’t the case, then they need to be informed prior, either via conversations, a preliminary meeting or their own research.
Make your agenda achievable within the meeting timeframe. People will dread attending if your meetings habitually run over, or insignificant enough to not warrant the meeting in the first place. Meetings should be called only when more personal forms of communication are inadequate.
Anticipate
Leaders who plan their meetings with anticipated concerns or questions have a more effective dialogue and better results. Be proactive to avoid difficult or distracting moments and give people more confidence in your concern for them.
Distribute
Distribute information and documents with enough time for review. It’s also wise to have printed copies available during the meeting. Everyone at the meeting should know the materials in front of them. When in doubt, overcommunicate.
Delegate
Identify someone to take minutes. There are many formats (and templates) available online, but at a minimum, have someone make notes on the agenda with decisions, action items and timelines: who is responsible for what, when.
Start and Stop on Time
Plan your meeting with definitive start and stop times and stick to them. People have more confidence in a leader who manages time well, and is respectful of the time and attention of others. If you start your meeting on time, those who are late will avoid a repeat: they will learn to be prompt.
What do you think? How often are your meetings meaningful? I’d love to hear from you. You can call me at 561-582-6060, let’s talk. And as always, I can be reached here, or on LinkedIn.
