Manage Your Meetings
None of us have extra time to sit through a meeting that wanders aimlessly without any clear direction. Yet, we’ve all participated in, and even been in charge of, meetings that turned out to be a complete waste of everyone’s time. On the flip side, we’ve all participated in meetings that were well-directed, efficient, and clearly spelled out what was next and the part each team member played in it. As a leader, you can't afford to have any meetings be anything but efficient! You need to be a meeting master.
What are the secrets to running efficient meetings?
Before the meeting, be clear about what you want those in the meeting to get from the time you spend together. This is the framework for how you communicate both prior to and during your meeting. Without it, you can be left with a room full of people scratching their heads, with no direction or clear understanding of what they are supposed to do with the information they have been given.
Create and distribute an agenda to all meeting participants one day prior to the meeting. An agenda will keep you on track and provide a written plan of what needs to be covered during the scheduled meeting time. In addition, your agenda will provide participants with the opportunity to review the intended topic and arrive at the meeting prepared to contribute to the discussion.
Don't allow any one person to “take over the meeting”. We all know talkers who are capable of taking a room full of people in the opposite direction of the intended meeting topic. Don’t let that happen. When someone begins speaking about a topic that is not relevant to the meeting’s agenda, take the meeting back to the specified agenda by saying, “I hear what you are saying, and it is not something that we can address inside of the time we have right now. After the meeting, please see me so we can schedule a time to address your comments.”
Before ending the meeting, make sure that your team is clear about what has been communicated and any expectations. If assignments have been given, confirm with each person what their assignment is and their commitment to by-when it will be complete. Without such accountabilities put into place, the time spent in a meeting is wasted time and none of us has any time to waste!