Conducting a Meeting

148You will be judged by the effectiveness of the meetings you hold. Are they effective? People will notice how you manage them, how they are run. And the effectiveness of your meetings will be reflected in the results you achieve in business.

We discussed effective meetings and effective meetings part 2 in previous lessons.



For meetings to be effective, use everyone’s time wisely and move the business on, preparation and planning are key and participation will be need from everyone
Few things are more irritating than to be constantly called into meetings that are a waste of time. They don’t start punctually, there is no agenda or objective, no issues are worked through, and no action is decided.

But meetings are a fact of life, and some are necessary, so we have to learn to live with them and make them as productive as possible. They can be stressful; and unproductive so let’s consider how we can make them as productive and short as possible

If your meetings are unpunctual and unproductive that reflects badly on you as a manager. You will lose the respect and credibility of colleagues, and word will get to the people who matter. This is a very public way of demonstrating that you are an effective leader and manager and deserve respect and credibility. So plan your meetings carefully. Pay attention to the details of effective meeting management.

Respect the time of the meeting attendees. People will note and remember if you called a meeting unnecessarily, let it start or run late, and didn’t produce a conclusion or actions.

Meetings need to be shorter than two hours to ensure people’s attention doesn’t wander , and the most important items should be scheduled early in the agenda, while everyone ii still fresh. There needs to be an agenda, a structure, a duration, a chairperson and a minute taker.

Sometimes a digital meeting equivalent can be used – email. Skype, hangouts, a conference call. But don’t forget the benefits of personal contact for people who are not office based, for whom a meeting may be a welcome intrusion into their remote workplace. A book by psychologist Sherry Turkle Reclaiming Conversations: The Power to Talk in a Digital Age postulates that workers that are not connected are less loyal , and managers should call them together regularly for face to face meetings to disseminate the company culture and develop loyalty.

We have already devoted several modules to this topic , here I will just review my top 10 tips for holding effective meetings .For more detail please follow the links

Top tips

  1. Consider whether you should convene a meeting, or maybe send out an email with a status update?
  2. Reflect on the purpose of the meeting .What do you want to accomplish?
  3. Make a list of attendees.
  4. Produce an agenda, with the points to be covered in order, a timeline attached. Send it out in advance
  5. Check the room is prepared
  6. Start and end punctually by sticking to your agenda.
  7. Ask someone to take minutes, noting action points and who is to dealing with them.
  8. Control the meeting.
  9. Think about the outcomes for each agenda point and leave enough time to conclude effectively
  10. Publish minutes within a day or two,