10 Tips for managing your meeting

Meetings are a necessary evil in business. The average executive spends 18 hours a week at meetings despite almost half of all attendees saying that meetings are the number one time-waster at work. If not planned efficiently they can be a drain on the purse strings in terms of wasted man hours and a loss in productivity through staff being called to attend a meeting. To make the very best of your meetings here are some tips to keep it effective and efficient.

1. Have a clear objectives for a meeting

You and the attendees need to have a clear understanding of why you are meeting. For a successful meeting you have to have clear objectives and an agenda. Your meeting may be to discuss an issue that has arisen, it may be to plan strategy for next year or to make a decision on a new appointment. Whatever the meeting is for, you need to be sure what you want to accomplish. The objective should be stated at outset of the meeting and what anticipated outcomes you are expecting. In other words set the expectations and review if you have achieved what you set out to do at the end of the meeting.

2. Opt for an offsite meeting

It is easy for attendees to be interrupted by colleagues if the meeting you have called takes place in the office. Distractions can divert the attention of a colleague and create an alternative agenda in the meeting. Take your meeting offsite and into an alternative environment which can energise attendees and give them greater focus on your meeting.

3. Be Prepared

If you are not prepared then your meeting will lack focus and you will not come out with the outcomes you are hoping to achieve. Ahead of the meeting circulate an email explaining the objective of the meeting and asking attendees for any points they would like to raise in the meeting. Once you have your responses, draw up the agenda for the meeting. The agenda should include the topics, the order they will be discussed and who will address each topic. Circulate the agenda with a meeting invite appointment so that your meeting will be inserted into your attendees’ electronic diary.

4. Be selective as to who you invite

Make sure that the people you invite to your meeting can add value and understand what is being discussed. If your meeting is to share information then consider using an email instead. Meetings relating to decisions need to include those people, or their deputies, who are in a position to take a decision on behalf of their function.

5. Start on time

A prompt start means that you won’t lose time and sends a message out to latecomers that their lateness will be their loss and not yours. If you have a screen in the meeting room then having the purpose of the meeting and the agenda published will help latecomers to find where you are on the agenda and focus them on the purpose of the meeting. The time you have allocated to your meeting can never be recovered so make every minute count.

6. Create engagement through tech

Using resources from outside the room that are available on the internet and can be used in your meeting is a sure way to gain engagement from those attending the meeting. Bringing in a remote worker or a senior manager through zoom can also lead to greater engagement and productivity. Use tech selectively but ensure that whatever tech you choose does add value to the outcome of your meeting.

7. Leave time for creativity

Drawing people into a meeting can be the catalyst to draw out new ideas based on the experience in the room. Short, constructive meetings are ideal but when you have the opportunity to generate ideas and discussion from those attending then do so as you may never get this opportunity again!

8. Remain focused

It is one of the hardest tasks that a meeting organiser has to do but an off-topic discussion can seriously derail your meeting and take the meeting away from the purpose of why it has been called. Although it is human nature to share stories and draw learning points from such stories you need to keep a handle on when the story has completely deviated away from why you have called the meeting. Having a clearly defined objective for the meeting will be the anchor for you to steer the meeting back to the purpose without causing offence to the individual(s) who are having an off-topic discussion. Having a clear focus means that action steps can be noted and followed up. If you find that action points have not been identified then the meeting has not successfully met its objective.

9. Keep your meeting on point

Attention does tend to wane after 30 minutes particularly if those in the room are regularly checking their phones for emails, WhatsApp messages and telephone calls. Where such individuals who have a tendency to be interrupted or called upon to make decision are attending your meeting keep them engaged through assigning them a role at the meeting. A great role for such people is to take the minutes where they will need to remain focused on the discussions to make sure that the points raised are being correctly documented. Keeping a timed agenda gives focus and time to each assigned topic and gives a time marker to those that are attending as to how much time is left in the meeting. Ask for phones to be switched to silent or even entertain a phone parking lot and encourage attendees to use it.

10. Follow up

For your meeting to be a success you must have action points that have been assigned to an individual that are time based. A follow up email to all those attending that details the key points of the meeting with these action points, confirms what was discussed and agreed so that there is no confusion relating to the outcome. Ask those attending to provide feedback and be open to suggestions.

Key takeaways to consider before holding your next meeting:

• Is the meeting necessary

• What outcome does the meeting need to achieve

• Will the meeting benefit from being held offsite

• Who needs to attend

• What will be the agenda