Why Are We Meeting?
Holding meetings, organizing the direction of your company and personnel, is something that a manager must do when managing a business.
One of the downsides to having a meeting is that the employees may find them boring and a waste of time; the truth is, you may meet resistance to having them at all.
As the manager, you need overcome these objections even if they are not directed at you specifically. We’re going to now look at a number of ways that you can make your meetings valuable for everybody, and make them effective too.
Structure The Meeting Properly
The nature of your work or business may shape when the best time to hold a meeting is and you need to decide what will be good for both you and your employees. You want all of your personnel to be focused during the meeting, and not distracted by things that they will be doing later on in the day. You should make sure that the meeting is set up correctly and at a time where the success of the meeting is going to be optimal. Just before the meeting, an agenda should be sent out. This is so that the staff will have a chance to get ready for input that they may have to give at the meeting itself.
“There are good meetings and there are bad meetings. Bad meetings drone on forever, you never seem to get to the point, and you leave wondering why you were even present. Effective ones leave you energized and feeling that you’ve really accomplished something. So what makes a meeting effective”?
Running Effective Meetings: Establishing an Objective and Sticking to It
Handling Complaints Properly
A lot of people that complain about meetings are usually annoyed because it goes off course or the duration of the meeting is way too lengthy. As the manager, you should make sure that the meeting stays on track and only lasts as long as mentioned in the schedule. Often you will not have enough material to conduct the meeting for the usual period of time. Rather than making up material, or dragging it out, let people go home so that they’ll not feel that their time was wasted. In case you are chairing the meeting, make sure you keep the schedule on track.
“Have you ever heard anyone complain a meeting was too short? (Neither have I.) Ever been frustrated at a meeting by rambling chitchat chewing up time while work remains undone… or by stragglers routinely wandering in 10 minutes late? In the spirit of brevity and productivity, here are 5 simple steps for more efficient, effective meetings.”
5 Simple Steps To More Efficient, Effective Meetings
Participation Is The Key
A meeting that is running efficiently usually has a lot of participation. You shouldn’t be talking to those who are staring at you blankly. One way to ensure the meeting flows well is to delegate assignments to several staff members. This will give them some sense of responsibility and change the meeting up to make it flow better. In meetings where you are the only individual talking, you need to get feedback or ask questions so there is some group engagement. You may delegate the responsibility of the meeting to someone else, but you still have to maintain control over timing and content. In this way you can fully engage everyone at the meeting to make it more worthwhile.
Follow-Up Is A Must
Make sure you keep minutes of the meeting and any action points that are mentioned must be followed up. Unless you do this, issues that need to be resolved may not be resolved which could lead to problems afterwards. By taking the minutes or summary of the previous meeting, you can go over this first to ensure what was talked about has been dealt with. So long as everyone is involved, actions are moving forward and you properly prepare, you should have an effective meeting each and every time.
About Steve Giles
Co-owner/Co-founder of Intesi! Resources. Educated as an architect I transitioned to technology during my career in architecture. Intesi! Resources was founded in 2004 and my focus is everything Web/eCommerce related from the design and development of our site to all the marketing activities involved. I also provide significant support for our clients on all our products and how they are used to deliver assessment-driven learning solutions that develop self-awareness and interpersonal skills.
