Meetings are a crucial part of any business. They offer an opportunity to bounce ideas, address any issues, and meet face to face about elaborate subjects.
Hold a Meeting Only When You Need
Many companies commit to holding a meeting on a fairly regular basis, but this structure may not make for the most productive meetings. Having a meeting with no real purpose results in lost time and no productivity. If you have a meeting when you need to, then the team will be far more engaged, and you will make more headway with ideas.
Create an Agenda
If you decide that whatever topic you’re going to discuss requires a meeting, make sure you create a detailed agenda of what’s to be discussed. Having these talking points and allowing time for each topic ensures you’ll have a productive meeting. It’s also important that your invite list for the meeting only includes those who contribute to topics discussed on the agenda.
Stick to the agenda
There’s really no point in creating an agenda if you don’t plan on sticking to it. There will be instances where other things may try to make themselves the center of attention at these meetings, but make a note of it later and table the conversation for a later date. If it’s not relevant to the agenda, it doesn’t need to be spoken about at that very moment.
End with An Action Plan
The best part about meetings is that they force you to leave with some tangible action steps to take and implement. For example, if you’re meeting was about increasing the sales in the company, set aside time, in the end, to discuss how everyone is going to make that happen. These last 5-10 minutes discussing the next steps are what will set you up for success.
Have an End Time
When you schedule a meeting, make sure you have an end time. This ensures that no time is wasted, and it also shows your team that you value everyone’s time. If you go over, or if the time isn’t spent efficiently, it takes away from whatever other productive tasks people could be taking part in. The added constraint of a time crunch actually helps everyone focus on the meeting!
A business meeting requires everyone’s full attention and dedication to the given time. Do you have tips for running an effective meeting? Let us know in the comments.
