What makes a quality and successful business meeting? I’m pretty sure as you’re starting to read this you’ve sat through your fair share of meetings with no agenda, meetings that took way too long or meetings with the wrong attendees? Have you ever felt that you just have meetings to have meetings? Well, trust me when I say you’re not alone and when it comes to productivity there are ways to make your meetings successful and not seem like a chore for your employees to attend. In this blog post, I’m going to share some of my ideas on what make a meeting successful as well as how to make them flow in a way where your employees can look forward to attending.
Depending on the size of your company and what you do, having weekly or bi-weekly meetings with your employees is probably necessary. That’s not to say that having meetings once a month or even a quarter won’t work but typically meetings should be at least once a month. The key to that meeting is to make it extremely effective and purpose driven. Knowing from the start that most people don’t enjoy meetings is vital because they don’t have to be boring. The following are a few key points to help you have a quality and successful meeting:
- Agenda
- Invite key personal only
- Visuals
- Food and drink
- Start and end time
- Gather key personal data before the meeting
- Allow others to speak
Agenda
This is vital in helping to keep your meeting on point and prevents forgetting key items to discuss. Handing out or emailing your agenda ahead of time can also give attendees a “head start” on what to expect!
Invite Key Personnel Only
Only invite employees who are directly involved in what is going on with that meeting. When you start to invite everyone to the meeting it can get confusing and frankly it is a waste of time for those employees not involved.
Visuals
Visual aids help to drive home key points and keep your attendee’s minds active on what is going on. This will also help the note taking process too.
Food and Drink
This is pretty self-explanatory but trust me when I say it helps.
Start and End Time
This is probably the most important step in each meeting. It will help you stay on point and it will also give your employees an idea of how much time will be taken out of their day for the meeting.
Gather Key Personal Data Before The Meeting
When sending out the agenda, ask your employees if there are issues that they need to discuss or if they need a specific amount of time to talk during the meeting. This will again help with time management.
Allow Others To Speak
Encourage your employees to get involved in the discussion. When others are involved and active it helps with boredom and it also makes them feel involved which is important.
I’m sure just like you, you’ve sat through many meetings that you walk out wondering how you can get the time you lost back. Company-wide meetings are important but actively engaging your employees in them is also important. The above steps are ones that I have found to make meetings more beneficial. In the end, it’s okay to cancel a meeting if need be. So, the next time you have a meeting try all or a few of the steps to help give you a quality and successful meeting which should be your desired result.
In a recent blog post, I highlight a few stories that have been shared with me on meetings that go south! Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions and if there’s a certain topic you would like me to write about, please let me know!
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