An efficient meeting can quickly and effectively keep every employee on the map about how your projects are going, but poor meetings only dampen morale and mood. If you are wondering how to run an effective meeting in order to make sure that your employees are happy and productive, getting the most out of your time together is one of the most important practices that a business can improve on.
HOW TO RUN AN EFFECTIVE MEETING
For any meetings, you want the right balance of quality and quantity. Too many meetings over the span of weeks or months, even if they are effective, will act as an anchor on everyone’s time and spirits. Determine whether it is absolutely crucial to have a meeting at any point is key — can you replace a meeting with an email communication or a memo? Face to face time is quite valuable, but not at the expense of pulling people away from their calendars.
ADVANCE PREPARATIONS
Try to put in as much time preparing for a meeting as you expect it to last. Determine what you want the result or goal to be, if you want everyone to be aware of a concept or if you want every employee to be introduced to a new partner. Have every participant be aware of the objective of the meeting by creating an agenda and briefly showing how each presentation or speaker is going to add to their knowledge base.
KEEP THE PACE GOING
When you are running a meeting, you are effectively on the clock for the entire time, making it your responsibility that everyone’s time is used productively, or else it is company resources that are being wasted. Show everyone that their time is valuable by not wasting it with off-topic discussions. Ensure that everyone comes back to the point whenever they speak so that there is no time on issues that are not relevant.
GET EVERYONE TO SPEAK
In the corporate world, there are many wallflowers and there are many chatterboxes. Be sure that everyone has the chance to speak their opinion on a subject without individuals dominating the conversation or people slacking off by letting others do the talking. Try not to monopolize the talking time, since even if you are a manager it creates the idea that your opinion is more valuable than others.
TAKE DETAILED NOTES
Make sure that your objectives were reached in a meeting by taking detailed notes. Put down the time of important concepts so that you are able to know how the meeting flowed.
