If you are leading a coalition, partnership, team or board, you are also leading lots of meetings. Effective meetings create opportunities for engagement and potential for follow-through. However, effective meetings don’t just “happen.” You have to invest time, energy and resources to prepare, host and follow-up to successfully conduct “effective” meetings. Join me this week as I provide three tips on how to make your next meeting be more effective.
Be clear about your purpose
Develop one succinct sentence that describes why you are meeting. When you are clear about your purpose, it makes it easier to figure out who needs to attend the meeting. When you have the right people attending the meeting, you can actively engage them in accomplishing the purpose.
Make it interactive
Start the meeting with questions and opportunities to engage. This is particularly important for virtual meetings. If you need ideas, check out “We and Me” and their conversation cards. Share your video and encourage others to share their videos when answering questions and engaging in conversation. When working in a project, share your screen and let folks react in “real time.”
End with clear action items
At the end of the meeting, leave enough time to make decisions and develop action items. Determine the people responsible for each action item and a timeframe for completion. If you have not had an opportunity to be clear about specific action items or decisions, then make that your one action item! Ask your participants to reflect on the discussion. Send a follow-up email with clear bullet points and a plan for making the decision.
If you want to check out some additional resources on effective meetings, check out the following:
- My free e-book on “How to Lead Your Best Meeting Yet”
- My free worksheet on “How to Lead Your Best Online Meeting Yet”
- The Doodle Meetings Report from 2019
- Patrick Lencioni’s Death by Meeting book
So what about you? What have you found to work best in conducting effective meetings?
Download my newest free resource where I provide additional guidance on how to conduct effective meetings.
