How to run effective meetings

A key skill to survive in this business world: running meetings. As soon as I entered the real world, whether it was different roles or industries, there was always one thing in common. Meetings. There are SO many meetings that happen in this world.

From one end, I’d say it’s beautiful. The interconnectedness of the human world, the various conversations and small interactions that add up in this entire network to keep moving the economy and society onto another day. The range of people conversing, sharing ideas and building better versions of themselves and their companies. Humans getting together and talking is the foundation of human civilization all over the world – the Greeks, Indians, Persians, Chinese, everywhere really. Even our modern day parliaments are really just big meetings. The world is a culmination of these beautiful interactions taking place all over the world, discussing topics of all varieties, mundane or revolutionary.

It became obvious very quickly that successful leaders run effective meetings.

Alongside the barter of ideas and solutions, from an individual perspective, it creates a space to connect and learn. There is a lot of wisdom and experience in every human being, we come with different sets of experiences and neural wiring, so everyone has their own approach to problem-solving.

I have learnt SO MUCH from participating in meetings with some amazing people, from learning how to communicate a problem effectively to understanding how to break it down logically and provide solutions. It has provided me a chance to grow and also, deepen my relationship with my colleagues.

On the other end, they suck. They can be a lot of work, time consuming, nerve racking or sometimes, completely useless.

Whether you like them or not, meetings are important. I’ve spent a lot of my professional time in meetings, observing how effective managers run their meetings to create fruitful solutions, provide directions to their team and communicate clearly and effortlessly.

So, I set on a quest: how can I have the most fruitful meetings?

Everyone has a different style, and over time, I’ve developed my own too – however, I have found certain key characteristics that lead to successful meetings.

Facilitator

Have a leader. Pick someone (probably yourself). Simple.

Define a need

This one seems obvious, but you’d be surprised about the amount of meetings in which the facilitator and participants waffle on about a topic without having a clear idea of why they’re discussing it. As a leader, it is important to set a purpose for your people. You’d be surprised how much time you save when the meeting has a goal.

When defining a purpose, it is imperative to maintain a good balance between being too vague and too specific.

Ask yourself:

Why are we having this meeting?

What do the attendees need to do in preparation?

What information needs to be discussed?

What results am I hoping for by the end of it?

Answering these questions will allow you to have a clearer idea of the purpose of the meeting and provide greater direction to the participants.

Just as important, communicate this with your attendees. They need to know the need for the meeting and be prepared before coming.

Make sure to send this information with ample time to prepare and in writing – so there aren’t any “surprises” to anyone.

Setting at least one key deliverable can help measure the effectiveness of a meeting and make it easier to allocate tasks and create next steps.

Invite the right people

Once you’ve understood the need for the meeting – pick your attendees carefully. Not every Tom, Dick and Harry’s got to come. It saves everyone’s time.

Seriously, this is really important.

Ask yourself:

Who does the purpose pertain to?

Which individuals/ team/ stakeholders’ inputs are required?

Who holds the information that is required?

Who will this issue affect?

Relating to the previous point, make sure the attendees are aware of the meeting’s purpose and thus, will give them reason to show up. Let them know if any preparation is required (in writing).

Maintain Authority

When you’re running a meeting, have a massive ego. I know how it sounds, but hear me out. It’s very easy for a meeting to run off on tangents and slip you by. It is important to be a little hard headed and maintain your authority as the facilitator of the meeting. Whether you’re an intern or a partner, the person running the meeting chooses what gets discussed.

Effective managers interject and stop conversations that deviate from the scope of the meeting, to save time and maintain the usefulness of the meeting.

People, naturally, have a tendency to run off on tangents, especially when you get really passionate, or technical people on a call. The duty of a facilitator is to control this, you’re kind of like that annoying lawyer that calls out “Objection: Irrelevant” and the judge that says “Sustained”, at the same time.

This is crucial – don’t back down. Stand your ground to get the right outcome for the meeting.

Give responsibility

Chances are, your meeting will lead to more discussions, tasks and further steps. That’s usually good – means there was progress and quite frankly, shit needs to get done. The question begs then, will this shit get done?

If you set next steps without holding any individual or team accountable, it’s more than likely not going to get done. Great managers know this, and will allocate tasks specifically so everyone is clear what is expected from them in the future.

Allocating tasks appropriately and responsibly is essential, allowing further steps to be taken and most importantly, gives you the power to hold a party accountable for its completion.

Follow up

People are busy, miscommunication occurs, things just happen.

A key lesson for life, in general, is to get everything in writing. Meeting minutes aren’t just there to give the intern something to do – they’re our source to ensure communication is documented and thus, the appropriate parties are held responsible.

Send a summary of the meeting and everyone’s allocated tasks afterwards. This may be extra work, but has many benefits:

Reminds attendees of their tasks

Clears up any miscommunication (you can’t hear an email wrong)

Allows you to hold others accountable in future (if needed)

Make sure to tell everyone to keep an eye on their email for a summary, at the end of the meeting AND include you told everyone in the meeting minutes. This is essential – so that the allocated tasks don’t just get “lost” in their emails.

Summary

The message here is simple: meetings are important, but not all meetings end up being useful. It’s a trait of successful leaders to make meetings worthwhile. Being able to run effective meetings will drastically change the productivity and output of your team and wider stakeholders.

Great managers understand and lead people to have fruitful meetings through being clear, concise and decisive. I know there’s a great emphasis on accountability and gives a somewhat cynical view of people – but you have to plan for the worst.

I wish you all have valuable meetings forevermore.