I’m sure over the last few months you have attended more meetings via video conferencing than you thought possible or necessary!

What is it about meetings that frustrates you? Is it the fact that the agenda is not provided or that the meetings go off topic? Is it that it feels like a waste of your time, where you could be doing something more productive?

If you are a meeting leader then it is important to run each meeting effectively:

• to get the decisions and outcomes you need and

• to not waste people’s time, but also to

• build or maintain relationships

So, how do you go about all of that?

Firstly, you need a clear plan and direction (this is called an agenda). State the time frames for each item to be discussed. Make sure that the topics are relevant to the people attending the meeting.  If the topic is not relevant to most of the people there, then take it off the agenda and communicate in a different way.

Next make sure you have the right people in the meeting, don’t waste people’s time by asking them to come along ‘just in case’ there is something they might be able to contribute.

Get the minutes and action points circulated well before the meeting too, so that you don’t waste time going over them but just do a check in to ensure everything was done as expected.

Lastly meetings are a social gathering, spend some time building relationships. You could do this by initiating the meeting with brief introductions and a thought provoking question – the key here is to keep it brief – it’s not the main focus of the meeting, just a warm up and rapport building opportunity.

If there are new people joining your regular meeting, make sure to introduce them and encourage good attendance by making the meeting relevant, efficient and collaborative.

Learn to listen for signals, such as people dominating the conversation or going off track or derailing the meeting with their own views. Strong meeting management skills are often overlooked but are essential for effective meetings.

For help with making your meetings more effective contact Carol@onedaytraining.co.nz.  Training on effective meetings via facilitated sessions or online.