Being able to run effective and efficient meetings is one of the many things that make successful girlbosses! Meetings have the potential to facilitate productive collaboration among workers, but more often then not they end up feeling like a grand waste of time. To help you make sure that your meetings are productive, here are some of our favorite tips of the trade!
Keep it Concise
Time is a valuable commodity, so valuing your coworkers’ time as well as your own during a meeting is imperative! A good rule of thumb is to keep your meeting at 30 minutes or less. With today’s dwindling attention spans, a 30 minute meeting gives you just enough time to communicate information and new ideas without wasting a minute. The shorter time-frame keeps people on track and forces all of the participants, including yourself, to speak with intention. If after 30 minutes you find that another meeting needs to take place, set a time for a follow up. Remember that you can always have another meeting, but you can’t get back wasted time!
Stick to a Schedule
Putting together a schedule and sticking to it is a must. Your schedule should be a detailed agenda about what will be discussed, when, and for how long. Setting a timeframe for each topic allows you to keep the meeting on track and the conversation moving!
When creating your agenda, be sure to not use vague language like “brainstorm new ideas.” Instead, state exactly what you’ll be discussing. Once you’ve created this agenda, send it to all of the meeting participants so that they know what they need to be prepared for! Be clear and state how you expect everyone to participate in the meeting. For example, if you’ll be brainstorming for your upcoming holiday campaigns, ask everyone to come prepared with their top 3 ideas to share. You don’t need to list every single bullet point you’re going to discuss, but you do need to set yourself up for efficiency!
Define Your Goal
Great leaders are goal-oriented! So, be sure to define your goals in your meeting’s agenda and also at the start of your meeting. Remember, everything that takes place within the meeting should get you one step closer to reaching your goal! Keeping this in mind will help you to avoid any tangents or off-topic discussions.
Keep the Circle Small
When planning for a meeting, keep the circle small by inviting the right people. We’ve all sat through a meeting that had nothing to do with our role and asked ourselves “why am I here?” You watch the minutes tick by on your watch and your mind fills with all of the productive work you could be doing with this time. When you’re the one who is spearheading a meeting, be sure to include the right people. Ask yourself what role each member invited will play in the meeting, and if there are any members whose role is ambiguous or presence is not necessary, reconsider asking them to attend!
Keeping the circle small also helps to ensure that you stay on topic. Having too many cooks in the kitchen delays productivity and can invite unwanted distractions! Knowing what role everyone plays will also help you to follow up with the progress on all discussed projects once the meeting has finished!
Sum it Up
As you go about planning your next meeting, remember to finish strong! While having an inspiring conversation about all of the brilliant things you’re going to do is awesome, it won’t happen without a plan in place. So, before ending the meeting, go over the ideas you’ve decided upon, assign who will be in charge of each task, and clarify the timeline of these projects!
By incorporating each of these elements, you’ll be running effective meetings in no time!
What are some of your favorite tips for running effective meetings? Let us know in the comments below!
