Meetings don’t tend to be anyone’s favourite thing to do, but they are crucial when it comes to moving things forward in your business, which is why it’s so important to get them right. If you can ensure you’re able to get your point across and keep people engaged, then it’s far more likely the meeting will be a success and you’ll get the results you wanted in the first place.
A meeting can be called for all kinds of things, such as decision-making, progress tracking, and brainstorming, but they can all too often become unproductive, boring, and uninspiring and your team will start to begrudge having to attend them – the last thing you want to happen is for people to start joking (although it might not be a joke) that the meeting could have been an email – that’s bad for morale and your leadership.
To make a meeting a powerful and useful tool, which is what it should be, you need to take that meeting to the next level and make sure it’s interesting, insightful, and not a waste of anyone’s time. So how can that be done? It might seem impossible, especially if what you have to say isn’t all that exciting – facts and figures are important, but they’re not very jazzy, are they? – but there are ways you can take your meeting to the next level and ensure it makes an impact in a positive way that goes on to get results. With that in mind, keep reading to find out more.
Have Goals
Going into a meeting and not really knowing what it is you want to achieve isn’t going to work – yes, you might have a nice chat about some things, but how will you know when you’re done? How will you know you’ve reached any kind of conclusion or impacted your team and inspired them to do great work? Without goals and objectives, that meeting can easily – and quickly – spiral out of control and in the end, once everyone’s left, you’ll realize that nothing really happened. That’s when you’ll get a reputation for calling pointless meetings that just take people away from their work and don’t achieve anything at all.
If you take some time before your meeting – before you even arrange it, in fact – to work out what it is you want to achieve by the end, you’ll go in much stronger and with more confidence, and you’ll be able to get to the point more easily. Something will actually get done. Some of the questions to ask yourself could be what you want to set in motion by the end of the meeting, what feedback you’re looking for, what decisions need to be made, and so on. Listing it all out and working through bit by bit to tick each item off the agenda means progress and positivity that everyone will feel.
Have An Agenda
We’ve briefly mentioned the agenda above, and although it might feel as though you’re just creating more work for yourself, the fact is that the agenda can save the meeting from over-running and can ensure you reach all the objectives you’ve planned out.
You can think of your agenda as a roadmap for the meeting, and if you stick to it as much as possible (some flexibility is important as you’ll usually be asking for feedback anyway, and that can lead to other questions etc), you’ll be able to keep everything much more focused and on track. You’ll need to outline the topics that have to be covered and allocate a specific amount of time for each item – in that way, you can have a better idea of when the meeting will end (something anyone attending will be happy to be told about in advance so they can plan their day) and you’ll know when things are over-running or getting away from you, and you can pull everything back.
It’s also a good idea to share your agenda with all the participants before the meeting because they’ll be able to come up with questions or think about how they want to contribute to the meeting in advance, and that can save time but also make the meeting a lot more meaningful and constructive.
Make It Look Good
No matter what the subject matter of your meeting might be, it needs to look good. In other words, there has to be some kind of visual element if you want to keep people engaged and get the most out of the participants. Plus, when it’s visual, people are more likely to remember what the meeting was about and action the points they have to.
This could even come down to the venue or meeting room you choose. You’ll need to pick a location that’s not going to distract people from the task at hand, but that’s still a good, pleasant space to be in. And if you’re hosting a virtual meeting, you’ll still need to think about your background – having a neutral background might be a better choice than something bright and colorful, and it’s often better than just showing your own study or living room, as that can be very distracting.
Another way to make your meeting look good is to use visual aids like slides, charts, and diagrams. Don’t worry if that’s not really your thing because you can outsource the work to a PowerPoint presentation design agency if that works better for you, and you’ll get a fantastic-looking result that really sells what you need it to and keeps everyone engaged because it looks great. The fact is that visual aids like these can enhance people’s understanding and retention of key information, and visually appealing slides with bullet points, relevant images, and consistent, attractive formatting really can make a positive difference.
While you’re making your meeting look good, don’t forget to add some subtle reminders of who you are and what you do – putting your branding in your visual aids just brings home the point about your business, and it can help whether you’re in a meeting with colleagues and employees or potential clients.
Lead By Example
As a business owner, manager, or head of a department, you’ve likely heard that you need to lead by example, and hopefully, you’re already doing it in your day-to-day business life and work. However, what about when it comes to your meetings? Can you do it there as well? The answer is yes, you can. Plus, you should.
As a meeting leader, it’s your behavior that absolutely sets the tone for the rest of the group, so you’ll need to make sure you’re behaving in a way that you want other people to. Are you listening to others when they speak? Are you respecting all viewpoints? Are you being inclusive? The more you can do to show that you care about the people in the room, the more the people in the room will care about what you’re talking about. If you look bored or you tell them that you know they don’t want to be there or you joke around (too much – some humor can be a great way to liven up a meeting, especially if the topic is quite dry) they’ll take that as a sign that you’re not taking things seriously or that you don’t want to be there either, and when that happens, you’ve lost them and the meeting won’t be a success. That’s why you need to work hard on your own words and even facial expressions – it might be a small thing, but it can make a big impact.
Give People Things To Do
We’ve probably all been in those meetings where a lot was said but at the end, nothing was really done and nothing was really changed. Everyone just left the room or signed out of the online program and went about their day just like before – just as if the meeting had never happened.
That just means everything the meeting leader – you, in other words – said was pointless. Meetings are all about giving information and making change, and if only one part of that happens, why bother at all?
That’s why you need to allocate tasks to people by the end of the meeting and make sure that every individual or every department if that works better has a task and a deadline, and that they understand why they’re being asked to do what they’re doing. Remember to designate people to be accountable for those tasks as well – not only does it mean it’s more likely the work will get done by the date you’ve set, but it’s also a great way to show your team how much you trust them and rely on them. That’s going to make everything a lot more positive and help to make the meeting go more smoothly as well as everything that’s meant to come afterwards.
Finally, if you’re handing out tasks, it’s best to have a good idea of who should do what before you begin, and then, when you’ve heard people’s ideas, you can rearrange those plans if need be. Plus, make sure you note it all down, otherwise, there might be some confusion and there won’t be any accountability.