Running An Effective Meeting
Whether you’re high up in management or you own a place, you probably have to conduct a few meetings once in a while. Sure, there are probably times when you feel you’re getting nothing across but there are also times you feel like you’ve gotten everything across to everyone. No matter what the situation is when it comes to meeting, your meetings should go 100% all the time.
Is the meeting necessary?
Before you even start the meeting, do you really need to get everyone together? Let’s think about it for a second. Are you conducting a meeting because you’re cutting back on coffee expenses? If so, maybe you want to take the memo route and just hand it out to everyone.
Let people know about the meeting
When you’re about to prepare a meeting, make sure that everyone knows about it and make sure that everyone is there. Whether you let them know by memo or by word of mouth, you need to strict when it comes to the meeting. Make sure you give them a clear idea on what the meeting is about and why it effects them and the company. If employees don’t feel involved, they may not want to show up.
Know what you want to discuss
As the meeting coordinator, never go to the meeting empty handed. Instead, make sure that you have a PowerPoint presentation or some notes handy so that you’re not sitting up there with a blank stare on your face. If you keep thinking about what you’re going to say, how serious are your employees going to take you?
Set the atmosphere
Many people feel more comfortable if they can meet outside of the office. If the meeting is casual, try and think of a new place to have it. Don’t have it somewhere where there are too many distractions like a park or restaurant because you may find people not focusing on you but rather the surroundings. Try places like a coffee shop or local library. Sometimes getting out of the office is a breath of fresh air.
Always set the rules
Before you even start the meeting, let your team know what the meeting is about. If you’re going to do all the talking, let them know that. Tell them that there are no interruptions to take place. If there’s going to be questions, let them know when they can ask them. The more organized you are, the better the meeting will go.
Always stick with your times
If you say the meeting is going to be from 1 – 3, don’t start late and don’t go over time, people hate this! If you say the meeting is going to last until 3 and you go to 3:30, everyone will be antsy to get out during that 1/2 hour because they know that they should be out.
An effective meeting isn’t hard it shouldn’t be hard to get your points across. As long as you follow most of these points, you shouldn’t have any problem getting your message across to your team.
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