How to run an effective meeting? Really important question for managers and entrepreneurs, persons that will need to know how to run an effective meeting.
Often, meetings are considered as an important communication tool in the business, but also many times it brings negative effects on personal productivity for the meeting participants.
What means for you to run an effective meeting? When I talk about an effective meeting I mean about the meetings that are:
- Effective where participants will do the right things and
- Efficient where participants will do things in the right way.
Because of that if you want to run really effective meetings you will have to bring the right problems on the table that will be the subject of meeting discussion and in the same time to have the process of managing meeting that will enable that the discussion will be managed in the right direction.
Here, I want to share 16 tips that will help you in your efforts to succeed in making meetings in your company to be as much as possible effective.
1. As a first, you need to be sure that your meeting is important for your small business, otherwise don’t organize it.
2. Because you are an entrepreneur and the meeting organizer at the same time you will need to prepare yourself about the meeting.
3. What will be the real purpose of the meeting? Before you continue with the meeting organization you will need to be clear about the purpose of the meeting, or what will be the main output from the meeting.
Related: How to Be More Productive at Work in This Messy Business Environment
4. Having agenda is must have if you want to run an effective meeting.
5. Distribute the agenda in proper time before the meeting, not when your meeting starts.
6. While building your agenda, think about time wisely, it is important for your own and the productivity of other participants.
7. Invite only persons who will really contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the meeting.
8. Limit number of persons as participants that you can effectively manage on a meeting.
9. Give to everyone invited on the meeting the chance to discuss.
Related: Best Meeting Minutes Software Solutions for Your Company
10. Always limit discussion time.
11. You need to create rules that will need to be followed during the meetings.
12. After acceptance of the agenda, stick to it.
13. Use recording tools to record all discussions on the meeting.
14. Always finish the meeting with the summarization of agreements, recommendations, conclusions, and next action steps.
15. After the meeting always distribute minutes of meeting to all participant.
16. The last important tip that you will need to do is to delegate next actions to all meeting participants.
