It has been widely observed across organisations everywhere that meetings tend to take an inordinately large amount of the available working time of employees – and more often than not, these meetings fail to achieve the necessary ends.
To begin with, we need to recognise the features of a successful meeting. In a “nut shell”, these features can be put forward as result oriented and restricted to a stipulated time frame. Let’s take a closer look at some key steps that need to be followed for effectively conducting a business meeting.
1. Preparation – Just like any other business endeavour, advanced preparation is absolutely necessary, as the better prepared you are, the more productive the meeting will turn out to be. Besides, this way you will be able to make much more meaningful contributions.
2. Timing – A business meeting should be conducted according to a time frame, and it should commence and end by the specified time. Meetings which are scheduled and task-oriented usually get quite a bit more active participation from everyone present.
3. Agenda – There should be an agenda which specifically states the topics to be included in the meeting. This agenda will provide a fairly clear idea of what will be talked about, thereby giving all of the participants the opportunity to prepare ahead of time for the listed topics.
4. Focus – It’s essential that the focus of the meeting should be rigidly held to the points which were outlined beforehand – as it’s all too easy for a meeting to drift off in a undesirable direction, therefore the meeting directors and participants have to work towards holding the focus on the set aim.
5. Communication – Complete and accurate information should always be provided in every meeting to ensure effective communication.
6. Agreement – Often during a meeting, the views of two or more people won’t match, but it’s crucial that at the end of the meeting all of the participants agree on a common decision. After all, as anyone invoved in management training knows all to well, this unilateral agreement on a single line of action is the common aim of every meeting.
7. Feedback – A meeting may be successful in achieving the desired result, however there may still be room for improvement in the overall method or implementation. To have a clear idea how effective the meeting was, request feedback from the participants.
8. Confidentiality – The confidential material discussed in the meeting should be restricted to the attendants only, and if possible, measures should be taken to ensure that unauthorised persons can’t access any of the restricted documents or materials.
Finally, at the end of the meeting, most business coaching experts suggest that a brief review should be discussed, covering what was discussed during the meeting as well as any major decisions which were agreed upon.
Alan Gillies is the Managing Director of the L2L Group. He specialises in delivering Executive Coaching, Training and Consultancy Services to International Businesses across the World. Want to discover more about these insightful business building success strategies? Get Alan’s essential FREE Business Pack today!
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