Meetings are a great way to communicate with your team and get everyone on the same page. But they can also be a huge pain in the neck. We’ve all had those meetings where it feels like you’re doing more talking than anything else, or you spend all day talking about something that ultimately gets resolved by someone else.

And then there are those meetings that go on for hours of brainstorming, only to end with everyone feeling frustrated and exhausted. What’s wrong with your meetings? Who has time to be running a meeting when they could be working?

We’re here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be this way! You don’t have to be a tyrant at your next meeting—just make sure your team has what they need from the meeting: information, clarity, and actionable items from which they can move forward.

Effective meeting tips to appear more professional:

1. Set a meeting agenda

It’s important not only to set an agenda but also to stick with it. If you want your meetings to run smoothly, it’s best if you keep everyone involved with what happens during each one so that they aren’t left confused or surprised when it comes time for them to speak up or participate in the discussion at hand.

Every meeting starts with setting agenda items and stating the purpose of the meeting. Ensure that the meeting participants know the ground rules and who will report on their department or project.

Then, make sure there are three to four bullet points of the meeting. This will help you stay focused on the call and not get sidetracked by tangents that aren’t relevant. It also helps if you have a clear, concise outline of everything that needs to be covered during the call so that it doesn’t take too long for everyone to meet up at once when they show up late.

This will save you more than enough time with back-to-back meetings. Quickly give and get context.

2. Respect everyone’s time.

It’s important to respect your team members’ time, and not just because it’s polite. The best meetings are ones that are productive and efficient. You don’t want to waste the time of anyone trying to do their job well.

Time management is key. If you’re running a meeting, you should know it takes time to set up, run, and end. So don’t rush through it—instead, try to make the most of your time by having fun and engaging with everyone in the room.

If someone has a question for you or wants more detail than was provided at the beginning of the meeting (or if your meeting is being recorded), give them what they need! Also, ensure that everyone has had enough time to answer questions before moving on to something else.

This helps avoid confusion later on down the line as well as gives people more time to think things over before making decisions.

3. Prepare pre-meeting videos or recaps.

Make a 60 to 90-second video on what the meeting is about. We all know that if we want to get more done, we need to spend less time talking and more time doing it. That’s why implementing pre-meeting video clips helps us communicate the goals of the meeting and refresh our memory on what’s important.

Rather spend a few minutes discussing the strategy than have a bunch of people walking around with their heads down. Having a short video recap of what you’re going to discuss lets you get down to business and stay focused on collaboration and execution.

Plus, who doesn’t love a good show ‘n tell?

4. Don’t bring up politics or religion unless relevant to the conversation (and only if appropriate).

Team meetings are meant to be a place where you can talk about the things that matter most to the team and the company. You want to avoid any distractions that might cause them to lose focus on the goal at hand, which is to make this company greater than it was before.

One way you can do this is by keeping politics and religion out of your meetings. When you bring up these topics, it’s easy for people to get distracted and start thinking about what they think should happen instead of focusing on what actually needs to be done.

This is especially important when discussing sensitive topics like race, gender, sexuality, or disability—if you make it a part of the discussion without discussing it first with everyone involved, you can create an awkward atmosphere.

5. Meeting minutes matter!

If you’ve ever been to a meeting where someone else took notes and then shared them with the group after the last meeting, you know how useful it can be to have everyone’s thoughts laid out on paper rather than trying to recall them later.

Meeting minutes are important for two reasons: first, they provide a record of what happened in the meeting. Second, they serve to remind the group of what was discussed and agreed upon at each point in the meeting. If you don’t write minutes, you’re missing out on both of these benefits!

Meeting notes help organize your thoughts so that they’re easy to reference later on, and they also serve as a helpful way for people who weren’t able attend the meeting but were still involved in its planning process to stay up-to-date with what was going on.

3 Tactics to Implement in Setting the Next Steps

Your prospect, partner, and coworker are all inundated with more communications. The remote world brings on more projects and moving parts. Everyone has competing priorities. Here’s how to manage this effectively. During your current meeting, you should:

1. Determine the date of the next meeting.

One of the most important things you can do to prepare for a meeting is to determine the date of the next one. There are many ways to do this: by setting reminders on your calendar, by making notes in your phone’s calendar app, or by getting an online calendar. Whatever method works best for you, just make sure that it’s easy for everyone involved to find and use!

Once you’ve determined the date for your next meeting, it’s time to figure out how long it will last. It’s important that every member of your team knows how long their part of the meeting will last so they can prepare themselves appropriately. 

Ask:

– “What day in X weeks works best for you? How about Y day at Z time?”

– “Do any people need extra prep time?” (for example, if someone has a family emergency)

2. Discuss what will be accomplished in that meeting.

Ask, “What do you/we want ready at that time? Here’s what I recommend… Anything to add?”

Once you have all your items on the table, ask your attendees if they have any questions or concerns about the plan. This can be a great opportunity to get feedback from the group and address any concerns before moving forward with the agenda.

3. Ask what and when they will think about/prepare for that meeting

“Between now and then, what do you need to do to get that ready? When do you intend on giving yourself time for that?”

You are taking lead, recommending/suggesting, and getting them to commit not only to mental resources but the start of their actual time. These questions are hard to remember and ask when you’re excited. But you need to do it. Do this as the last item on the agenda while you set the next steps. Be the leader others want. Help them think less and focus on the action items more.

BD Paths’ Takeaway

Running effective and successful meetings is a key skill for any leader or manager. It takes practice to be able to run productive meetings, but these guidelines that can help you. With these tips in mind, you should be able to run an effective meeting every time.