Mind Your Meetings …!

You are probably much like me in thinking “oh gosh, not another meeting!” or a secondary meeting to talk about the details of the first meeting. Maybe even a third. Don’t get me wrong, meetings are necessary, especially if you’re still stuck working in corporate or perhaps even working in or own a virtual business, such as myself. However, there comes a time when some meetings either become unproductive or unnecessary.

Kind of like you’re in rinse n’ repeat mode.

We do not want to feel like we just lost a handful of minutes (or maybe even hours) of our day when we could’ve been doing something else to make the business world in which we live run smoother. And not feel as though our to-do list just got pushed to the wayside yet again due to another meeting that didn’t present anything relevant. We want these meetings to be productive … It’s not just about minding your P’s and Q’s but respectfully minding your P’s, R’s and S’s in handling some extremely common meeting faux pas. You’re probably wondering what I mean by P, R and S.

Let me explain by sharing some simple tips to help your meetings stay on target …

It’s all about your P’s … preparation, having a purpose and presence.

First rule of thumb here, and listen up because this is the most important thing I’m going to tell you in this post … If you don’t have a good reason to host a meeting, then don’t have one. But if you do … your meeting objectives and deliverables should be clearly stated in the agenda. Personally, I do this right within the email meeting request. And only invite those who truly need to be there. You can also choose to send the agenda ahead of time (prior to the solid booking) to solicit suggestions and ideas. This way when everyone arrives, they are prepared and focused.

It’s also about your R’s … recording and not rewinding.

Make sure when setting up your meeting you allow for a reasonable amount of time for discussion and some time for Q&A. Also, if you are meeting virtually on a platform like Zoom or Skype, set your meeting to record in case you need to go back to review some of the details and this way you don’t have to take notes and can completely focus and participate in the conversation. However, if you’re meeting in person, it’s probably a good idea to assign a note taker/keeper. This way nothing gets missed and an email round-up of details can be provided to all team members how participate, or need to participate in the projects/tasks, have all the information they need.

And whatever you do, try your best to start your meetings on time and once you start, don’t stop or get distracted by an email notification or your phone ringing. Set these devices/platforms to silent so no time is wasted, and the agenda doesn’t fall off the track. It’s not only disrespectful to all those who took time out of their day to participate but also not productive.

Bonus Tip:
If you and your team like to socialize before meetings, make things simple and just include some time for catching up within the meeting agenda.

And, about your S’s … the seats, sweets and surprises.

Location. Location. Location.

If you’re working with a local client or team, try to change things up a bit. If you know it’s going to be a shorter meeting, do it virtually to save everyone some time being stuck in traffic. Or, if you tend to meet in person or the meeting is going to be an hour or longer, change up the meeting location to spice things up a bit. Perhaps even surprise everyone by serving some treats or fun bevvies.

Also, don’t just work everyone to death with the details. Give value to them by concluding the meeting with a short team (or client) building activity, inspirational quote or speech, or even a short, fun video. Pump them up and show them how much you appreciate and respect their time.

Minding all these items will not only bring you an excellent return on the investment of your meeting time but also your resources.

T-E-A-M … Together everyone achieves more and having a S-Y-S-T-E-M … saves you stress, time energy and money.

However, if for some reason your team is not on point, members are always tardy, deviating from the agenda and interrupting others while talking then maybe it’s time to consider a new meeting strategy OR time for a new team.

#HostSmartMeetings

Some people say that “time is money”. I beg to differ … Time is precious. Money comes and goes.