3 Tips for Running Focused, Productive Meetings
No matter how you feel about meetings, chances are, you’ve been in some good ones and plenty of bad ones. As I’ve written previously, I strongly believe that respecting people’s time is a critical leadership behavior.
Running focused, productive meetings is one of the key ways leaders can demonstrate respect for their team members’ time. (And conversely, running long, meandering meetings that don’t achieve their goals is a sure fire way to kill your team’s morale.)
After decades of attending and running meetings in a variety of organizations, here’s my take on how focused, productive meetings occur:
1. The Leader Leads the Meeting
The first question is: who’s the leader of the meeting? In a work-related setting, it’s often the leader of the team, organization, or project that the meeting concerns. Even when a group of colleagues meets, someone felt the need to call the meeting— so, they are the leader.
It’s important to be clear who the leader is because the meeting’s effectiveness hinges on how the leader behaves. If the leader of the meeting doesn’t actually lead the meeting, it stands little chance of being focused and productive. (Unless someone else at the meeting steps up and takes the lead. However, power struggles are a clear way to distract everyone from the meeting’s purpose.)
Sometimes a meeting takes place where a junior colleague is “in charge” of a meeting with more senior leaders. If this is the case, the senior leaders need to clearly articulate their support of the person leading the meeting. If that support wavers during the meeting, the group may become confused and ineffective.
The details of how the leader leads the meeting will vary depending on the kind of meeting, the size of the group, and the intended outcome. For example, two common reasons for having meetings are: (1) to reach consensus on an issue or decision, or (2) to gather information for a leadership decision or action.
Leading a consensus decision-making meeting will involve ensuring all members of the group are given the opportunity to contribute, making sure the full issue is addressed, and finally, ensuring the group decision is made, and respected by all.
When the intended outcome of the meeting is information gathering, there is more leeway on the shape the discussion takes, and the meeting activities will vary depending on the leader’s style.
Regardless of the meeting’s purpose or goals, having a single leader overseeing the “shape” of the way the group spends its time is critical for success.
2. The Leader Commits to Keeping the Meeting Focused
Agendas are great, and I believe in having them, but they can’t run a meeting by themselves. The real key is: the leader of the meeting needs to commit to keeping the meeting focused, and then do it!
That could involve articulating an agenda but depending on the meeting topic, a detailed agenda may not be necessary. What’s necessary is that everyone at the meeting knows why they’re there and what the purpose of the meeting is — and then, during the meeting, the leader keeps the discussions and activities focused on that purpose.
There will often be someone in a meeting looking to derail progress, or divert the discussion to their own personal agenda. The leader needs to be willing to stop unproductive diversions and get things back on track. Encouraging collaboration and gathering opposing viewpoints is always important but it’s also a balancing act. This is where meeting facilitation techniques can be useful, and even more formal processes like Robert’s Rule of Order. (There are endless tomes written on these topics.)
But for regular, small to medium-sized business meetings, a leader and their commitment to keeping things focused and productive is enough.
3. The Leader Ends the Meeting on Time
Even if you don’t fully execute the first two tips, following this one will raise your stock with your team every time.
End the Meeting on Time. Period.
If you didn’t realize the meeting’s goals in the allotted time, go back to your office and analyze how it went. Identify where you, as the leader, could have done better in keeping things focused and productive.
Perhaps you could use more meeting facilitation skills, or to learn how to handle conflict more effectively. Commit to increasing your leadership skills in those areas, and to running a better meeting next time.
Your team will be grateful for your effort, and in the long-run, the more efficient your meetings become, the more your organization will achieve.
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