CEOs: 7 Rules for Successful Business Meetings

Many progressive companies have established innovative and productive ways of gathering and communicating with their team members.  The good news is that it is possible for any company to create meetings that are both congenial and productive.  When a meeting is effectively organized, it can certainly be a positive and constructive use of time.  Conversely, a poorly run meeting can be quite disadvantageous to both you and your staff on many levels.

What are some ways to guarantee receptivity among your employees during your own company meetings?

1.  Be considerate and don’t be late.

This is a more significant and common problem than some may realize. Imagine yourself in the place of a member of your work staff.  Your boss has scheduled a meeting at 10:00 am, but does not enter the board room until 10:20 am.  You are simultaneously working on an important and time-consuming financial report which your boss is expecting to receive before you leave for the day.  By unexpectedly starting a meeting at a later time than you originally communicated, you are not only wasting your employees’ time and generally decreasing productivity within your company, you are establishing a level of frustration and negativity among your staff before the meeting even begins.

2.  Allow for preparation.

Naturally, it is important that you, as the moderator of the meeting, be prepared; however, it is also essential that you are accommodating to the idea that your participants should be prepared as well.  Of course, there are situations where an “emergency” meeting be held, but in most circumstances, providing your staff with ample time and a clear agenda of the goal and reason for the conference will allow your team members to participate and contribute more effectively and in a more informed manner.

3.  Know how and when to limit members.

While it is necessary that all employees be sentient of changes within the organization they work for, remember that workers who hold more distant positions can still remain aware of company news without the need to attend every meeting.  It is best to limit meeting members to those who are either directly involved in or affected by the issue to be discussed.  If the topic or anticipated outcome can be properly and appropriately relayed to certain team members via an e-mail memo, then opting for a smaller meeting of 10 or fewer is ideal.

4.  Focus on the topic.

Although they frequently occur, digressions in conversation commonly result from poor planning and lack of agenda.  Detouring from the main idea also cuts into productivity by causing a meeting to draw more time out of your employees’ schedules.  While remaining personable, or even anecdotal to a certain extent, is perfectly fine, allowing yourself or members to drift off onto unrelated tangents is counterproductive for everyone involved.

5.  Ensure the meeting is necessary.

It’s frequently necessary to reassess your meeting schedule to ascertain if every meeting you schedule is actually required.  For instance, if you hold daily meetings, evaluate how productive they truly are.  Can they be scaled down to once per week, or perhaps shortened from one hour to 30 minutes? Staff meetings are an excellent means of creating and maintaining effective communication within your company, but it’s essential to realize and subsequently implement the proper equilibrium between communication and productivity.

6.  Eliminate technological distractions.

Considering limiting the use of technology among your staff during meetings is one way to increase engagement among your employees during a meeting.  Some companies have applied a cell-phone coat check, by having each employee turn in their cell phone (labeled with their name on a post-it note) prior to the start of a meeting, while others have even suggested that meeting members take written notes on paper rather than using a laptop.  Only you can determine the extent to which this rule can be carried within your particular organization, but considering the potential for distractibility, it might be useful to at least suggest that participants turn off and put away their cell phones for the duration of the meeting.

7.  Conclude with a resolution.

Of course, it is ideal that all meetings will reach a concrete solution upon their finish.  However, it’s not an unusual occurrence that a meeting will end without specific answers; that the issue will need to be discussed or studied further at a later date.  Nevertheless, the lack of a specific resolution does not mean that participants must leave the meeting with the feeling that no progress was made at all.  In fact, it is crucial to recognize and make certain that your staff is aware that not reaching a final decision at the close of meeting is absolutely not indicative of a lack of development or movement toward answers.  Conversely, it is important that all participants take action and assume responsibility for decisions that are made.  Clearly, without active participation from all members as well as a desire for resolution, the meeting is unnecessary.

By understanding and applying these simple guidelines as a CEO, you can be confident that your meetings will increase in engagement and productivity.

By Fred Coon, CEO

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