How to Lead Your Next Meeting Like a Boss
We’ve all been to bad meetings. You know – the ones where you leave and feel like you’ve wasted a decent portion of your day (or your life!). Now it’s your turn to lead a meeting, and you want to do it well. Learn all about how to lead a meeting for engagement, participation, and successful outcomes.
How to Lead a Meeting Tip #1: Rock the Calendar Invite
This is one of the greatest secret meeting tips that almost no one takes advantage of! The calendar invitation for your meeting is the perfect opportunity to start leading your meeting in the right direction.
First, use the calendar invite to give your attendees all of the administrative information they need to attend. The meeting invite should include:
- When the meeting will take place. If possible, consider what your participants have going on before and after the meeting. Make sure attendees have enough time for break or travel.
- Where the meeting will take place. If necessary, include specific directions on the location, check in parking, etc. If your meeting is virtual, include the link for your participants to click in and join your meeting.
- What the attendees need to do in order to be prepared for the meeting.
How to Lead a Meeting Tip #2: Start and End Your Meeting On Time
Punctuality is a basic sign of respect. Start your meeting on time to demonstrate you respect others’ time.
Studies of meetings have shown that meetings are far more productive when they start on time (even when it’s by only a few minutes).
How to Deal With Habitual Late-Comers
Believe me, if you’re known to ALWAYS start your meeting on team, people will learn. They will be embarrassed, and they will not be late for much longer.
If the tardiness continues, you will need to have a candid conversation with that individual on your expectations (if appropriate), or at the least, the negative impact their tardiness is having on the team.
Also check out 6 Hacks for Hard Conversations for tips on how to approach this difficult topic with a colleague!
Ending the Meeting on Time
In addition to starting the meeting on time, end the meeting on time. One of the top reasons people are late to meeting is because their previous meeting ran late. This can become a vicious cycle quickly.
A great tactic I’ve observed in meetings is the meeting organizer asking the rest of the team: “Does anyone have a meeting directly after this meeting? We will be sure to end on time as scheduled, but if we need to end 5 minutes earlier to accommodate following meetings, we can.”
This tells the team you are respectful of their time in your meeting as well as their other meetings. It also tells them that they aren’t going to miss any important parts of the conversation if they need to excuse themselves a few minutes before the scheduled end.
Check out this awesome book for more information on the various impacts to meetings! The Surprising Science of Meetings: How You Can Lead Your Team to Peak Performance
How to Lead a Meeting Tip #3: Be Prepared for the Meeting
This one, to me, is the absolute most important. KNOW what your goals are for the meeting and be prepared.
Here are some key points to success in the area of preparedness for meetings:
- Know when and where your meeting is and be there EARLY, ready to go. Nothing says unprofessional like being the last one to arrive to your own meeting and then having to take 5 minutes to distribute hand-outs or set up a presentation.
- Know WHO is attending the meeting and WHY. Each person invited should have a specific, known purpose for attendance. Their purpose can be expertise, input, experience, training, brainstorming, or collaboration, but they must have a purpose and a role. Of course, you can’t always get this one right, but if you constantly over-invite people, they will start rejecting your invitations. They will believe you are wasting their time and that they serve little to no purpose participating in your meeting.
- If your meeting is very structured, have an agenda ready for your team. Allot the appropriate amount of time to each agenda item, and stick to it. Give attendees a heads-up as to what is on the agenda and what you expect from them in regards to the meeting content. (Refer back to Tip #1!)
- If your meeting is unstructured, you should still have a plan as to how you will engage with the group. Do you have brainstorming questions, a survey, or an activity? Do you have the resources you need to be successful – a whiteboard, a computer, scratch paper?
How to Lead a Meeting Tip #4: Brainstorming with a Group
When you are in the brainstorming phase of a project or assignment, it is very important to be clear what every person’s role is. Additionally, what stage of decision making are you in?
Consider answering these questions for your team, or at least discussing them for clear expectations up front:
- Who will provide input and when?
- How long do people have to give input?
- What modes can people use to submit input?
- Who will make a final decision and when?
- Who has veto power once a final decision is made?
- Is there any flexibility when a final decision is made?
- Who will carry out the assignment or project? What is the timeline?
You are sure to cause chaos in during and after a brainstorming meeting if you do not touch on the questions above.
People will be left wondering what their responsibility is moving forward or who will be making decisions and when. Even worse, people will assume that because they participated in brainstorming, they can continue to give feedback for the foreseeable future and will be offended when you land on a decision that does not take their ideas into account.
How to Lead a Meeting Tip #5: Be Inclusive of Everyone During a Meeting
Everyone has their own unique way of participating (or not participating) in meetings.
As the meeting organizer or moderator, you will much more effective if you can manage and balance the many voices and personalities in the room.
Some Regular Meeting “Personalities” Include:
- The person who always jumps in first with something to offer (I’m afraid that’s me!)
- The person who wants to hear what everyone else has to say before joining the conversation
- The person who doesn’t want to speak in front of the group, but will gladly offer feedback in a one-on-one setting or in writing after the meeting
- The person who needs time to reflect on the information presented, and will speak up at the next meeting
- The person who doesn’t want to participate at all (for a number of possible reasons)
Top Ideas for Meeting Inclusivity and Participation
Here are some top ideas for making sure everyone in the meeting gets the opportunity to participate and share their opinions and ideas:
- Pair off or use smaller groups first
People tend to participate more openly and willingly when they are paired up with just one or two other people in the meeting. Then the small group can report out to the larger group on the content of their smaller discussion. Strength in numbers!
- Call on people who haven’t spoken up
If you have a few people dominating the conversation and a few that haven’t said anything, you can politely quiet the louder participants by specifically calling on certain people by name. Ask them for their thoughts, concerns, or questions.
Be particularly sensitive with this technique if you are unfamiliar with people in the meeting. If someone is normally chatty and they are being quiet this particular day, this technique should work fine. If you are unsure of a person’s normal meeting habits, they could be extremely shy and calling on them will only put them in further discomfort.
- Offer an opportunity to provide feedback after the meeting
For those participants that are not engaged in the meeting for any reason – distraction, shyness, desire to reflect on the information – offer the opportunity to provide further feedback after the meeting.
Let your team know how they can provide feedback to you: in person, email, phone, etc. Also let them know if you have a deadline for collecting input on a particular item.
This will invite people to be thoughtful about your meeting topic beyond the meeting itself, if appropriate. It is also highly inclusive of people who are simply uncomfortable speaking up in a group environment.
How to Lead a Meeting Tip #6: Wrap Up the Meeting with a Summary and Assignments
Before you end the meeting, be sure to wrap up with key take-aways. Acknowledge great moments and ideas in the meeting, if appropriate. This is a good opportunity to give recognition to your team.
Reinforce any specific assignments and deadlines so that everyone is clear as to their role and expectations moving forward.
I have been in too many meetings where we have a great conversation, and the meeting itself feels like a real success. Then we walk away from the meeting and realize we did so being completely unclear as to WHAT we’re doing to move forward, WHO is doing it, and WHEN it’s due!
Don’t end on that note, stalling the great work you started in your meeting. Make sure you are clear on how to move forward for high performance and success!
Lead Your Next Meeting Like a Boss!
You got this! These are all of the tips I have used or observed in great meeting-leaders. Organization, preparedness, and inclusivity in meetings are the first steps to ensuring active participation, quality conversation, and high performance from your team.
Good luck, leaders!
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10 Comments
Maya
This is great information and very organized! Thank you for the advice!
Caitlin
Thank you for reading!
erika
My sister has been stressed with meetings for her work so I will definitely show her this to hopefully help her! Thanks for the tips!
Erika Marie | https://imerikamarie.com
Caitlin
Wonderful thank you! Hope this can help her and others!
Kristine
This is great! I have a large team in a corporate position and I have to hold a number of meetings throughout the week and month. These are fantastic tips to help with leading my meetings. Thank you!
Caitlin
Thank you Kristine! It’s great to have feedback from someone using these tools on a consistent basis.
Chiquta
These are some really great points. I work in corporate America and I can definitely say that these are essential tips. Thank you for sharing and bringing light to these.
Caitlin
Thanks so much Chiquita! Glad you agree that these are essential tips.
Mariam
This is excellent advice! I really like your tip about asking the attendees whether or not they have a meeting directly after. I always seem to rush from one meeting to another at work!
bossbabechroniclesblog.com
Caitlin
Awesome, so glad you found that tip useful! Thanks for reading!