71% of senior managers say meetings are unproductive and inefficient according to Golden Steps ABA and almost 50% of employees consider meetings to be a waste of time according to a survey by Salary.com. With so many individuals feeling like meetings are not worth it, it’s important to conduct the best meetings you can and ensure you are professional both as a team leader and a team employee.

Steps to Having an Exceptional Business Meeting

First and foremost, your meetings need to have a clear agenda with set goals. Like anything, having a thorough plan is vital. Your goals should entail what you are hoping to achieve from the meeting/why you are having this meeting as well as determine any challenges that may present themselves and how many individuals really needed this meeting. Your agenda, which is like a timeline of the meeting, should cover your goals (as detailed above), who will lead each topic/the whole meeting, time spent on each topic, questions you would like answered, and time for attendee questions. Once you have your agenda outline detailed and ready, it’s time to decide who to invite. Inviting the right team members is vital to the success of the meeting. When thinking of who to invite, consider the following: those with knowledge, responsibility, and authority of said topic, those that are crucial to executing what you’ll need, and those who are the most affected by the problem. Keeping all these factors in mind can help your business meetings soar to new heights.

Once everything is in place to have the meeting, it’s important to keep direction throughout the meeting too. For starters, stay on time in both start and finish. Workers will be more enthusiastic to participate knowing that they can still have time for everything else they are busy with. Furthermore, staying on track will keep everyone from wasting additional time. Next, although not needed, consider changing up the time and/or place of your meetings. Meetings can become more mundane to some if they are at the same set time and/or place everyday. During the meeting, there may be a lot of problem-solving. As the leader, you want to make certain that you have good conflict resolution skills to guide the meeting smoothly. Some ways to handle this could include: having a zero tolerance policy for personal attacks, avoiding direct blame, and identifying common goals and then building on them. Lastly, be sure to keep records of the meetings and try to gain feedback on it. Like anything, feedback can show what is disliked by people and helps you to change whatever needs to be done to have a successful meeting!

Standing Out in Your Business Meetings & Proper Etiquette

Whether you are the one conducting a business meeting or are simply just a part of one, it’s paramount that you act accordingly. Although many of us know the basic meeting etiquette, it is still in good interest to review. First off, dress formally, arrive on time, and maintain good posture! These are the basic fundamentals of appropriate etiquette in any meeting. Moreover, keep away any personal items that could make you seem distracted. (The biggest example being your phone.) Finally, be sure to show that you are actively paying attention. This means maintaining eye contact with the speaker and nodding along to show your engagement.

With all that is mentioned above, there are still a few ways to help you stand out. To start, be sure to speak up. If you are being addressed, be confident and comfortable to speak up clearly and loudly (at a reasonable level of course). Speaking up also means expressing your ideas/thoughts as soon as it’s appropriate. By actively participating and sharing your thoughts, you are one, having more attention focused on you and two, by promptly sharing your thoughts, you are jumping on ideas before anyone else can say the same thing. Another way to, subtly, garner attention is by sitting near the boss. Those that are sat around the boss show the most amount of attentiveness. It displays to others that you are their right-hand person. Finally, arrive early to the meeting. This indicates you are eager and ready for the meeting. Additionally, arriving early can often give more insight to the meeting since the leads will usually be there first.

Have the Best Business Meetings You Can!

Since business meetings are mostly unavoidable, it’s important to maintain professionalism and learn how to conduct the best meetings you can!