In yesterdays post, Managing a Better Meeting, I began discussing how WOW leaders can focus on having WOW
meetings. Today, Ill continue with a look at what you can do before, during, and after a meeting to ensure it is a quality, meaningful, and worthwhile exchange of information, ideas, and insights.

BEFORE THE MEETING

• Determine the Objectives: What are the goals and objectives? This should drive everything else pertaining to the meeting.
• Decide who Attends: Who should/will attend? If everyone doesn’t need to be there, don’t make it a requirement. Schedule meetings with individuals and groups based on your goals and objectives.
• Coordinate Schedules: Calendaring is a challenge for everyone these days—there are too many A+ priorities at every level of the corporate hierarchy. Everyone is busy and often, overbooked. After deciding who needs to attend the meeting, select the time and date based on the availability of those involved. Do your best to coordinate a favorable time for everyone. If you’re the boss, you can certainly exercise your authority and set up meetings over others’ schedules. However, constantly hijacking your team’s calendars in favor of your own agenda will cause undue stress, potentially upset customers, and overall, will not get you to WOW.
• Write an Agenda: Set the agenda for the meeting in advance. How many times have you attended a meeting that had no agenda? It takes twice as long to accomplish half as much. To give everyone an idea of the meeting’s theme and expectations, prepare a written agenda with clear and focused objectives. Block out time for discussion of key points, holding everyone, including yourself, accountable for staying within the framework of the agenda. Give a heads up to those attending the meeting by forwarding your written agenda in advance. This way, everyone is prepared, so the meeting will not only run much smoother, but will be more productive as well.

AT THE MEETING

• Respect the Clock: Start and finish your meetings on time. Really, just do it. No excuses. Respect those in attendance and their valuable time. Manage the agenda so you don’t become the leader known for “endless meetings.” Make your point, cover the issues, stay on task, and then move on. If you don’t respect the clock, the focus becomes your inability to manage a meeting rather than the true intention of the meeting itself.
• Define Expectations: Right from the start, set the stage by defining the expectations of the meeting. Clearly communicate what you want to convey or accomplish by the close of the meeting. Follow the agenda you took time to put together and you will meet the intended expectations.
• Manage the Discussion: As the leader, it’s your job to facilitate the discussion. You are expected to manage the hijackers and spotlight stealers who try to veer you off topic and fulfill their own agenda. There are those who simply love the sound of their own voice, and will ramble on and on if you let them. Learn to redirect the filibusters and reroute the meeting back to the critical topics. Use your facilitation skills or add them to your skill-building list. Staying on task, especially at a business meeting, is priority number one.
• Engage all Attendees: Those you asked to attend the meeting were included because their input, ideas, or experiences were of value. Be sure everyone has a chance to weigh-in on the discussion when it pertains to them. Engage attendees by encouraging participation, asking questions, and providing feedback.
• Listen: In conjunction with engaging attendees and encouraging participation, actively listen and provide playback. Let them know you’ve heard them by repeating their point, commenting on it, and acknowledging their participation.
• Make it Fun: Meetings are often more productive and memorable if they have an element of fun to it. Consider if it would be appropriate or viable to have a theme of some sort. Ask yourself if you can make it fun or entertaining in some way? Most meetings can incorporate some element of lightheartedness or creative spin to keep it from slipping into the mundane. While there are certainly serious, pivotal meetings, such as those dealing with a crisis or focused on turning sales numbers, that need to be kept strictly business, many meetings are designed to engage, invigorate, and inspire business results. So have some fun and inspire!

CLOSE/AFTER MEETING

• Review Next Steps: At the close of each meeting, review next steps and identify who will be accountable for those steps. In other words, clearly define who will do what and by when. Be sure those in attendance add the next steps to their meeting notes. Ideally, a written follow-up should also be provided after the meeting.
• Document Decisions: After the meeting, write out the specific decisions that were made or the conclusions that were reached. If decisions are pending, then note what data points you are waiting for and from whom. Keep tabs on the situation and follow up as needed in order to make the decision.
• Solicit Feedback: Reach out and ask for feedback regarding the meeting. You can conduct a blind survey or set and establish a culture of open, honest feedback. Seek continuous improvement ideas for the next meeting.

Business professionals spend a lot of time in meetings, and usually, with good reason. Be sure your meetings are WOW ones that serve a specific purpose, stay on task, engage the attendees, and provide value. A WOW leader is constantly looking for ways to improve, grow, and harness the potential of themselves and others. By taking the time to manage a better meeting, you’ll elicit better productivity and achieve more WOW results.

-Sheri Staak