It’s not necessary to meet Sometimes an e-mail or a memo will accomplish your goal faster and better than a meeting. Before you put a <pause> in everyone’s day by calling a meeting, consider if it is really needed. Make sure you have a clear objective for meeting. Don’t just meet to meet. You weren’t clear about your objective Speaking of objectives…meetings without your objectives communicated clearly will not be as productive. Make sure you take the time to sharpen your meeting’s objective and share it with your team. You don’t know what your desired outcomes should look like If your meeting objective is really sharp, this is already taken care of. An objective like, “Shorten our sales cycle by discussing ways to overcome prospect objections,” has the desired outcome stated. An objective like, “To discuss our sales cycle,” does not. Envision what success looks like and share that vision with your meeting participants. By sharing the desired outcome, your team can better work together to achieve it and keep the meeting on track. You didn’t make a meeting agenda Every meeting should have an agenda. It forces you to think about how the time in your meeting is going to be used and helps you outline exactly what you need to do to meet your desired outcomes. You are dominating the conversation Dominating the conversation gives others less time to speak up and conveys the message that only your ideas are important. Increase engagement by asking people for their feedback, personally by name. You’re too negative Meetings feed an organization’s culture. When leaders are negative it leads to negative feelings about the company and the work. Stay positive, but maintain cantor. Instead of talking about issues to overcome, talk about opportunities to improve upon. Keep things positive and great ideas will flow. Your meeting isn’t time sensitive Commit to starting and ending on time by placing time constraints on your meeting. In your invitation, state that the meeting will begin promptly at the scheduled time and that all participants should be on time. Follow up with a reminder e-mail about a half hour before the meeting. Stick to your agenda and make sure you end at the correct time. This shows that you value and respect the time of others. As they say, “respect begets respect.” You are trying to do too much People tend to cram as many topics as possible into a meeting with the hopes of being productive. The truth is, everyone knows when an agenda is too lofty and they start to dread the meeting before it starts. The subtext becomes, “We probably won’t do most of this stuff” or “This is going to take forever!” Increase your productivity by having shorter, more focused meetings. You’re not familiar with your conferencing platform If you’re using a meeting technology platform or feature that you are not used to, take some time to test it ahead of time. If you have questions contact your administrator or software support for help. You don’t have the right tools There are seven different learning styles; visual, aural, verbal, physical, logical, social and solitary. Everyone has a different mix of learning styles. This mix affects our ability to learn, recall and think creativity. The most effective training, brainstorming or informational meeting allow for multiple modalities so that more learning styles can be incorporated into the meeting. Make sure you have the right tools to get the most out of your team. Your meeting doesn’t have ground rules Ground rules help to set boundaries and create a safe environment for discussion and innovation. They stimulate respectful and honest communication. Foster a productive environment with ground rules. You didn’t invite the right people Everyone has been in a meeting they couldn’t contribute to. It’s a very boring and frustrating experience. As a meeting manager, it is your job to make sure everyone in attendance will be able to contribute. An employee sitting idly in your meeting reduces the overall productivity of the company. Use your objective and desired outcomes to make a list of people that will contribute to success. If you take time to plan ahead, holding a successful meeting is easier than it seems. Make sure your meeting doesn’t fail with effective meeting prep. For more information read our Effective Meeting Prep series.
There are good meetings and bad meetings. The successful meetings leave people feeling informed, inspired and productive. The bad ones leave people rolling their eyes, checking their e-mails and wishing they were somewhere else. Make sure your meeting isn’t destined to be one of the bad ones.Here are 12 signs your meeting might fail
