🔒Seven ways to take control of your meeting

Whether we like it or not, most of us will spend a significant amount of our careers attending various meetings. These meetings may be with coworkers, clients, suppliers or others.

While many of us dislike meetings, they do serve an important business purpose. When meetings are chaired and conducted well, they can help us achieve goals in a more timely fashion, while greatly increasing our chance of success. The key is that meetings need to be well run, organized and efficient. Running meetings is like an art form and it is helpful to learn from others that have mastered the skill.

Here are seven ways to take control of your meeting:

1. Have an agenda: A concise and well-written agenda will greatly improve the efficiency of your meeting. The agenda should be circulated in advance so that attendees can come prepared and know what to expect. This will lead to a more focused discussion and keep everyone on target. I will typically send out an agenda as soon as possible after the conclusion of the previous meeting. The agenda should also clearly state desired goals, actions and outcomes.

2. Invite the right people: Any team can only be as successful as the people selected for the mission. You should carefully consider which employees will be able to best support the meeting and assure the goals are achieved. Once you have determined who to invite, be sure to get buy-in from their supervisor when appropriate.

3. Mind the time: Time is a valuable and limited resource, use it wisely. Be sure the meeting gets started on time and help others to be efficient. Starting at the determined time will help those who are late learn to be on time, for future meetings. If the discussions are moving off topic, bring the meeting back in focus. The attendees will appreciate your respect for their time and you will achieve more in less time.

4. Communicate: Human interaction is always elevated when communication is effective. Be sure that the chairperson is an experienced and effective leader and communicator. You should also assure that there is a whiteboard or flipchart for when group discussions require illustration.

5. Assign action: It's important to clearly assign roles and responsibilities. This begins with you, or a designee, taking careful notes during the meeting. Any action items should be noted with a specific responsible person and a due date. Follow up on these items is critical to success.

6. Control as required: You always want to encourage participation and contributions, but you also need to maintain control. You should hone your skills at both drawing out participation from quieter members of the team and controlling members who may get a little too wound up. It's worthwhile to get to know each at the first meeting on a long-term project. This helps you understand what types of personalities you will be supporting or corralling, as the case may be.

7. Celebrate: Your team will remain highly motivated when you celebrate milestones and wins as a team. A lunch or similar event is a great way to celebrate together and provide a reward to the team. I have also found it can be motivating to give long-term projects a descriptive and appealing name.

At the end of the meeting it's always good to summarize the discussion and be certain that all action items are understood. You also want to strive and end your meetings on a positive note. As a leader, it's your job to keep everyone engaged. The best results occur when meetings are well run. 

Andy Singer is the president of Singer Executive Development, a professional training and development company that helps optimize business performance.