Having led what feel likes hundreds of meetings over the past year, since I became a manager of a large team of developers, I have learned a few things about how to manage a meeting:
1. Always have a clear and realistic agenda.
2. Make sure everyone invited really needs to be there.
3. Take notes and capture action items.
4. Make sure everyone gets their say.
I like the advice given by Brendan Smith in his article “How to lead an effective meeting” on the American Psychological Association website.
He says, unsurprisingly, that employees don’t like meetings.
U.S. employees spend an average of nine hours a week preparing for or attending team meetings, but more than a third of employees believe those meetings are a waste of time, according to a nationwide poll by Clarizen, a software company. Almost half of employees would rather do any unpleasant activity rather than sit through a meeting, including waiting in line at the DMV or watching paint dry, the poll found.
He calls for managers to take responsibility for and strike a balance within their meetings:
Meetings can feel like a group therapy session for a leader who must deal with vastly different personalities and potential land mines from office or university politics, Dattner says. “In a way, meetings are like a microcosm of the team dynamic,” he says. “It’s always an art rather than a science on how you balance being flexible and open without being disorganized or meandering.”
Given that employees will have to attend meetings, how can you make it worth their while? Get them participating….
A leader can ask for input from people who haven’t spoken, or participants can take turns going around the table so everyone is included in the discussion, Chambers says.
Meetings shouldn’t be dominated by the most aggressive or talkative members, so a leader must be assertive and diplomatically redirect the conversation so everyone has a chance to be heard, Fabick says. “It’s important to not be passive about running a meeting,” he says.
“You want to set a tone of inclusiveness and diversity of opinion but also efficiency.”
WhoTalks.app 