7 Tips for a Productive Meeting

Summary: Communicate like a leader and run your meetings productively by following these seven tips.

Communicating effectively with your team is vital to maintaining a productive workforce. With meetings being a necessary part of an efficient workplace, ensuring communicating during the meeting is appropriate will help the workforce stay on top of projects and tasks. Use these seven tips to keep your meeting on task and you as a strong leader.

1. Be on time

You won’t be starting a meeting off on the right foot by being late. In fact, you should be the first one to the meeting space to get the space prepared for the meeting by displaying any visuals and handing out any papers. Along with being on time, the meeting should end on time as well. Going over the allotted time shows you don’t respect your teams’ time.

2. Stay on topic

Use an agenda that is sent to the meeting attendees beforehand so they are aware of the meeting subject matter and can prepare before attending. If an additional item for discussion comes up, make a note of it to be discussed at the end of the meeting if time permits or during the next meeting.

3. Use strong voice

Your team is not going to respond to someone that speaks with a quiet, timid voice. Hearing an energetic, confident voice to translate into how they perceive the information you are giving them.

4. Choose words carefully

The words that you choose to use (think “I” vs “we”) have a lasting impact on your team. Words have the ability to persuade opinions. Your aim is to get those opinions turned in your favor but using the words can have the opposite effect. Also be careful that you are not using language that promotes discrimination or makes assumptions.

5. Watch body language

Body language can have as much of an impact as your verbal communication. The way you stand, hold your arms, etc. can give away your mood and attitude to your team. You want that message to be positive so that they leave the meeting excited about everything you have presented to them.

6. Engage in active listening

During the moments of the meeting that you are not the one speaking, ensure that you are listening to who is. You need to excel in active listening with your colleagues if you expect them to respect you. By actually listening to their ideas, concerns, and desires, you will learn more about your colleagues and how to communicate with them.

7. Avoid all distractions

Making an agenda and following it will help keep your meeting on time. Allowing distractions, such as cell phones, to take over the meeting will dismantle the point of the meeting and the points you planned on addressing.

Do you dread work meetings? Share with us why workplace meetings are such a negative experience with us in the comments below.

To learn more about how to be an effective leader, read these articles:

• Want to Be a Great Leader? Learn to Listen
• Five Traits You Need to Be a Leader
• Improving Engagement & Well-Being through Focused Leadership

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