Making your meetings more effective
- Be clear in advance what you want to achieve in a meeting - what should be the output?
- Have a chairperson but ensure that everyone LEADS on some topic.
- Everyone should take ownership for an agenda item and come prepared.
- Otherwise, too many people come to meetings in a passive listening mode.
- Some argumentativeness is caused by people reacting to their own passivity.
- Develop an explicit process for expressing and resolving dissent to make it safe.
- All participants should take responsibility to ensure that everyone has their say.
- Set time limits for agenda items - delegate to subcommittees unexpected developments.
- Train participants in active listening, constructive feedback and communication skills.
- Regularly review what criteria you use for effective meetings.
- Periodically review how well your meetings stack up against your success criteria.
- Hold frequent meetings offsite in casual dress to break down barriers and relax..
- Everyone should leave the meeting with action plans: to do before the next meeting.
Can management shed its negative image, be reinvented for the 21st century and differentiated from leadership? See Leadership and Management Reinvented. Also 21st Century Management.
We have an ideal image of leaders that actually says more about us and our needs than it does about leadership.
Do you think leadership should be redefined for a knowledge-driven world? Is our current concept of leadership not working? Is there room for heroic leadership today or is it now all about post-heroic leadership? Is emotional intelligence essential for leadership? Is leadership a role, like being a CEO?
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