Meetings are vital in the workplace – they keep everyone involved in discussions about ongoing projects and ensure they’re up to date with events, issues and opportunities facing the organisation. Meetings are also vital for team cohesion. The best ones help people feel included, trusted and valued.
But most people’s diaries and overloaded with meetings and it’s having a detrimental impact on productivity. A Microsoft study found that 68% of employees say they don’t have enough uninterrupted time to focus on their work due to inefficient meetings. A Korn Ferry survey found that 67% of respondents agreed that spending too much time in meetings significantly distracts them from their work.
It’s no wonder that your colleagues and stakeholders slide into meetings with low expectations of what they’re going to get out of them, fully committed to doing something else at the same time!
If your role is to chair a meeting, you have an opportunity to embrace the role as an opportunity to make it one of the events that everyone looks forward to, remembers and values, showcasing your gravitas to your colleagues in the process.
By implementing the following suggestions, you will be able to conduct your meeting effectively so that goals are achieved and people leave feeling motivated and engaged.
Here are my top tips on chairing a meeting, which will certainly help you enhance your gravitas:
Your Role
- As Chair, you are there to guide the structure/timing/outcomes of the meeting – you are only focused on the process of the meeting, not its content.
- Your role is to remain objective and ensure all the different views are heard. People will hugely value you if you give everyone equal share of voice.
- To that point, it’s important you avoid lengthy explanations of the agenda or process, and don’t dominate discussions, because you are chairing.
Agenda Preparation
- With all the meetings taking place, it continues to amaze me that the majority of people leading or attending them don’t have a clear agenda: it’s no wonder that discussions end up going off track. Don’t be that person! With your meetings, create and circulate an agenda in advance. This gives you ‘permission’ to intervene when discussions go off track.
- Depending on the meeting, select the items to ensure the right level of issue is being discussed (ensuring an appropriate balance between operational and strategic as appropriate).
- Don’t pack the agenda too full and allow wiggle room, just in case some topics take longer than anticipated.
- For clarity, give each agenda item one sentence to say what it is, and one indicating the outcome and type of item (eg to brief the meeting, brainstorm, share initial ideas and get feedback, make a final decision on X).
- Talk to the person taking the minutes about what you want them to record – key points only, timings, actions and decisions. If you’re using AI, make sure you have permission from everyone attending and agree the parameters for circulation and confidentiality.
Meeting Style
- Encourage everyone to speak, and request participants to allow others to contribute if they are dominating. State up front that that is your intention and role as chair. This will make it easier for you to cut in and redirect if necessary.
- Select a blend of open questions to get everyone in the meeting thinking, and closed questions to ascertain facts and confirm agreements.
- Summarise frequently, use active listening and paraphrase to ensure that everyone has a shared understanding of what the person said.
Managing the Agenda
- At the beginning of the meeting, confirm the actions that have been taken from the last meeting. Holding people accountable is key to effective meetings.
- At the beginning of each agenda item, summarise the topic, the outcome required and how much time will be allocated to the item (eg 20 minutes).
- If item goes over time, stop, get agreement to extend and identify what will come off the end of the agenda, then continue. Don’t just let it overrun.
- Once a decision has been made, stop the conversation and confirm the decision is out loud. ‘We have agreed to ….’. This helps the person taking the minutes.
Chairing a meeting comes with responsibilities but if you prepare well, a good meeting should challenge, inspire, illuminate and inform and ensure that decisions can be reached by effective and clear discussions.
You can learn more about effective leadership in my leadership development books or join one of my upcoming Gravitas Masterclass.
