Meetings: How to Maximize Your Time

Meetings: love them or hate them, they are a critical part of how work gets done, and frankly – they’re not going anywhere.

But we’re all busier than ever, and calendars are maxed out. It’s time to audit and streamline your meetings so everyone who attends is making the most of their time.

Mary Abbajay, author of the best-selling Managing Up: How to Move Up, Win at Work, and Succeed with Any Type of Boss, joined us for a recent NextGen online training session to share a few tips on being an effective facilitator to ensure your meetings achieve what you need them to.

Check out the highlights below and view the full version now. You can also sign up for the next NextGen online training session, “Overcome the Overwhelm: How to Manage Stress,” on Dec. 17 at 2 p.m.

1. Productive meetings should facilitate conversations. Calling it a meeting assumes dialogue; otherwise, it’s simply a presentation, Abbajay said. “Great meetings are designed, led well, properly prepared for, and have set conditions for success. They’re designed for engagement and participation.” She added that leaders should ensure that participants, including introverts, feel validated and heard.
2. Ground rules can help meetings run more smoothly. Some examples of rules that Abbajay shared included sticking to one conversation and topic at a time, “landing the plane” (or wrapping up and getting to the bottom line of your point), encouraging respectful conversation, and not beating a dead horse with circular conversations.
3. As the meeting draws to a close, recap essential points and encourage follow-up. Abbajay noted that action items decided on in the meeting need a point person, a clear deliverable, and a set due date. Leaders should check in on the action item’s progress before the next meeting.