September
03
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How to Lead Awesome Meetings
Meetings get a bad rap, and deservedly so – most are disorganized and distracted. But they can be a critical tool for getting your team on the same page.
-Justin Rosenstein, Founder Asana
Yes, meetings suck. Well, sucky meetings suck. You have been in enough sucky meetings to know this. You left confused and without clear guidance. And you dreaded going to the follow up meeting.
I refuse to lead sucky meetings. I lead AWESOME meetings that stand out against the doldrum of back-to-back meetings. How do I know I lead awesome meetings? I have high meeting attendance and my participants are engaged in the discussion. Yes, sometimes I try creative facilitation elements that annoy some of my attendees, but they are always alert and we get things done!
Awesome meetings encourage attendees to share information that helps to clarify projects issues, risks, and integration points, and poised to help you lead and deliver (see what I did there?) on your initiatives.
What is the secret to awesome meetings?
The key to leading awesome meetings is planning and strategy. There is no way around it. Sometimes you have weeks to plan and strategize and sometimes you have hours. Luckily, I have a simple 3-step system to help you, too, plan awesome meetings.
Note: this is an advanced course. Please familiarize yourself with the basics for leading effective meetings to include creating an agenda, identifying meeting attendees, and finding the right meeting space.
These steps can be applied to any type of meeting. Typically, meetings will fall into one of these 4 categories:Status UpdateCommunicating a new ideaDecision-makingBrainstorming/ Problem solving
1.) Identify the purpose, objective, and goal(s) of the meeting
In everything, think of the end goal in mind. Frame the meeting within the purpose and objective to achieve the intended goal. These three items may overlap depending on your meeting and you don’t have to identify each component for every meeting that you lead. The point here is that defining a clear goal for the meeting will help you plan the meeting.
To drive home the meeting goals, write out your closing statement, allowing room to fill in the details that come out of the meeting. Yes, the closing statement is most likely what your meeting attendees will remember from the meeting. But it is even more important for the “meat” of your meeting. By clearly understanding what you want to be able to say at the end of the meeting, you will understand how to facilitate and guide your meeting attendees to that point. Your ability to read the room coupled with strong facilitation skills will help to guide your meeting attendees to the goals that you have set.
2.) Lead the meeting with a strong opening
This is key to get your meeting attendees engaged. Your opening will depend both on your type of meeting and the end goal. Use a strong opening to level set and get everyone on the same page on the items for discussion. Think of everything as solving a problem and phrase your opening statements that way. Even status meetings solve a potential communication and integration issue. It helps everyone understand why the 30-90 minutes they are spending with you is a worthwhile use of their time. It also helps your attendees context-switch from the last meeting they just got out of, the phone call they just finished, or the email they just received.
Status Update
“When we kicked this project off, we agreed that we would meet once a week to check in on project activities to keep everyone up to speed on what the teams have accomplished, what they are planning on working on, and any challenges or obstacles that they are facing.”
Communicating a new idea
“We assembled a team of stakeholders to review the pain points and, together, we have developed a recommendation for a new process to [solve problem]. Today, we are going to review this new process with you to get your feedback and identify the best way to roll this out to your teams and throughout the organization.”
Decision-making
“As you all may be aware, we have [insert problem] facing us. We have assembled this team to help us identify options and make a recommendation to the Senior Leadership Team.”
Brainstorming/ Problem solving
“Tell me a little more about [insert topic]. What works well today? What challenges do you face in the current state?”
3.) Anticipate meeting participants’ reactions
You have identified your meeting attendees and everyone should have a role. At the very minimum, you can identify meeting attendees as those who may be contributing to the meeting (contributors) and those who need to be informed from the discussion in the meeting (informed).
Anticipate how your meeting attendees will react to the discussion. Some of this is gut feel and intel from prior interactions. Think of the following questions:
1.) What is their background experience is this space? Are they coming to the meeting fully informed? Does everyone have the same level of understanding? Or will you need to invest time during the meeting to get everyone up to speed?
2.) What are their motivations? Are they all in agreement that this is a problem that needs to be solved? Do they have any motivations to derail the meeting?
3.) Are there spheres of influence at play in the meeting? Will some meeting attendees follow the recommendation of another meeting attendee? Can you use this to your advantage?
Depending on the answers to your questions above, implement facilitation tactics to keep your meeting attendees engaged and keep your meeting on track (yes, sometimes you need a Parking Lot). Some of this will also flow into your opening to help set the stage for your meeting.
What next?
You can’t leave your meeting attendees with a taste of this awesomeness and not follow it up. Get back to meeting basics – make sure you have someone dedicated to capture good notes and distribute meeting minutes and action items in a timely fashion.
Lead and Deliver 