How to Host Amazing Meetings
How to Host Amazing Meetings
It's easier than you think, with a little planning ahead.
Running a great meeting is one of a leader’s most powerful tools.
A well-run meeting can accomplish great things - like driving sales and fostering culture. So what do the best meeting leaders in the industry do to ensure strong attendance, engagement and outcomes? Let’s take a look at how to host amazing meetings.
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Why Great Meetings are a Must
Sales managers and real estate leaders have asked me how to make meetings better for over thirty years. We all see the potential that great meetings have to drive growth, develop relationships and retain talent. And yet companies often struggle with attendance, participation and delivering meetings where people say,
Wow! That was time well spent!
Meetings are a big deal because…
They’re a primary way to share critical information with salespeople, staff and partners about trends in markets, company performance, competitors and sales opportunities. They’re often the best place salespeople, staff and colleagues can regularly interact in a planned, meaningful manner to drive growth.
Meetings drive culture and personal connections across the whole company. New talent becomes integrated into the company at their first meeting. Long-term staff and salespeople share invaluable experiences, stories and insights during meetings. Tips, hints and general camaraderie are exchanged in meetings where values are demonstrated and interpersonal relationships are deepened.
Meetings get important work done. Decisions are made at meetings. Updates to strategy, marketing or technology usage are given direction in meetings. New skills or procedures are taught; participants give advice and coach each other, as well as experience the personal a-ha’s that come from collaborations in meetings.
Meetings motivate action. An effective meeting takes information and participation and adds a vital piece - motivation - to act. A good meeting excites people to try new things, apply new skills and increase their efforts starting right away. An effective meeting helps participants do their job with new enthusiasm and dedication.
Most importantly, a well-run meeting is where leaders do a lot of their leading!
Leaders rely on meetings to keep people focused, monitor results and share wisdom, empathy, support and direction with as many people as possible.
What about a bad meeting?
Let’s not dwell too much here, but there are big pitfalls of running poor meetings:
Busy staff and colleagues may become bored, disappointed or demoralized when meetings waste time verbalizing information that could have been a memo, low attendance makes them feel isolated, or last-minute agendas lack preparation.
Salespeople question whether the time would have been spent prospecting, working with clients, or pursuing a personal task instead. When meetings lack value; a bad meeting definitely discourages future attendance.
Poorly run meetings waste money. Every meeting has an opportunity cost, shifting participants from producing value during that time. A good meeting increases future value by making people more informed or skilled. But a bad meeting is doubly expensive: Lost immediate productivity plus no take-away investment creates a “loss” that’s rarely seen up front, but impacts future performance.
Leaders can become cynical or unmotivated to lead future meetings when there’s a string of bad past sessions. Staff and salespeople become unwilling to put in the time to prepare, attend or lead future meetings if previous ones have sapped their enthusiasm.
Bad meetings can be really bad.
How to Run a Great Meeting Every Time
How do you create standing-room-only attendance, enthusiastic engagement and well-planned learning? Use these 10 steps to deliver consistently great meetings every time.
1. Always have a meeting agenda.
Send the agenda at least 2 days in advance. Busy salespeople may only commit to showing up once they see what is planned. Your agenda should cover the priorities, like:
What to expect, when it will start and end, and how to show up (especially virtually)
What will be covered (information, training, procedures, tools, guests, etc.)
Who should be there and why; even if only to be part of the culture
What immediate benefits the meeting will deliver (to do their job better today)
How they can plan for the meeting, be ready to contribute, and not just sit/listen
2. Plan, prepare and practice 3 days in advance.
Maybe this should be #1, but essentially, plan, resource, practice and finalize your meeting days in advance. If you’re planning a meeting the night before, you are doing a disservice to yourself and the attendees. Meetings should be organized far in advance; all contributors should get their materials (slides, handouts, etc.) to the meeting leader by an early deadline. Sometimes, the slides need to be tested, or materials copied or emailed in advance. The night before, a simple huddle, taking 5-10 minutes, should be all it takes to handle last-minute items. Delivering meetings should look and feel like any other high-performance part of your job: Prepared, practiced and well-presented.
3. Honor participants’ time.
Start, conduct and stop meetings on time. Period. Honor participants who prepared themselves, showed up on time and were ready to participate. Set ground rules for using time effectively: Latecomers can join in quietly. If they ask questions about something already covered, kindly direct them to see you afterward or talk to a colleague later. Don’t squander the effort, goodwill and positive impact of a good meeting by disregarding people’s schedules for the rest of their day.
4. Distribute content in advance.
Peter Drucker, the 20th-century management guru used to say, “Meetings are a symptom of a poorly run organization.” It seems harsh, but he was calling out meetings where people sit around and read information out loud. Help people come to a meeting ready to work. Distribute important data in advance wherever possible, so people arrive ready to discuss, not see it for the first time. Use meetings to apply information to sales, marketing and customer service actions for the week. Nothing undermines morale more than sitting in a meeting watching someone read bullet points or narrate spreadsheets when they’d rather discuss what the data means and how they can use it to create value after the meeting.
5. Create purposeful participation.
Leveraging the previous point, design carefully positioned engagement opportunities in the meeting. If people receive content beforehand, include the expectation for discussion when you send out the agenda. Go beyond generic, “Does anyone have any questions?” to asking for pointed input like, “How will you use this information to adjust your sales this week?” and “What does this decision mean for your department, marketing approach or customers?” Use different techniques - raising hands, discussing in small groups, using an online whiteboard, etc. Make sufficient time for people to contribute to the agenda, too.
6. Minimize distractions during meetings.
Establish ground rules for smartphone, laptop or other technology use during meetings. Demonstrate your commitment as a leader by being the first person to put your phone away. In conference rooms, minimize laptop screens (like barriers) and smartphones by video recording or assigning a scribe to take notes. Use AI services for online meeting platforms to capture summaries and transcriptions of meetings to reduce distractions for remote participants.
Special note for online meetings: Assign someone to manage the administrative and technical aspect of online meetings. They can focus on the audio and visual functions while you conduct the meeting. They can make sure participants are muted upon entry, quickly handle noises, late requests for entry, or other interruptions. They can also run slides from a single set, to reduce sharing difficulties, as well as moderate chatroom questions, call upon people with voice questions, and managing breakout rooms if needed.
7. Review and approve outside participants’ content in advance.
If you’ve asked a vendor or business partner to speak during a meeting, require them to provide an outline, slides or other content with sufficient time for review and approval. Know what will be said, done or offered to your people before they inadvertently take meetings off course. Be sure outside contributions align with your strategy, reinforce cultural norms and can be delivered within the time allotted. If necessary, cut off anyone who goes over time and risks the agenda (see #3 above).
8. Do fun stuff.
It’s that simple. Make time for fun, like a high-energy meeting opening that gets people into the right mindset and manifests key cultural values. Start with gratitude by going around the room and asking people to share “One good thing that’s happened this week.” Use physical activities to maintain energy, like writing on a whiteboard or moving into smaller discussion groups (or breakout rooms in Zoom). Finish meetings by doing a group activity, such as assembling care packages for a local charity or other philanthropic project.
9. Summarize key takeaways immediately.
Review key decisions and information before the meeting adjourns or provide a summary before the end of the day. Demonstrate that the meeting mattered by creating a recap of takeaways, data and directions that will impact their performance. Accompany recordings with links to relevant resources, tools, people and content mentioned in the meeting. (This is similar to what we do with each Coaching Call every week.)
10. Rate each meeting before you adjourn.
Use a simple scoring system - from one to ten, or five stars, or a smartphone survey tool - to immediately rate and gather input about each meeting, including:
Relevancy of topics to the participant’s ability to do their job
Helpfulness of content, data and training discussed in the session
Clarity of direction gained by participants to apply the meeting’s results
Engagement during the meeting, including fun, discussions, questions and use of time
Recommendations for improving / changing aspects before the next meeting
Some leaders even ask participants “how much a meeting was worth” in dollar terms.
Better Meetings Start Today
Great meetings don’t just happen. They’re like any other part of a leader’s job. They have rules, procedures, preparations and practices that transform them into high-performing components of your organization, like any other function.
Getting great at meetings can create positive ripple effects across your organization starting with the very next one!
More Ideas for Online Meetings (from The Leadership Handbook):
Online meetings can be more challenging to deliver with excellence, so here are a few ideas from The Leadership Handbook to help you create engaging and productive online or hybrid sessions.
Stand up and let your voice flow, plus leverage natural body language on video.
Improve lighting by facing a window or adding more artificial light around you. More light increases the clarity and sharpness of your video image.
Upgrade microphones for all presenters, such as high-quality ear buds, lavaliere or podcast mics, to help voices “carry” better.
Open meetings 30 minutes in advance to foster networking between participants. Facilitate pre-meeting sessions with music, contests and fun conversations.
Use tools like chat rooms, polls, whiteboards and emoji-reactions throughout the session. Create opportunities for people to contribute and engage beyond typing or talking.
Slow your delivery pace to account for a "technology layer" between your audience and the materials. Processing information and interactivity over the internet is different than doing it in person. Give participants more time to absorb what’s happening on their screens.
Ask 50% more questions or feedback requests than you might otherwise in person. When you see someone react in a video window, appropriately recognize it and use the moment as a direct opportunity to engage.
Use interactive documents like shared word processing or spreadsheets where people can directly contribute to an analysis, use of data or collection of ideas.
Be prepared to add agendas, PDFs, and screen captures directly to the chat room. Wherever possible, send materials ahead of time if participants prefer to print them (especially documents with small numbers on them).
Provide a transcript, audio and video recording format for people to review whether they prefer reading, listening or watching.
