Meetings are infamous for being a corporate plague. Ineffective, long, boring and more than often they achieve not a lot while taking up everyone’s valuable time. It does not matter what your industry is: whether it’s healthcare, IT solutions, law, or financial services, if you’re a consultant, you need to make the best use of your time. How effectively you manage your time can affect business outcomes.
And if you’re super lean and run your business from a virtual office, meeting room rental is an additional expense. At Excen, our serviced offices in Sydney come with the unlimited use of meeting rooms, but if you’re running a virtual office and rent meeting rooms by the hour, you will want to make sure your meetings are as short and effective as they can be!
Here are some tips to ensure your client or team meeting is effective and productive.
BEFORE THE MEETING
SET UP THE MEETING INTENTIONS
List your meeting discussion topics and objectives and provide information on what led you to call the meeting. Send your agenda and meeting materials prior to the meeting so that participants are on the same page and ready to hit the ground running. Remember that the main goal of a meeting is to make decisions, not only share and discuss information.
DEFINE WHO SHOULD BE THERE
How many times have you attended a meeting without key decision-makers and no significant outcome was made? Make sure attendees include the right people to avoid having to repeat the same discussion and reschedule another meeting down the track. Anyone who could help make the decisions and anyone affected by its outcomes should be considered to attend the meeting.
Be mindful of the number of people who’ll be there. Too many attendees and you risk accomplishing very little, too few and you might have missed crucial decision makers or information givers. The optimal number of people in your meeting depends on what type of meeting you’re running. Are you trying to take a decision, solve a problem or is it a brainstorming session?
DURING THE MEETING
FOLLOW YOUR AGENDA AND CHECK THE TIME
At the start of your meeting, remind attendees of the agenda and that you’ll focus on these points today. Go through your agenda point by point and if something comes up that is not relevant to the agenda, inform attendees that you’ll put this down for further discussion at another time. Not only will this help you focus on your agenda, it will ensure you address the valid points at a later stage.
AFTER THE MEETING
FOLLOW UP!
Follow up with meeting minutes the very same day, and set yourself reminders to keep following up on actionable items. No follow up means there is nothing in writing to make people accountable for what has been said and promised.
Are you working from home in Mosman, Chatswood, Neutral Bay or nearby suburbs and want to meet your clients in the most professional way? Book one of our chat rooms, meeting rooms or conference rooms by the hour or at half day and day rates. Visit us and discover the flexibility and benefits of meeting room rentals with Excen.