Meeting With Success

Proper preparation can save you time in the conference room.

By Maggie Leyes

Do your employees roll their eyes every time you mention holding a staff meeting? Do you catch them doing mental walkabouts a mere 10 minutes after you sit down to meet? Perhaps you have your percentages off. That’s right. Percentages. Peter deLisser, leadership coach and author of Be Your Own Executive Coach, will tell you that you should be spending more time preparing your meeting than conducting it.

If you are like most, you probably spend all of your “meeting time” in the meeting, when in fact, deLisser says, the meeting itself should constitute only 15 percent of that time. You should be spending an astonishing 50 percent of your meeting time preparing for it and the remaining 35 percent doing follow-up.

Prepare
If that seems like a lot of preparation, deLisser says it can save you time in the end. He should know; his training has helped managers at the likes of IBM, AT&T and McGraw-Hill. Most meetings drag on ad nauseam because the person holding the meeting is ill prepared. Spend a bit of time up-front and save on the back end. To prepare, deLisser gives these suggestions:

• Know specifically what you want to accomplish by the end of the meeting.
• Decide if you want to hold an information-sharing or decision-making meeting.
• Remember, not everyone has to attend every meeting. Have only those attend who can substantively contribute to the meeting’s bottom line.
• Send out an agenda in advance with your objectives, any assignments those coming need to prepare and the meeting length.

Adequate preparation ensures that you include the right people in the meeting and that you don’t waste people’s time once you do get together. “Most managers wing it,” deLisser says. “By planning your meeting, you reduce frustration levels, increase performance and demonstrate respect for your people.”

Let others know
Planning a meeting has another important by-product. It can help you avoid one of the biggest meeting no-nos: the “right now” meeting. Never stroll around your office and announce a meeting in five minutes. DeLisser calls this tactic “inappropriate.” It doesn’t give the meeting-goers time to prepare, and they are also left in the dark as to the objective of the meeting. “It’s more respectful,” he says, “to let people know how to plan their time.”

Listen up
Once you have the right people in the meeting—having given them plenty of prep time—make sure you adhere to your agenda and watch your time: Start and end the meeting when you said you would. And while you are conducting the meeting, be sure to “demonstrate respect by listening to everyone who speaks up,” says deLisser. “And listening is proving you’ve heard them—not just keeping your mouth closed and ears open. It’s making a safe environment for everyone to contribute. People want to be listened to. They don’t have to get what they want, but they want to be heard.”

Follow through
Make sure you do your homework as well. Once everyone walks out of the conference room, remember that you still have more than a third of your meeting work ahead of you. DeLisser says this involves sending out the complete minutes of the meeting, including any assignments you have handed out, along with the dates they should be finished. It is also up to you to do any periodic monitoring of those who do have assignments to see that they are working toward the project’s completion.