Marketing Career Zone

Mention the word ‘meeting’ and you’ll probably see people’s eyes rolls as they think about the amount of time they’ll waste sitting and listening to people either whining or trying to score points.  In fact you’ve probably been to a few meetings in your time where you were asking yourself, “why am I here?”

Meetings don’t have to be like that, provided that you follow a few pointers:

• Be clear about the purpose of the meeting.  Meetings held just for the sake of having a meeting serve no purpose.  If you have a regular Monday Morning Meeting or the equivalent with your team, make sure that there’s something to discuss or agree on, for example you hold the meeting after the senior management meeting so that you can update your team on the priorities for the week.
• Work out who really needs to be there.  Yes, there are some people who complain if they’re not ‘in the loop’ on everything, but is attending the meeting really the best use of their time - could they contribute to the agenda and then be copied on the minutes instead?
• Give people plenty of notice.  The more senior people invited to the meeting may have their diary or planner booked weeks ahead, so popping your head around the door a few minutes before you’re due to start saying “have you got 20 minutes to sit in on this meeting” will not enhance your reputation as someone who knows what they’re doing.
• Circulate an agenda AT LEAST 24 hours in advance.  It’s not fair to put people on the spot and ask if they can “give us a quick update on how things are progressing”.  They may need time to run reports, consult with their team or find out from other departments whether there are any bottle-necks or hold-ups with a project.  You wouldn’t like it if someone did it to you.  Give people enough time to get ready for the meeting.  A week is about right.  If you circulate it too far in advance people forget about it and then claim they never received it.
• Put enough information on the agenda. Listing ‘update on product launch’, ‘branding’, ‘team’ or any other vague terms are just not helpful.  You’ll either find people come completely unprepared for the meeting or they go on, and on, and on about things that are barely relevant because they don’t know how much information you want.  You’ll have a more effective meeting if you give people pointers on what you need from them and you may need to have a mini-meeting with them beforehand to make sure that they haven’t misunderstood what’s needed.
• Have clear outcomes in mind.  What would be a good result from this meeting?  That everyone agrees on the media plan or that the creative work gets signed off?  Think ahead and picture what it will be like at the end of the meeting when everyone packs up their things and says, “that was a good meeting”.  Having a goal or a set of goals for a meeting helps to keep people on track and allows you to bring people back to the point of the meeting if they stray.
• Set a start time and an end time.  If you say, “we’re having a meeting on Tuesday morning about the current promotion” you can expect to have to rush around herding people like sheep to get them all in the same room at the same time.  And while you were off at the other end of the building trying to find Dave, Sarah has wandered off because she had to take a call.  Put an exact start time on the agenda, for example ‘Meeting starts at 9.30am prompt’ and include an end time.  Not only does this allow people to plan their day, it gives you an excuse to bring discussions to a close and move on if people are spending too long on one particular agenda item.
• Be bold.  It’s your meeting.  You’re chairing it and that means you’re in charge, so take charge.  Find tactful ways of making sure people’s points are heard without one person dominating the discussions.
• Get a member of your team or a colleague to take the minutes.  If you’re chairing the meeting AND writing the notes for the minutes, you’ll miss the subtle body language and knowing nods exchanged between people while you’re scribbling away on your pad.  You cannot be actively involved in the discussions and writing notes.  It doesn’t work.  Equally, if you need someone to be actively involved, don’t ask them to take the minutes either.  Invite a member of your team or the team’s PA to join you.  They’ll feel more involved and you’ll get a better quality minutes (providing you brief them on what you want them to do!)

Meetings really don’t have to be as dreadful as they are.  With some forward planning and sensible communications, you can run effective meetings - hey, you might even enjoy them!

© Copyright Hannah McNamara 2008