How many times have you been in a meeting that doesn’t go anywhere or goes past everyone’s allotted time? Has the meeting vampire made it all about them again? Robin Sharma’s guide can help.

I spend a lot of time in meetings. With clients. With vendors/partners. With my team. And what I’ve learned is that great organizations have great meetings. People don’t feel like prisoners in meetings. They know why they are meeting. They know who needs to be there. And they know what happens afterwards. Too many companies miss out on the impact of great meetings because they don’t know why they are meeting.

The only reason to have a meeting is to generate a result. And if you’ve heard me speak then you know about my three step success formula. It starts with increasing your awareness. With increased awareness comes better choices. And with better choices come better results. Here are some tips in meetings that will help you increase awareness, make informed choices and realize better results.

Choose not to meet
Every meeting you don’t have saves you time and credibility. Make sure that a meeting is the best way to achieve what you need to do. Consider making a phone call or sending an email instead. People are more likely to attend your meetings when they know that they are important.

Know why you are meeting
A meeting without a clear goal accomplishes little. Be clear on what you want to achieve and let people know beforehand. Tell your team that you are meeting to receive progress updates, or to make a decision, or to assign accountabilities. Write down the meeting goal on the agenda and in the invites.

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Invite the right people
People should only be at the meeting if they are going to give value or get value. If you can’t get the right people to your meeting then postpone it. Resist the urge to invite people who might be interested. Provide them with minutes afterwards.

Stick to the plan
Write out your agenda and send it out 2 days in advance. Then follow the agenda. When people go off track gently remind them of the goal of the meeting. If an important topic comes up then set up a meeting for that topic.

Write it down
Take minutes at your meetings. Then send them out as soon as possible. Include action steps in your minutes.

Do what you say you will do
Good meetings will increase your awareness. Great meetings lead to better choices that people act on. It’s only when people make those choices and actions that you get results. Identify who will do what and by when. And then review these action steps at the end of the meeting and in the minutes. If most of your meetings end without people making commitments to act, then you may be having too many unnecessary meetings.
Robin Sharma

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