|
|
| www.1001TopWords.com |
|
|
What Every Manager Should Know About How to Conduct Successful Meetings
Do you announce a meeting and find either no one shows up on time, they come with their own agenda, or the meeting goes on and on? If this is true in your case, then worry no more. Here are six steps to help you develop successful meetings: 1. Establish a realistic and specific objective. Ask yourself, "What do I want to accomplish?" or "Why am I calling people together at this time?" Do I want: * to solve problem(s). Next, decide the best mode to accomplish your objective. Decide which best suits your needs: * a conference with panel(s) of speakers? * a half-day workshop? Or a full-day seminar? * a staff meeting that includes your immediate staff? * a staff meeting that includes your department or division? * a staff meeting that includes everyone from all levels of the entire organization? 2. Create a well-developed agenda. Review your agenda before announcing your meeting. Make sure it avoids: * spending too much time on details technical subjects. (It puts people to sleep and does not communicate with them.) * failing to specify the starting and ending times. (Employees need to know when to be there, when it is expected to start, and when it is expected to be finished so that can reschedule their other duties and responsibilities.) * adding irrelevant topics. (Doing so only lengthens the meeting time and serves to anger people or put them to sleep.) * having speakers or presenters who are known to ramble. (One of the surest ways to put your audience to sleep is to have a boring meeting with speakers or presenters who talk on and on. This is especially true in cases where the agenda covers technical or scientific material.) * crowding the agenda with too many subjects. (It is better to have a question and answer period during the meeting than to try to cover everything. Now review your agenda and make sure you have included: * a chairperson or Master of Ceremonies to move topics along without rushing the presenters, or allowing them to ramble. * general logistics before hand, such as restroom locations, break times, and telephone or walk-in interruptions. * a priority system so that the most important topics or pressing matters are covered first. 3. Assign particular responsibilities. Be sure to select responsible people to carry out the responsibilities of your meeting. Also be sure: * to match the topics and tasks with competent presenters. * to give them clear, complete, and specific instructions including assigned time to complete their presentation. * to gain the concurrence of your key participants. * to have a clock in clear view of the presenters. * to start on time, regardless. (This is perhaps the most important aspect of running a successful meeting.) 4. Establish a positive meeting environment. Take the time to plan your meeting. Perhaps the most important aspect to consider is the environment where you will hold your meeting. To insure its success, be sure you: * create an environment that is conducive to effective communication. * set start and ending times that are conducive to all. * develop the environment around a theme. * consider the objective of the meeting when selecting the room. * consider decorating the room, if this is warranted. * arrange and test the audio-visual support before hand. * arrange the seating of participants and attendees, depending on the estimated number of attendees. * arrange the seating plan for optimal effect. 5. Plan all the activities. Take the time to plan and plan again all the events, people, places, and things related to the objective and theme of the meeting. Be sure to: * gather input where relevant. * take notes where necessary. * prepare adequate quantities of handouts. * prepare to post adequately the announcement of the meeting along with its agenda, times, participants, and any other relevant information. * prepare backup materials. * prepare post-meeting evaluations, where necessary, and summary handouts. Remember: When you maximize your potential, every one wins. When you don't, we all lose. © Etienne A. Gibbs, MSW PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in ezines, newsletters, and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required. Contact him at: executiveandgroup-consulting@yahoo.com when you use this article. Etienne A. Gibbs, MSW, Management Consultant and Trainer, conducts lectures, seminars, webinars, and writes articles on his theme: "... helping you maximize your potential." He offers management, marketing, and parenting resources at his Maximizing Your Potential blog.
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Performance Expectations - 5 Tips and 5 Questions People want to understand their role - they want to do well! So by being clear, really clear about what it expected of them, makes a big, big difference! And that improves performance as well as saving you time chasing others around to deliver what you want. Firing Someone Without Resentment Firing, sacking, letting go or terminating people is unpleasant. There are ways to minimise resentment, but why bother? Because most legal action and unpleasantness stems from dissatisfaction/resentment about the way things were handled - about how rather than what happened. Dismissal can be unfair because of the reason, or the way it was done, so you need to be extremely careful. In the law regarding employer-employee relationships, fairness is key. You must be fair, and be seen to be fair. But fairness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder - after being terminated, very few people have clear vision! The Death Spiral Sometimes things just happen. Maybe we lose focus and take our eyes off the ball. Maybe we don't recognize the signs. Sometimes it happens quickly due to a loss of a major customer or loss of a major product line. Sometimes it is a slow, gradual process. Market share seems to evaporate; gross margin exhibits an extended period of decline. Morale suffers, employee turnover increases, net profit declines, costs seem to get out of control and losses become imminent. Some Owners, Presidents and CEO's who find themselves in a situation facing these warning signs may actually contribute to the creation of "The Death Spiral" if they aren't careful. 6 Simple Steps to Dealing with Difficult Managers The challenge of managing difficult managers can be rather daunting, especially when you inherit them! If they are your own born and bred, then hopefully they would have evolved into great managers!Experience shows that difficult managers are difficult because they are angry and frustrated about something or somebody (even themselves - especially where they are, or have become, a square peg in a round hole of a job), so the steps to take are these:- Use QA As Your First Step To Outsourcing Quality Assurance, or QA, is often given short shrift in a software development organization, especially when budgets are tight. When debating the software development budget at one of my software companies, the CEO finally asked, "Well, do you really want to hire a QA guy, or a programmer to add features to the software?" Create Your Methodology Based on a Standard Framework - Part One OK. So you have decided that your organization has to improve the way in which it works. You have chosen to implement a methodology as the best way to achieve this goal. And now you ask yourself, where do I start? Whatever the discipline you are trying to model (from software development to supply chain management), it is highly probable that a standard framework exists, that can serve as the basis for your own methodology. Cheat Sheet; Understanding The MSDS and Your Obligations In The Workplace To Employees MSDS SHEETS Learn About Commercial Collections Agencies Fees As with any other service, there are good and bad commercial collection agencies. Beware of any agency that offers you cut rate commissions far below the accepted Commercial Law League rates, offers you kickbacks on commissions, or makes outlandish promises about recovery success. 14 Ways to De-Stress Employee Vacations Employees truly deserve paid vacations. They Reducing the High Cost of Absenteeism Employers pay a high price for absenteeism, often more than they may realize, in terms of both financial and production losses and employee morale. Managers may view the tasks of finding a substitute employee as a short-term inconvenience; however, absenteeism frequently has more serious long-term effects. Employers can, nevertheless, ensure that employees report in regularly and remain on the job. Doing More With Less This is a bottom-line environment. 9 Strategies for Writing Accounts Payable Procedures The Cash to Cash CyclePart Four of Series Develop Your Managers and Keep Your Staff Following on from the last edition of The Organised Times where we spoke about developing the people in your business, this week we're focussing on the importance of the continual development of your managers. What are Your Best Practices? Best Practices Studies Influencing Change - A Guide for Sellers, Coaches, and Supervisors When people or groups make a decision to purchase something, they go through the same decision cycle that an individual goes through to decide upon a personal change, or an employee goes through to change behaviors at a boss's insistence. Creating Your Own Business Upturn - Powering Business Development We all see it . . . business markets are trying hard but continue to be flat, easily scared, and "frozen in the headlights," - - - primarily maintaining, and definitely not building. Workforce attitudes suffer from a steady flow of negative global and economic events, career disappointments, and the constant threat of being laid off. Customers are struggling to identify their path forward, which in turn makes it even more difficult for any business to determine their own plans for the future. The fear of post Enron scrutiny on business leaders and organizations is ever present. When will the "upturn" come? Leadership in Troubled Times Leadership in Troubled Times The first task of a leader is to keep hope alive. - Joe BattenLeading an organization can be challenging, even when times are good. When times are troubled, it is even more important for leaders to come to the forefront and provide direction and inspiration. We face challenging times today with a weakened economy, layoffs, and intense scrutiny of a mistrustful public sector. As leaders, now is the time to stand up for our beliefs. I subscribe to a value based leadership theory that has as much if not more relevance in our troubled times today than it has in the past. Leadership is about hope, vision, inspiration, communication, and trust. As a leader, you have the opportunity to provide vision and hope to those around. You have the opportunity to instill belief and restore trust to those who look up to you. And you have the opportunity to build a bond with those around you that is forged under difficult circumstances and tempered with the steel of your own personal values and beliefs. I believe that this is true regardless of what level of leader you are. Whether you are a first line manager, or a CEO your people are looking up to you for direction and inspiration. And they are looking to you to provide them hope. Is that a tall order for a leader at any level? Yes. But this is what separates the true leaders from those people who are leaders only by title. I believe that Joe Batten is right when he states that the first task of the leader is to keep hope alive. I believe that the second task of a leader is to communicate that hope and vision to their employees and their superiors in a way that builds trust and respect. With a strong foundation of values, a leader can inspire their people to achieve great things, produce fantastic results, and succeed while others around them fail. Without a values based foundation a "leader" may produce short term results but will fail the test of time as employees, without any basis for trust and respect will look for any opportunity to better themselves and remove themselves from the realm of a valueless based leader. You do not lead by hitting people over the head -- that's assault, not leadership. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) - Thirty- fourth President of the USAWhy is it that we hear about so many oppressive work environments, where the bosses belittle their employees, use the whip to produce results, and then discard anyone who questions their orders? When I read or hear about "leaders" telling their employees that they "are lucky to have jobs at all", I cringe. For in reality, those are not leaders. Those are just the caretakers of companies that do not truly value their most precious asset .... the employees. These "leaders" violate the principles of value-based leadership and will soon discover that their lack of true leadership, their lack of vision and hope, will result in their being abandoned when things improve. He who thinks he is leading, but has no one following is only taking a walk. - John Maxwell " 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership"Employees are the backbone of any organization. They, not you, make things work. They, not you, find creative solutions to complex problems. And they, not you, ultimately hold the key to your own personal success. For ultimately you are judged by your ability to develop, lead, and maintain strong teams that put the goals of the company ahead of their personal goals. And that only happens to employees who are inspired by, and trust in their leader. If you want to know if you are truly a leader or not, look around at your team. Do they follow you because they want to? Because they are inspired by you? Because they believe in you? Or do they follow you because they have to. It is time to take a long, hard look in the mirror. Are you providing hope and inspiration to those around you? If not, when will you start. Succession Planning for Your Business - 7 Key Benefits A core activity in many successful businesses, Succession Planning is simple and quick to implement - here are seven reasons why you will find it of great value in your business or organisation. But, you need to lead - it works only as well as the support it gets! Spinning Gold from Straw: Low-Cost Employee Retention and Motivation Tools in a Changing Economy New York, NY, February 25, 2005 ? Employee retention and motivation?why should employers care? A storm is brewing. National productivity was up 3.9% in the second quarter and 1.9% in the third quarter of 2004. At the same time, the unemployment rate was up 5.5% in October 2004. Managing Rebellious Employees Surveys of executives reveal that many companies fall short of their profit objectives due to "people problems." Research for my Absolutely Fabulous Organizational Change book found these "people problems" fall into two "r" categories: rebellion and resistance.
|
| © Athifea Distribution LLC - 2013 |
