It’s a typical Monday, 6 a.m. You turn off your alarm clock and reach for your phone to see what’s on the calendar for the day ahead. Meetings. So many meetings. You already feel drained just at the thought of all these meetings, and your workday hasn’t even started.
According to research conducted by Zippia, it is estimated there are around 55 million meetings held each week in America. Middle managers can spend upward of 35% of their time in meetings, and the average top-level leader (VP and above) participates in 12–17 meetings a week. The average meetings for CEOs every week? 37, or 72% of their working hours.
With the rise of remote and hybrid work, and a return to the office, you may be bouncing from in-person and virtual meetings all day, with very little time in between to catch your breath, check your inbox, and tick off a few items on your to-do list.
Now, many arguments have been made for reducing the number of meetings in the first place, which is a very important consideration to improve productivity in your workplace. But, I’m here today to help you run better meetings, whether it’s 1 or 17.
A good meeting is an intentional meeting. And I argue that all it takes for a leader to run an intentional meeting is 5 minutes of meeting prep. Yep, 5 minutes.
So, for all you meeting warriors out there, below are three questions you can ask yourself in the 5 minutes leading up to your next one-on-one or team meeting to hold a more inclusive, productive, and efficient meeting.
How Do You Want People to Feel When They Leave Your Meeting?
When your meeting participants walk away from your meeting or click the “leave” button, how do you want them to feel? Empowered? Informed? Excited? Reassured? Accomplished? Appreciated? Supported? Connected?
While it’s easier to jump right into the next two questions, and we often do by default, I encourage you to keep this question first every time you do this exercise. Specifically articulating how you want people to feel can help guide the structure and tone of your meeting.
For example, if you want your employees to walk away feeling appreciated and accomplished, you might start your meeting off by congratulating your team on their specific wins over the last week, or you might dedicate time for meeting participants to say thank you to their peers or share their successes.
As a leader, being mindful and aware of your impact on people’s feelings will help you foster a more inclusive and caring culture. Considering people’s feelings also helps you lead more impactful and purposeful meetings that motivate and inspire your employees to continue to serve the mission and values of the organization.
What Do You Want Them to Know When They Leave Your Meeting?
A good meeting gives people the information they need to do their jobs. Articulating a few key messages you want your employees or peers to walk away with is a great way to start.
If they are only going to remember three things from this meeting, what should those three things be? Take a look at the meeting participant list, and keep those people in mind as you consider what is important. Share only relevant and timely information for the people who are going to be in the room (virtual or otherwise).
What Do You Want Them to Do When They Leave Your Meeting?
This question might seem like a given. But so many times, employees walk away from meetings feeling like it was a waste of their time—or, worse yet, confused about what they are supposed to do. In fact, according to Zippia’s research, 43% of respondents said one of their top annoyances about meetings was “unclear actions leading to confusion.”
Be very clear about who needs to take action, what they need to do, and by when, and make sure you leave enough time in your meeting to clearly set these expectations with the participants and let employees ask any questions they might have.
I personally like to write the answers to these three questions at the top of my notebook or type them at the top of my meeting notes to keep me honest and on track throughout the meeting.
If you can’t seem to get out of the constant cycle of meetings, you can at least find a way to make the ones you lead better. Creating time and space to reflect on this 5-minute feel/know/do exercise is the difference between a successful meeting and a “this could have been an e-mail” disaster.
Sharon Steiner Hart is an Executive Coach with Talking Talent, a global coaching firm that inspires inclusive cultures that allow people and organizations to thrive.