How to run effective and confident meetings
There are many ways to make your meetings more efficient, but I’d like to share one simple tip that will really help you achieve greater clarity and convey greater confidence, as well as leadership when running them.
In today’s virtual age, where meetings are often scheduled back to back, we have to make judicious choices. As you probably know, meetings are often poorly organized and poorly run, wasting people’s precious time and giving rise to meeting fatigue and reluctance.
So, what’s one simple thing you can do to make your meetings more effective?
Before you even call one, be crystal clear on what you want to achieve by the end of your meeting. For example, is it to get donors’ buy-in on funding an initiative? To motivate your team to support a project? To glean best ideas and input on a problem that needs solving?
In other words, start with the end in mind to establish your meeting’s purpose. Then work backwards from that end goal to identify some talking points you may cover. The clearer your purpose, the clearer you’ll know how to reach your destination.
Where there is clarity, there is confidence. And where there is confidence, there is greater leadership. When your audience feels you are prepared and have a clear idea of where you’re going in your meetings, their trust in you and your leadership will increase, thus galvanizing their creativity and support.
As mentioned earlier, there are a number of other things you can do to enhance your meetings’ efficiency, but knowing your purpose is fundamental to their success.
Starting with the end in mind will elevate your ability to strive towards a goal and guarantee a better outcome for everyone involved.
