One of the key skills a manager need to have is to be able to conduct effective meetings. How do we go about this? Here are the bare essentials:
1. Have an agenda
Can we have a standard agenda for a regular meeting? We can have standard topics or headings in the agenda to be discussed in regular meetings. However, not every agenda should be the same. If it is the same, no one will read the agenda and will turn up at meetings unprepared for any discussion.
Under each standard agenda heading, the agenda item should be elaborated and assigned to the person involved with reporting or updating the meeting on the status of the agenda item.
2. Refer to previous minutes
At the start of the meeting, the chairman of the meeting should review the previous minutes & ask for updates on what was discussed. Participants in the meeting should be prepared with the status update – keep the update short. If the update requires further discussion, this should be part of the agenda item for discussion. The Chariman will have to make a call on this.
3. Conducting the meeting
Ensure that one person is assigned to make notes during the meeting. As each item is discussed, tasks and action items should be agreed. The tasks and responsibilities assigned should also have a set deadline for update, or for completion.
4. Minutes of meeting
If the meeting is conducted on a monthly basis, minutes of the meeting should be finalised and sent out to all participants and copied to those absent from the meeting within a week for their follow up action. If it is a weekly meeting, the minutes should be sent out the day following the meeting.
I am sure that if the above is followed well, managers will have more results from their meetings.
For more information on improving managerial skills, refer to our training calendar on our next training entitled ‘Developing Managerial Skills for the new manager’.
