As a supervisor, the hardest thing that we have to do is to coordinate our employees. Whether those employees are in retail, insurance, a sales force, or any other business, productive meetings are a must to meet those goals. A great meeting is many things, but mostly it is a chance to organize our goals and get our employees on the same page. Here are some things that you can do to ensure very productive meetings every single time.
1. Know the goal going in - If you do not prepare for the meeting, it will show and you will lose the employee’s attention span. You must know what you want to accomplish and have a plan on how you are going to get there.
2. Consider the benefits of handouts - If you are going to have a meeting about something that can be enhanced visually, you may want to consider a handout. It is much more effective, however, to use an overhead projector or dry erase board. This way everyone is looking in the same place, and focus is much easier to obtain.
3. Be ready ahead of time for complications - Ask yourself before the meeting what might go wrong? Fix what you can before the meeting starts, and be prepared with a plan b once it begins.
4. Make up a frequently asked questions list - For any meeting, there are a number of questions that are sure to come up. Have them dealt with already in writing, and pass them out as the employees leave to keep the meeting on track.
5. Have your meeting in the mornings, rather than at the end of the day. You will have a much better attention span from your crowd in doing so. Manage your people at their best when you have a meeting.
6. Keep the meeting flowing and on topic. Someone always will try to steer you off topic, and you need to recognize this immediately and stay the course. Have a “parking lot” list for any questions unrelated to the topic at hand.
7. Do not allow a meeting to be open ended. This will inevitably lead to a meeting that drags on far longer than it should have. You could use the extra time to be moving towards your goals.
8. Provide breaks for meetings that are longer. If you are going to be meeting for more than an hour, you should take a break and allow everyone to refresh. Nothing is worse than employees dozing off in the middle of your training meeting.
9. Always close the meeting on a positive note. Do not ever end a meeting on a downer. Save your best news or information for the final part of the meeting. This is the state of mind that you want your employees going out after goals with. Not negative and unproductive thoughts.
Image Credited to Flickr User Larsz
