How do you lead effective meetings? Don't do these 9 things. We have a little fun in this episode. We have all been involved in meetings like this before. But we all want to lead meetings that are effective and get stuff accomplished. If you want to maximize your impact, then you have a limited amount of time to do that when you lead a meeting. Make sure you don't mess up the opportunity.

Here are the 9 methods for making sure your meetings suck...

1. Make sure there is no clear communication before meetings.
2. Make sure you don't start on time.
3. Make sure there are no refreshments.
4. Make sure you don't cast any vision.
5. Make sure there are no wins identified for the meeting.
6. Make sure there's no end in sight.
7. Make sure you let them know where they failed.
8. Make sure no one leaves with action steps.
9. Make sure you don't follow up after the meeting.

So let's get to the solution side of things. 

1. Communicate with your team before the meeting so they know what to expect.
2. Start on time regardless of who is there. You want to create a culture that honors people's time.
3. Meet somewhere that your team can get lunch, dinner or snacks. If you're meeting in a home, provide something to munch on during the meeting.
4. Let your team know how what you're about to discuss mixes with the vision of your organization. The death of many meetings happens when no one knows how what you're discussing has anything to do with the organization you are involved in.
5. Communicate what a win looks like coming out of the meeting. Examples: Coming out of this meeting, we will have created new goals for our team. They have to know why they are meeting and what victory looks like.
6. End on time. Otherwise your team, especially volunteers, will learn that you won't honor their time. If you can't end on time, don't be surprised when attendance, or attitudes at meetings, begins to decline.
7. Share how your team has won in the past. Share recent victories. Make your people look good.
8. Leave your team with specific actions to move toward. Everyone should be owning something from the meeting. Example: Jane Doe is calling "X" company to get prices. John Doe is editing the webpage with update info. Etc. They need to leave with action steps or else your meeting time will have been completely wasted.
9. Communicate with your team after the meeting. Let them know where everything stands and what everyone is doing. This follow up also sets up your next meeting. Clear communication will help everyone be excited for your next meeting. Watch attitudes and attendance go up and to the right.

Maybe you have others that you would add to the list. Let me know what you've got. I look forward to hearing from you. Let me know where you're listening from and what topics you would like to hear discussed on the podcast.

Links referenced in the show...

http://www.stanrodda.com

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/leadership-meets-life-stan/id1135518754

http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/leadership-meets-life

https://www.facebook.com/stanrodda/

https://twitter.com/stanrodda

https://www.instagram.com/stanrodda/