Question

As a project manager, you will call and manage lots of meetings.
What are the steps for leading an effective meeting? Please discuss each point with an example.

Answer 1

Tangents can be surprisingly helpful, but determining whether to let a conversation go or break it off is your job. Here's a quick guide: Let it run if a conversation includes opinions, solutions, or recommendations. If a conversation involves moaning or finger-pointing without turning too easily to ways to remove an issue, cut it off. Be professional, but don't be too worried with feelings of pain. A controlled, on-point, constructive meeting is welcomed by successful workers, and bad employees soon realise that moaning is not welcome. Decisions, takeaways, and action plans are easily defined. Tangible results can come from any meeting. Let sure everyone knows what has been decided and what more will be done, all you have been dreaming about. A dialogue is never a result.

Conduct offline original follow up. The creation of transparency puts blame on persons, not just the whole team. If a follow-up meeting is required, fine — but do so after progress has been made and offline published. You should personally follow through as the boss, and team members should send progress emails to the team. Just consult where it is appropriate to make further decisions. Never meet only to exchange offline updates that should have been shared.

Occasionally, since collective feedback is important, you can hold a meeting to discuss a concept or future initiative. The action item would be to brainstorm and then narrow down options, and determine if anything can already be determined for you to investigate further. And if what you agreed was that one of three alternatives made sense and individual team members would flesh out and create a business case for each, then recap what you decide.