Your boss has just asked you to chair an important meeting—but how do you do it?

It can be nerve-wracking to run a meeting, especially when you’re trying to impress management. However, once you understand the key principles of running an effective meeting, it will be easier than you think.

This Is How to Have an Effective Meeting for Your Business

To learn more, keep reading to find our top tips for running a business meeting professionally.

Set an Agenda

A business meeting needs to have a set agenda, keeping everyone on focus. It also helps attendees prepare, so that they know in advance what will be discussed.

When writing a meeting agenda, include all of the action items, how much time is allocated for each topic, and which staff member is responsible. Before the meeting, print or email copies to all meeting attendees so they can review them in advance.

Be Punctual

All good meetings should start and end on time. This is out of respect for your staff, who have busy schedules and need to manage their time well.

To run an efficient meeting, kick things off right at the scheduled start time and wrap things up in the last five minutes, leaving time for closing questions and comments.

Often, meetings have to start late as the meeting scheduled earlier in the day ran late. If your company is having issues with boardroom management, it might be time to implement new strategies to improve how meeting rooms are booked.

Keep the Meeting on Track

There are few things more frustrating than meetings that go off on tangents. Your meeting needs to stay on topic and not deviate from the issue.

This can be challenging, especially if there are some big personalities in the room that want to talk about their own issues and not stay on topic.

If someone goes off track, politely direct them back to the topic at hand. If new issues arise, they should be dealt with in a separate meeting.

Encourage Everyone to Participate

When running a meeting, encourage everyone to get involved. The best meetings are those that are inclusive.

Often, one or two people tend to dominate a meeting, but as meeting chair, ask others to give opinions and share their thoughts. By encouraging the quieter people in the room to speak up, the meeting will be more effective, since you’ll get more input.

Sometimes, newer employees can be nervous to speak up, so helping them get involved, might build up their confidence.

Run an Effective Meeting With These Tips

Whether you love them or hate them, meetings are an important part of business life. If you’re in charge of running the next one, use these tips to run an effective meeting.

Your colleagues are sure to appreciate a meeting that’s managed well, as it makes their workday much smoother. Get started today and help your company put new policies in place for improving the way meetings are run.

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