At one point or another we’ve all been subjected to a meeting that seemed meaningless, with no end in sight. Meetings have the potential to go in two directions: ineffective, draining, and unnecessary or effective, empowering, and valuable. Millions of dollars are wasted every day on unnecessary meetings in the United States.

Here are five tips to help your host effective meetings, and maybe even cut back on all those wasted hours and dollars.

Plan ahead
- Every meeting should start with one question: “Is this necessary?” If the answer is yes, an agenda should be created and distributed to every attendee before the meeting. This way, everyone will be prepared when they walk in.
- Just remember, a meeting’s agenda is only as good as its objective. To be successful, everyone needs to know why they’re there and what’s expected of them. Determine what goal you need to accomplish and let everyone know.
- Establish the start and end times in advance. This level of planning and anticipating will help you avoid surprises.
Choose your Crew Wisely
Does everyone on your team need to be present for this meeting? Probably not. Who does this meeting impact? Who do you need to reach your goal? Including too many people, or the wrong people, simply means they won’t be able to contribute much, and including them wastes time and resources they could be devoting to more relevant projects.
Be Efficient
Content, time, and focus are the three keys to efficiency. Just because a lot is said, doesn’t mean a lot is accomplished. Nothing puts people to sleep faster than droning on when your point can be made with just a few sentences. Believe it or not, one in five people admit to dozing off during a meeting.
The best messages are communicated clearly and concisely. This means that you choose your words carefully and stay on point. Keep the agenda visible in front of you so you can contribute to and direct the conversation simultaneously. Take notes if you need to, so you know what topics need to be addressed later.
Employ Roles
To hold a truly effective meeting, a lot of things need to go well and a lot of things need be monitored. Why not entrust your employees with some of these responsibilities? For example, assign someone to keep time and assign someone else to take notes. You can even designate someone to follow the agenda and keep everyone on topic. Selecting employees for these roles will make them feel more involved in the meeting process and ensure that everyone stays focused.
Follow-up
It’s best to follow up with everyone shortly after the meeting when the discussion and assignments are still fresh in their minds. If someone was tasked with taking notes, you can send the notes out to everyone who attended, reminding them what was discussed, what was suggested, what needs improvement, and what conclusions were reached. You’ll also want to reiterate any post-meeting projects that were assigned and the deadlines for each.
With a little extra work and preparation, you can do your part to keep your meetings short, relevant, and worthwhile for everyone.

5 Tips for Hosting Effective Meetings