Wouldn’t it be great if everyone wanted to attend your project meetings? I am not saying anyone should be rolling out a red carpet anticipating your entrance into the meeting, but it would be nice if you put on a meeting where people were enthusiastically engaged.

Well, that should be happening.

If you are scheduling and running meetings that are pointless or unconstructive, your team is not going to give you their best work, because clearly, you are not giving them your best.

Attributes of an effective team meeting

In addition to wanting people to feel excited about meetings and be actively engaged, there are a few other things that make up an effective meeting:

• Decisions are made and kept
• Dependable – meetings always occur
• Candid dialogue occurs
• Conflicts occur and are handled constructively
• All commitments, actions, milestones are tracked

How to run an effective meeting

Here is what you really want to know – what you need to make a meeting successful:

• Clearly articulate the purpose of your meetings.  People love to know what is to be accomplished.
• Build team culture of schedule and quality.  Don’t put up with the question “do you want schedule or quality?”.
• Demonstrate weekly urgency – means looking forward to the upcoming week and capturing what needs to be accomplished during the next week.
• Always know where project is vs. where it should be on your project schedule.  Track the project tasks.
• Ambiguity is the enemy – decide! Use team meetings to make decisions so your team can confidently move forward.

Take the advice above and apply it so you are giving your team your best. If you provide them with structure and communication channels, they will have what they need to keep the project on track and you in the loop.