Many people dread meetings: they can be intimidating, a waste of precious time, and a frustration for engineering professionals already busy with other priorities.
But well-run meetings are all about team work. And team work leads to great engineering.
Effective meetings involving colleagues and clients can tap into the wisdom of many people, result in better strategies and more creative decisions, and inspire engineering teams to collaborate and do their best work.
The difference between an effective meeting and a not-so-effective meeting can be you – and especially the way you prepare and contribute to meetings.
Here are some tips if you want to make the most of your meetings.
1. Never go into a meeting without having a clear agenda drawn up and circulated to everyone well before the meeting. That way, you and everyone else will know what the meeting is about and how you can best contribute.
2. Do some homework and bring some ideas to the table.
3. Be prepared to have your say if required – in a positive, respectful way.
4. Never leave a meeting without having a ‘to do’ list drawn up, where everyone knows what they have to do and there are realistic deadlines for getting things done.
If you’re asked to chair a meeting, congratulations. Somebody believes you have leadership skills and trusts you to do the job.
The best chairs know how to:
- Start on time, focus the meeting on what’s important and keep things on track
- Listen and encourage people to make their contributions without being interrupted or intimidated, and
- Sum up people’s contributions and point out the next steps.
Often, they seem to ‘run’ a meeting without seeming to run a meeting.
And of course, the best chairs also know how to finish a meeting on time – or even a little earlier if possible. They realise one of the worst things you can do is waste people’s time – or make them late for their next meeting!
By Tony Malkovic