1 What are my goals for this meeting?

Are you looking to inform, elicit ideas, or make decisions? Eachrequires a different preparatory strategy. Think through-even write down in a sentence or two-what your ideal outcome would be.

2 Should I call this meeting at all?

Many meetings cause more problems than they solve and waste everyone’s time. Participants who feel nothing has been achieved may be resentful or uncooperative. Often issues or decisions addressed inmeetings could be better solved by personal contact or executive fiat. Even standard, regularly scheduled meetings can be canceled if the manager decides the participants’ time would be better spent elsewhere.

3 Have I provided everyone with a clear agenda in advance?

A shared agenda not only encourages preparation, it also allows you to determine what order of discussion is most likely to help you achieve your goals. Sometimes it’s wise to put the most difficult issues first, especially if they need a thorough airing. Other times, your best course may be to put the tough ones at the end, after people have spoken their piece and are ready to end the meeting.

4 Have I sounded out the key participants ahead of time?

Generally, key players don’t like surprises. If they feel bulldozed or cornered, they’re likely to be uncooperative. One-on-one conversations ahead of time may cause you to rethink your agenda or help you build support for your proposals.

Much meeting time can be wasted bringing people up-to-speed. When everyone operates from the same body of information, you’re more likely to achieve consensus and to make actionable decisions.

6 Have I anticipated likely objections?

Don’t get ambushed in a meeting on important point you hadn’t thought of. Often, polling participants ahead of time can help avoid this problem. If you know some meeting members will likely oppose your goals or proposals no matter what, be prepared to show you understand their objections and have thought through why, on balance, your course of action is superior to reasonable alternatives.

7 Have I built support on high?

In advance of any meeting, make sure your superiors support the general line of action you intend to take.

1 Summarize the purposes of the meeting off-the-top.

A crisp summary will minimize digressions and the introduction of unexpected or irrelevant material. It will also authorize you to keep the meeting on-track.

2 Let everyone have their say.

Even in meetings where participants are of significantly different status within the organization, show you value the opinions of each. Invite people who haven’t spoken to contribute in their areas of expertise. You’re more likely to get everyone invested in the meeting’s result.

3 Don’t allow anyone to dominate the meeting by giving long or irrelevant speeches.

Recognize when someone is riding a hobbyhorse or pushing a personal agenda. Be willing to redirect the discussion to the main point tactfully, but with as much firmness as necessary. The other participants will be grateful.

No matter how carefully you’ve prepared a meeting, new information may pop up that should change your course of action. You’ll gain respect and authority by demonstrating you’re not tied to a script.

5 Gain closure on each issue as soon as you sense an emerging consensus.

No one wants to spend more time in a meeting than absolutely necessary, and most participants will be grateful to a leader who makes a decision and moves on.

6 End each meeting with a summary of what the group has gained from it.

Summarization may mean saying: "We’ve decided A, B, and C, but we need to give further consideration to X, Y, and Z." This way, participants will have some sense of achievement and know what’s expected of them. You will also have set a productive agenda for the next meeting. When possible, end the meeting earlier, rather than later, than expected. Few meetings achieve much after the first two hours, at the maximum.

1 Follow up quickly with minutes.

Their arrival will remind participants what they’ve agreed to do.

2 Meet with meeting members who didn’t get heard or who felt unsatisfied with the results.

Not only will such conversations provide you with feedback, they will also help you prevent smoke from becoming fire or soothe the egos of those whose support you may need in the long run.

3 Send participants a memo on next steps.

A marching document will reinforce everyone’s sense that something has been accomplished and provide a road map for future action. It may also reassure any dissatisfied members that their issues have been heard and will be addressed in the future.

4 Provide any resources you’ve promised.

Participants will be frustrated if they’ve been assigned a task but aren’t given the means to accomplish it. If it proves impossible to deliver the resources, explain why.

5 Act as quickly as possible on any decisions that have been made at the meeting.

This provides key evidence on the effectiveness of any executive. In the end, people are judged much more by what they do than by what they say.