Meetings are work. Meetings are places where we have conversations that achieve stuff. They help to be creative, to identify options to select choices to make plans to build relationships, they're vital to the operation of any organization. And as a manager, you'll find yourself attending and leading more meetings than ever before. So it's important to understand some of the basic skills of running and attending a good meeting. Whether you're chairing the meeting yourself or simply attending somebody else's meeting, it's vital to prepare well, to understand the purpose of the meeting that you're calling, the meeting that you're attending, and to think about the contributions that you're going to make.

And if you're chairing it, how you're going to run it, to achieve the objectives of Meeting. good preparation is essential. If you're chairing it, that includes figuring out the right people to attend and invite them properly, set out a really clear agenda and make that agenda, one that demonstrates to people the reason why they're going, I often prefer to put at the top of my agenda, a statement of the objective of the meeting. This is what we're here to do. And then people can see how each of my agenda items reconciles to the purpose that that we've come together for. Also, think about the structure of the meeting.

Perhaps the second most important thing having prepared well, is to structure the meeting Well, now, if you're chairing it, that is entirely in your control. Think about the timings. Think about the ways that you will engage different members of the team in contributing to the meeting. Think about the people who have the least assertive and dominant style and how you draw them in and engage their ideas and their thoughts. If you're not chairing the meeting, then structuring is fundamentally down to the way that you shape your contributions. It's very easy when you're caught up in the excitement of a meeting to blurt out your contribution with no structure at all.

Think about the way that you're going to articulate what it is you want to say. Often, the best thing is to make your point straight away. And then to set out your reasoning. And then to reiterate your point. When you've made your point, then stop. At the end of the meeting, particularly if you're chairing it, the most important thing to you is going to be to secure commitments where people make promises or offers during the meeting.

Refer back to your notes and go through them line by line, identifying each individual intern, reminding them of the commitments they've made, and looking them in the eye, and asking them to confirm in front of the group, that those commitments are ones that they can and will stick to, and where they're not able to confirm it. And let's face it, any answer that is not an unambiguous Yes. is effectively a No. Where they can't confirm their commitments. This is where you need to ask them, what we're getting away at the start there and then to make alternative plans, if you can't rely on their commitment. My last tip is to follow up after the meeting on commitments that are made.

If you're chairing it's going to be very important to you to make sure that commitments that were made in your meeting, actually get follow through if you an attendee, then follow up on the commitments that you've made. And make sure that you deliver your contribution. And you remind the chair When you've completed them, that they've been done. So four things to do for you, manager, engaging in more and more meetings. Firstly, no matter how many meetings there are, always prepare well structure, your contribution to the meeting, or indeed the meeting itself. Make sure that any commitments that have been made to you personally or to the meeting, if you're chairing it, are confirmed at the end of the meeting before people go away.

And finally, follow up on those commitments. If it's your meeting, follow up on other people's commitments. If you've been attending, then follow up on your own commitments.