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May 12, 2016

How To Get More Out of Your Meetings

How To Get More Out of Your Meetings - Cydcor
How often do you say, “Wow, that was a great meeting!”? Use these strategies and you’ll learn how to make all of your meetings matter.

Great meetings can help us feel excited about work, but bad meetings can do just the opposite. These innovative meeting strategies will empower you to make the most of your meetings – something that will be good for not just you, but your team members as well.

Schedule Meaningful Meetings

The simplest strategy for turning a bad meeting into a good one is to set a meeting purpose and a leader. Bad meetings are almost always due to a lack of direction, goals, focus, or a sense of efficiency. If you are in charge of a meeting, prepare an agenda that you can send out to attendees ahead of time along with any materials you’ll be reviewing. Take 15-30 minutes before the meeting to review meeting goals and specific points you plan to bring up.

Change Your Attitude

Even if you aren’t running the meeting, you can still help improve it by staying organized and being actively engaged. Before the meeting occurs, make sure you can answer the following questions:

  • What do you want to learn from this meeting?
  • Who are the people attending the meeting?
  • What are their goals and interests?
  • What is your role in this meeting?

Prepare yourself beforehand to ensure you understand the purpose of the meeting and how you are expected to participate. Touch base with coworkers and find out what they will present. If you have relevant questions or concerns, write them down so that you will be ready to bring them up during the meeting. Arrive a few minutes early to greet the leader and review the agenda. Finally, always take detailed notes of what was discussed, especially as it relates to deliverables and deadlines.

Write a Meeting Summary

Once the meeting ends, don’t simply dive back into your work or head out for lunch. Sit down for a few minutes and think about the meeting: Review your notes, highlight the most important issues discussed and their outcomes, and take note of next steps and deliverables. Set reminders to follow up on items if necessary; don’t fall into the trap of taking great notes and never looking at them again.

If you take the time to prepare for meetings and approach them with a positive attitude, you will be able to make each meeting a productive part of your day and a positive influence on your career.

Getting more out of meetings requires a positive attitude and creative strategies. How do you get the most out of your meetings? Share with us on Twitter and follow us @Cydcor.

We are Cydcor, the recognized leader in outsourced sales services. From our humble beginnings as an independent sales company based in Canada to garnering a reputation as the global leader in outsourced sales, Cydcor has come a long way. We’ve done this by having exceptional sales professionals and providing our clients with proven sales and marketing strategies that get results.