Top tips for chairing meetings

[Lincoln24]

I'm fairly new in a much more senior role than I've done before and am suddenly regularly called upon to chair meetings, sometimes at little or no notice.

It's not really a skill I've had to acquire before and I find it a bit of a struggle. I understand the basic principle of working through the agenda but I'm sometimes at a bit of a loss for what to say and when to move on. I often feel my meetings have fallen a bit flat and not really progressed anything or not as much as they should.

Any tips would be really welcome.

I set a time for how long each element on an agenda should take, if we're getting close to that time and it's clear there is still a discussion I'll interrupt the discussion and propose we set up a side meeting with key people involved, give an action for someone to make that happen and move on to the next item

Thank you @WishingForTheImpossible that's helpful.

It's always helpful to wrap up a section with decisions/actions before moving on to the next item. It means everyone knows what is agreed before moving on. I say this as both the chair of some meetings and minutes secretary at others.

These are stinking ideas, I run meetings all the time and I never do any of this..

As above you need to set time limits for each item and also what the point of each item is. Is it for information? Do you need to make a decision? Are you just trying to gather opinions. Be clear at the start of each item what you’re trying to achieve and how long you have. Give a warning when it’s a few minutes to close the subject. Be prepared to say ‘it seems like there is no consensus so we need to come back to it’ or ‘I think most people agree with this so are we happy to proceed’ so you get an outcome. If there are actions note them outloud ‘so mrs x has agrees
to do this by Thursday?’

try to make sure everyone is invited to give a view especially quieter people. Say thank you to everyone for coming, for their time at the beginning and say something nice about them. Peope relax when they feel valued. Especially give thanks to any staff who set up the meeting / took notes / brought the coffee.

If you run out of tome seek agreement on what items can move to the next meeting or be discussed via email.

I hope you contribute more usefully in them than you have here.

I often feel my meetings have fallen a bit flat and not really progressed anything or not as much as they should.
Do things progress much in actual meetings, don't things happen elsewhere?
You decide a plan of action, delegate it, get feed-back next meeting, kick up the backside press for further action.
Don't forget good manners - thank them for joining the meeting, thank minute-taker, thank them for work done, etc. Set the right tone.

I chair a lot of different meetings in different work and trustee roles. I think the crucial things are:
1.Be on top of the agenda. Do you set it? Can you have input? Do you have an idea of who will contribute on each item and how long it will take.
2.Understand the rules if it's a formal meeting (eg. How many people for a quorum, can observers attend/vote etc).
3.Make sure everyone feels welcome, understands their role and has an opportunity to speak

1. Don't be afraid to be firm if people are wandering off topic or prattling on.

I often feel my meetings have fallen a bit flat and not really progressed anything or not as much as they should.

As the chair, part of your role is to effectively shepherd the participants towards an (agreed by everyone) outcome, or agreed next steps on the way to an outcome. Can you give an example of why you think your meetings are falling flat?

You really need to direct the meeting but ensure the participants are fully engaged. Some people are harder to manage than others😏so you may need to respectfully step in and bring them back to the agenda / outcome. Think of yourself as conducting an orchestra.

I chair lots of meetings (both planned and on the fly), usually with people much more senior than myself. No pressure😣 You need to find a balance between letting them talk/discuss and keeping them on track. Also be prepared that the direction of the meeting could change completely if something comes up that they think is more important. I use lots of brief questions to make sure they're engaged and getting what they need from the meeting so:

• Anything more on that?
• Okay, let's move on.
• Are we agreed?
• Who will own that?
• When will that happen?
• We only have x mins left, which is most important?
• Anything else?
• Everyone happy?

Recap any new actions (and owners) at the end.

Set time limits for each agenda item, and for the whole thing. Ideally, no meeting should last longer than an hour. Make sure action points are noted (who? what? when?) and always follow them up.
If anyone tries to dominate the meeting/talks too much, politely but firmly shut them down. Similarly, encourage the quieter members to contribute.
Consider setting some basic ground rules, eg starting on time, mobile phones switched off/left outside, only one person speaking at a time etc.

Make sure you have agreement about next steps for every item on the agenda. Whether that is that no more action needed, another separate discussion is needed, a specific task needs to be done. And if it is another meeting or task, it is agreed what it is, who is doing it and when.
Don't allow conversations to go on too long and make sure quiet people have the chance to contribute.

My best tip though is to observe other people chairing meetings and identify things they're doing that you want to copy and things you want to make sure you don't do.

Start and end on time. Nothing more annoying than everyone there and people are still messing about getting drinks, chatting etc. Also be prepared to cut people off if they are taking up too much of the available discussion time, they will be repeating themselves anyway. If someone raises a big any other business right at the end then make a decision as to whether there is time to discuss but don’t be afraid to defer to a later date

And as above,
make it clear what decisions/ actions deferrals have been decided after each point ,

make sure everyone gets copies of minutes.

Say Thank you to people who have helped the meeting run smoother

Can you give an example of why you think your meetings are falling flat? @HundredMilesAnHour

I sometimes feel I'm struggling to get people to usefully contribute, so either they are not contributing at all or they've drifted onto something else. I'm not always confident I've spent enough time on something, sometimes I think it's gone on for too long. I think based on the advice here I need to be more directive.

Was just thinking that! 🙄🤣

Do you mean 'stinking' as in bad, or was it a mistype for 'stonking' as in good? Hopefully the latter as I agree with @TeaHagTeaBag and @WishingForTheImpossible .

OP. Have a clear idea whether each item is
A. For information
B. For general discussion but no decision needed
C. For decision making

Any actions be clear who, what, and when by.
So not 'Tim to look into solar panels' but 'Tim to look at feasibility of installing solar panels and circulate a report with recommendations 1 week before the next meeting.'

@Lincoln24 yes sounds like you do need to direct them more.

If they drift onto something else, ask "so you're talking about B, does that mean we're finished with A? Everyone agreed we're done with A?"

If someone isn't contributing, ask them directly "anything from you Tom?" or "are you happy with that Tom?"

Going into the meeting, make sure you're clear / comfortable with the goal of the meeting. Depending on what you're trying to achieve, you may need to get some attendees onboard in advance but it really depends on the type of meetings you're chairing. (I work in Financial Services and have some feisty, opinionated and often quite powerful characters to deal with so some pre or post meeting groundwork may be needed to ensure a successful meeting outcome).

Think about why each item is on the agenda. Are you there to look at some options and decide on one? Are you just receiving a report for information? Is there a problem to be solved that requires discussion and a plan of action? Decide what needs to come from each item and guide the participants towards that decision/plan/noting the information.

As others have said rein in people who are going on etc in order to stick to timings otherwise people start looking at the agenda and worrying about their lunch etc

I occasionally read threads like this to remind me how glad I am to have got out of offices.
I’m now my own boss, doing a hands-on job, where I never have to have meetings or try to think of something intelligent to say, when I have no clue what’s going on!

If you're expecting input from someone in particular then don't be afraid to ask them directly what they think, are they in agreement, have they understood XYZ.

Start each agenda item by summarising what outcome you're looking for - are you wanting people to make a decision on something, is it just for information purposes, are you wanting people to share their views on it? Then you can confirm at the end what the outcome is and any decisions or actions

Make sure actions have owners - this is the biggest issue at my place, we talk about vague actions then you end up with a flurry of emails trying to figure out who owns them

Also don't be afraid to cull people from meetings if they don't need to be there. If you've got a lot of people never contributing I can see why you might think the meeting is flat - a smaller group may be more effective

Also don't be afraid to keep it short. If an agenda item doesn't particularly need loads of discussion, don't try and force it just to fill up the 10 minutes you have allocated to it.

Agree with the this, particularly the last point. Is there someone more experienced that you trust and can ask to mentor you? I help run a voluntary mentoring programme for women within my industry and its exactly this sort of thing that we try to help women with.

Don’t let people ramble on for longer than necessary or take it off course, nip it in the bud to x and y are you happy to link in regarding this outside the group, and just because you have a scheduled time you don’t always need fill the time nothing worse than a 2 hour meeting that could have been done in an hour. All the best! X

I try to tell everyone what the purpose of the meeting is at the beginning e.g. information, decision etc. That sets the tone, how much input will be expected from each participant and how strict with time and conclusions I'm going to be