Tweet

Goals – the key to successful meetings

Written by: Jonathan Payne

Article Overview: Clear goals for a meeting make it more successful

Goals – the key to successful meetings

Meetings are part of business life. Sometimes they are great, and sometimes they are endured as a necessary evil. Think about the better meetings you have been to. What makes a good meeting? There are many aspects to a good meeting and one of them brings us back to what we looked at last week – goals.

I am sure you have experienced the meeting that drags on for ages and seems to get nowhere. An analysis of that meeting would probably reveal that the purpose or goal of the meeting was unclear. It is important that goals are absolutely clear. For example, a meeting called to discuss client service would seem to have a goal. But client service is a very general concept and the meeting could possibly lose focus in a broad discussion and produce few practical results. The best way to set a goal for a meeting is to make a statement starting with the words: “We want to emerge from this meeting …” – and then describe clearly, what it is that you want to have. In our example it could be; “We want to emerge from this meeting having identified specific shortcomings in customer service and with a clear, written plan addressing all those areas, which can be communicated to all employees.”

Now the work to be done in the meeting is clear. Problems in customer service need to be specifically identified (i.e. the problem is named and described exactly), and a plan which can be clearly understood by all employees needs to be written which addresses those problems. The implication in having this goal is that any discussion which is not either identifying a problem specifically (such as general moaning about customer service) or contributing to writing down a plan for addressing the problems, will not be allowed at the meeting. It also means that the meeting will produce a useful result.

If you have called a meeting, first clarify the exact goal of the meeting. It will ensure that the meeting produces a result and will cut out time wasting chatter that does not contribute to the meeting. The goal will give the meeting positive impetus and lessen the likelihood of unproductive negativism. The meeting will take less time and people are more likely to attend your meetings as they begin to realise that these meetings have a purpose, are productive and don’t waste time. It will also give you the satisfaction of being able to place a tick in the box which says: “task completed”.

Related Articles
  Can you have high accountability if you don't have consequences?
  Making Meetings Matter
  Important Structures For a Successful Meeting
  Ten Steps To Effective Meetings
  The Secrets To Managing Ineffective Meetings - 9 Proven Tips Which Make You Fail

Article Tags: business life, customer service, exact goal, implication, necessary evil, shortcomings



Related Forum Posts
Re: Alexa Ranking Goals - Thanks GT! This is still the right post for Alexa Goals but everything else can go to Kevin's Mastermind post! Cheers!
Re: How do you overcome the fear of rejection while selling? - Evan you are killing with the video replies. Think I may have to follow suit;-) I'm a former sales rep for several Fortune 500 companies and the secret to overcoming rejection is ... sadly keep trying. I love autobiographies. One of my top 3 is the Howard Schultz Starbucks story. He told how daunting it was getting the company off the ground. When he had to raise funds to start, he made a list of the richest people in Seattle and started making the rounds. He said even if he had received No's from his previous 9 meetings, he'd make sure to pump himself up for the 10th meeting of the day. He said if the 10th meeting person knew that the other 9 had turned him down, they probably would turn him down too. I can't remember the exact number but of the 162 people he had meetings with only 44 or so said Yes. Cool huh. So keep going. And only dwell on the successes NOT the misses. Jalanda [New member link in profile]
Re: Alexa Ranking Goals - Hi Timothy, It's good to see a new "competitor" on our Alexa Ranking Goals list. Good luck in your efforts to improve your website Alexa rankings. David
Re: Should you hire ambitious workers or employees with no goals - [quote="BuzzAroundBooks":2ijq3b5e]As a small business owner, should you hire ambitious workers or employees with no goals? My friend's father is a relatively successful entrepreneur and it's his belief that you should primarily hire employees with no ambition because you can get away with paying them less and they're less likely to leave (thus saving you money from a high turnover rate). "Grunts" are the way to go, even though ambitious workers are typically smarter. What do you think?[/quote:2ijq3b5e] I say YES to hirin employees with no Goals!!! they make great "front-line" employees as long as you have carefully documented your process for them to follow. They typically are open to perform routine administrative tasks and they work for a much lower wage. I know what I've said is pretty gloomy but it's reality from my experience. Occasionally one of the "employees with no goals" will stand up and say, "I love working here". You pluck these individuals and promote them to tasks which require more decisions.
Toronto Young Entrepreneur Group - Thanks Kris and Louis - I'm in Oakville but regularly come to GTA for meetings so it would be great to connect with other young entrepreneurs!


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

The Digital Diet by Daniel Sieberg

How Promotional Caps became a Fashion Trend

Work at Home Moms and Their Bad Rap?

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.