Have you ever found yourself in a meeting that lost its way?

Probably

Did you find yourself getting frustrated with the meeting leader?

You wouldn’t be the only one.

When you feel frustrated, what do you do?

Do you…

• Check out and get quiet? Perhaps you turn off your camera or do other work.
• Express irritation through tone, facial expressions, abruptness?
• Smile and leave it to the meeting leader to handle?

There are better options.

While the meeting leader has the accountability for the effectiveness of the meeting, each participant has the accountability to demonstrate leadership in the meeting. In other words, it’s not all on the meeting leader. As a meeting participant, you can influence the quality of the meeting. Here are some suggestions.

• If you are invited to a meeting without a clear purpose or agenda, inquire with the meeting organizer. You could say, “Please clarify the purpose of this meeting. Knowing the reason for the meeting will help me to be more prepared.”
• When you are in the meeting, notice who is not participating. Invite quieter participants to share their views.
• Listen to your colleagues. Summarize their views to confirm to ensure their views are being understood.
• Share your views candidly, concisely, and respectfully.
• When a discussion is getting off track, be the one who brings it back on track. Others will appreciate the nudge to refocus, and it respects everyone’s time.
• If you sense the discussion isn’t getting to a key issue, state your observation. This may not be comfortable, but it can crack open a conversation that is critical to your progress. You could say, “As I’m listening to this discussion, I’m realizing that we’re not quite getting to the heart of the matter on this topic. What are we not talking about?”
• At the end of the meeting, if the next steps aren’t clear, speak up and confirm who is doing what and by when. For example, you could say, “To make sure we’re all on the same page, let’s have a quick recap of the decisions we made and what our next steps will be.”

Your time is finite. You can only give it to some many things. Make conscious choices about what meetings deserve that finite time.

Plus, it doesn’t feel good to sit in a meeting wasting time. Making the time you do spend in meetings more productive will not only benefit you. It will benefit everyone else who is in that meeting with you too.