Checklist for Maintaining

Leadership in Meetings

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Checklist for Maintaining Leadership in Meetings

Unsuccessful meetings can reduce the credibility of leaders. Unfortunately, workers do

not automatically interact effectively during meetings. Good leaders enhance their
leadership credibility when they run successful meetings. This checklist has been
designed to help leaders prepare for success.

Pre-Meeting Tasks
Identify desired meeting participants.

Consider including stakeholders who are not regularly invited.

Estimate length of meeting.

Determine availability of desired participants for a meeting of estimated length.

Get three possible meeting times for each desired participant.

Schedule meeting.

Create agenda with clear description and purpose for each meeting segment.

Use Agenda Development Worksheet below.

Send out Pre-Meeting Communication.

Use Pre-Meeting Communication Checklist below.

Send this out 1 2 weeks prior to the meeting, depending on your corporate
culture.

Contact meeting participants in advance.

Discuss any issues that may cause disruptive discussions. This could be
triggered by any feedback you get on the pre-meeting communication.

Start pre-meeting communications by asking if there are any questions about

what is being covered in the meeting.

Proactively target participants who have been disruptive in the past, or who
have strong feelings about agenda items being discussed.

Determine if they are still available to attend.

Reschedule meeting if too many desired participants will not be able to attend.
If possible, start complex discussions prior to the meeting.

Use a message board or use the phone, then put the major points from each
person in the meeting preparation document.

Try to use the meeting for final questions, comments and decisions only, not the
entire discussion.

Prepare for meeting using the Pre-Meeting Communication package.

Assign a neutral facilitator, if possible. Otherwise, prepare yourself to act as a
facilitator.

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Checklist for Maintaining Leadership in Meetings

Agenda Development Worksheet

Basing Agenda Items on Objectives and Issues

ProjectorBusiness
Initiative/Objective/Issue

CorrespondingAgendaItem(s)

Refining the Agenda

AgendaSegment

KeyPoints,Questions

Purpose/Output

Pre-Meeting Communication Checklist

A special communication should be sent to all participants prior to the meeting to
prepare them to work effectively during the session. Be concise, because participants
will be less likely to read a long document. See also the Meeting Activity Analysis
Worksheet for additional guidance.
Clarify issues to be discussed, expected out put of the topic discussions.
List issues that will not be discussed at the meeting.
Explain relationship of topics to project and business success.

Emphasize the importance of all participants participation.

Support reading, based on participant needs as defined in the Participant

Analysis.

Give a reason why the reading should be conducted outside of the meeting.

Agenda
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Checklist for Maintaining Leadership in Meetings

Participant list
Meeting ground rules
Request for any feedback on this communication.

During Meeting
Open with statement of purpose.

Describe the link to the meeting and meeting project objectives.

Summarize briefly the information provided pre-meeting communication.

Review the agenda with emphasis on the time constraints.

Facilitate toward results for each meeting segment.

If things get off-track, then ask: "Is this discussion helping us get to the results
for this part of the meeting?"

List action items.

Specify who does what by when.

Stress importance to project values to complete these on time.

Describe the impact to others if these are not completed on time.

Get agreement on next meeting time, if appropriate.

Thank everyone for participation to meet organizational and project goals.

Specify the project values that they exhibited.

Post-Meeting
Send out a meeting summary.

Thank everyone again (via e-mail) for participation to meet organizational goals.

Update them on progress.

Send to any desired participants who were not at the meeting. Follow up with
them, if appropriate, especially if they were designated to complete any action
items.

Complete any action items.

Monitor all action items assigned to others.
Evaluate effectiveness of meeting.

Look for ways to standardize the meeting.

Reuse all or portions of the meeting materials.

Minimize problems that were experienced.

2007 gantthead.com